04 May 2009

Maryland Sheep + Wool Round-up

This Saturday marks my third anniversary of waking up at 6am, driving 1-1/2 hours to Maryland Sheep and Wool, tromping through fairgrounds and giggling over the enormous size of male sheep bits. The Degenerate Knitters returned with a vengeance this year.

Once again, Regina wore a t-shirt ("Likes to knit, while slightly lit") that prompted 27 strangers to comment their approval. I said that I did not want ribbon fries, but chastised Lisa for not adding chives, helped eat half the plate and accidentally dumped the remaining cheesy fries on Andrea, which she promptly licked off her arm.

Oh, was there ever a classier bunch than this group from Philly? It was one of those times that I was damn proud to be from Philadelphia. Yet, we did not key anyone's car (though they may have deserved it), nor did we cut in line to look at yarn. We just made complete strangers guffaw because we are such a crazy bunch. I have proof.

I had goals this year, friends. They were:

Goal One: Visit Heartburn City, but to engage in fried foods with caution. For example, I split a funnel cake, forsaked the cotton candy, shared a lemonade, and pretended not to eat any ribbon fries. (Lisa, sour cream! Add the sour cream!)

Heartburn City

Goal Two: Visit cute animals. Sometimes alpaca are shy, but this adorable little fella was a flirt. I think he tried to bite my butt. He's a baby though, he doesn't know any better!

Friendly little fella

Goal Three: Meet some cool people. I finally attended the a Ravelry meet-up in a barn, and we got to see whom I call our Knitting Royalty. Jess and Casey really are the nicest people, and the entire knitting community wants them to succeed! Which they are completely doing, in a humble, moral and conscientious way. I did end up speaking to Jess' mother for a few minutes (by the funnel cake booth) and told her what a wonderful daughter she had.

Ravelry Meet Up

Goal Four: Only purchase something if it was something I really would treasure and use. This shot below is something that I did not buy, but this little booth will get it's own post this week. I did ask Lisa if this was something I could register for. Kidding!

Dangly Bits!

Goal Five: Don't buy any yarn unless it's really unique. My one skein is in the middle. Regina bought 2 skeins of yarn, and hadn't even pulled it out of the clear bag by the time we were running towards the booth. It's from a new vendor called Creatively Dyed Yarns which is run by a charming ex-computer programmer / yarn store owner from Trinidad and Tobago.

Creatively Dyed Yarns

Lastly, I'll leave you with this photograph of hand knitted caps from Peruvian artisans. In the caps below, they create is this wonderful pliant, supple texture that has just the right amount of weightiness. Two of the Peruvian women were at the fair and demonstrating their knitting.

Peruvian Hats

Summary: When is next May? I'll bring the Tums.

5 comments:

katTMD said...

what a fun time! You have good friends and a good city :)

Anonymous said...

oh man heartburn city! i could totally tackle that with you!

your crowd sounds like my kind of crowd, licking fries off yer arm and all. :D

your post reminded me of this shirt i still have to get nat it says "I'm not Angry, I'm from Philly"

ahahahahaha
perfect no?

ambika said...

Oh my gosh, it sounds like so much fun! I haven't been to our state fair in years but this is making me want to go.

Robin said...

And this was the 2nd year in a row that I just wandered off and didn't really see any of you guys until the end of the day. It's funny, you had all the goodies and went to the meet-up, yet I barely had a chance to grab a hot dog at 2:30 -- and still didn't cover everything.

Still, it was a great time and can't wait to do it again next year!

sulu-design said...

You said I don't have to, so I'm not commenting on the knitting posts.