The Maryland Wrap Up!

I know I'm probably the last to post about the festival....but, wow. What an incredible weekend! We just got back last night, and I really don’t know where to start!

Ok – the yarn……the festival was perfect as usual. The weather was also perfect – a touch warm on Saturday, but I loved it. We hit absolutely NO traffic on our way in – just cruised right to our front row parking spot! Crazy! Last year, we got stuck in about 45 minutes worth of traffic. We got there about 8:15am, and even though it was supposed to open at 9, there were plenty of people heading in, so we followed. I was surprised that some of the vendors were open and actively selling at that point. So, I headed to the first of my two “must see first” booths – The Fold, and Koigu. Both were still closed, so after heading to the main building we trekked back up to #3 and yippee – The Fold was open and selling! This is what their inventory stock looked like at 8:30AM:

I only got 2 skeins. I saw people with armfuls, just grabbing everything in site. Here is my takeaway – a skein of Tigers Eye and Rose Quartz STR Medium Weight. The Rose Quartz is really pretty. A pink with hints of brown in it. And, I’ve been wanting some kind of tiger colors for a while now, and after seeing it knit up, I really liked their Tiger’s Eye.

We cruised by later that morning, and alas, the booth looked like this about 10:30AM:

Amazing! I heard they sold out even quicker on Sunday. Truly unbelievable!

I then made a bee line to Koigu about 8:45. They were jam packed! There were baskets of their off skeins in tons and tons of colors. I was just looking for two skeins that were similar. Look – I found two!!

It was truly amazing how much yarn people were buying there. I had a great chat with the ladies in line, and learned the price is about ½ of what it normally is. What a deal! I ended up with enough for 3 pairs of socks. I still have to weigh the skeins, but they were pretty good sized. I got a skein of the purple to do heels and toes if I run out.




After that we then took a methodical approach and went building to building, vendor to vendor looking and touching. It was still so overwhelming even though I knew what to expect! I had my list of vendors I wanted to check out, and as we crossed them off the list, my backpack grew heavier.

I really wanted to try some of the Tess Yarns Supersock, so I got some green for some kind of leafy sock.


I also have read so many good things about the Shelridge Farm Soft Touch Ultra, I had to get some also. And, solid colors were on the list for me, so these four skeins jumped into my hands.

The teal one is so pretty close up – a real heathered blend of colors.



Wandering in some of the outside vendors, I found some very pretty solid Louet Gems Opal in Goldilocks,



And the classic Trekking in color 100. Both came home with me!


The Tshirt line was as crazy as always – about 11AM it looked like this:

I didn’t see it really go down at all during the day. I’ll wait for the stuff to come out on line like it did last year. I didn’t want to waste valuable shopping time waiting in line for hours!

Of course we saw sheep, alpacas and deep fried Twinkies!!!!! I didn’t get one, but it was neat to see the concession stand for them back this year. I remember reading how missed they were last year!




A few of the booths had such great displays of colors and yarns.


A great display from Ellens Half-Pint Farm.
These are from Columbia,MD's All About Yarn - Claudia's Handpainted

The fleeces were plentiful in the main building. My sister was thinking of buying one, but didn’t end up finding just what she was looking for.


It was such a great day. We went to Cara's meetup in the afternoon and managed to meet a bunch of people, and relax for a little while. I spotted Lolly, and eyed her wonderful yarn she got at Three Waters Farm. I cut my visiting short and headed back to the main building to scope it out. They had such great colors, but managed to leave with only one.


After all this sock yarn talk, I did manage to get one complete sock done on my trip! Cast on during the drive down, and finished the ribbing on the drive back! I just have to bind off. Pics coming….

Luckily for me, the fun didn’t end after the festival. I was really excited to go to the meet up in Columbia on Monday night. More to come on that……