Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

Yesterday my friend Eloise and I decided to check out the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival at the Howard County fairgrounds ... just because it was there! 

It was a really beautiful day for outdoorsy stuff, a little warm but it was one of those days that just plain felt good being out and about!

I'm not into knitting or crocheting or felting, but if you are and had been there, you would not have been disappointed. 

There were booths and booths of the most beautifully dyed wools, as well as the raw wool that you could do your own thing with.  


Just look at that raw wool!  I believe we saw as many people laden with sacks of the raw wool, as we did with the dyed skeins (or is it "hanks"?   I dunno, I'm a quilter!)

And aren't these hats gorgeous? 

Some of these were wool and some were a wool blend, but they were all pretty. 

There were hand made shawls and scarves, leather handbags, spinning wheels, felting tools, and some things I had no name for (but if you work with wool, you'd probably recognize the tricks of your trade).

Of course, there was lots of food ... mostly lamb, bless em!  Lamb kebobs, lamb sausage links, roasted lamb... how could they, at a sheep festival!!?

We stopped by The Bee Folks booth which had a large variety of honey and honey-related products.  These are bags of "honey dust" - powdered honey mixed with cane sugar. 

They also had honey combs, and jarred honey; little beeswax candles shaped like animals... little trinkety stuff.  I only bought some honey sticks; there were five different flavors and I bought one of each ... big spender!

We watched the sheep in the show ring for awhile, I have no idea what I was looking at. 

I didn't realize there are so many different breeds or classes - Cotswald, Rambouillet, Lincoln, Jacob, Corriedale, Black Lincoln, Karakul, Border Leicester - it boggles the mind! 

So, from a nice banjo player to beautiful baskets ... we had a pleasant afternoon at the festival, but we both agreed we don't need to revisit next year!  (I'm not into yarns, and Eloise isn't into the fiber arts at all!)

On the way home we saw signs for Jenny's produce and figured, why not? 

We each bought a couple items we could have lived without, and made our way on home... 

Sew forth and sew on
Linda