I needed that. Not just the still-incredible and -overwhelming amount of fiber and number of people at Maryland Sheep & Wool, but the relaxation of a weekend away from work, away from the shambles that is my apartment, and away from the noise of the city. It was amazing to wake up and hear more birdsong than anything else, and to fall asleep to crickets and spring peepers. I need to get out of the city more.

Of course, I wasn’t just camping… It was lovely to see a whole bunch of people I don’t often see, and spend lots of time with a few people I do often see, and all in the presence of many, many fibery animals and lots of fiber.

And I had to buy some…

Dscn4542

This is plain white cormo top, copper-colored corriedale to match the redwood bfl, a show-logo t-shirt, a gorgeous silk cap, dark red and grey ramboullet, grey-green & orange wool-mohair, wool (from a sheep named Sandalwood, I think) and alpaca in various lovely shades of brown, a green Grafton Fibers pouf, a wraps-per-inch tool from Woodchuck Products, two skeins of Tess’s sock yarn (chocolatey brown & mahoganyish brown), a skein of Spirit Trails sock yarn in flame colors, and some merino-mohair in olive & brown & red & gold, also from Spirit Trails. You’ll get more details as I start to use them.

Here’s a better pic of the wpi tool (click for detail):

Dscn4544

And I was ordered to take some pictures of the animals, so I figured I’d post a few of them here as well.

Dscn4519

Dscn4523

Dscn4537

I’m yawning incredibly now…this whole ‘getting up well before seven a.m.’ thing means getting tired a lot earlier. Funny, that.