MDSW Roundup

I had such a good time at Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival (MDSW).  I stopped for amazingly good donuts on the way up.  I also stopped by a MAC store (no, not the Apple store, although they are side by side at that particular mall) and picked up a new ridiculous shade of bright blue/purple eyeshadow.  They still don't have a good green, but did find an emerald green cream eye pencil that will do nicely.  My rainbow is nearly complete! 

As I drove up my brother's street I saw several people having fun painting a pull-behind trailer.  I wondered about it, then realized it was parked in my brother's driveway!  I did a quick U-turn, grabbed the donuts, and walked up to join in.  A few hours of paint and turpentine fumes later, check out the awesomeness they will be hauling across the country. 

We cleaned the paint off ourselves as best as we could (fingernail beds are apparently a permanent paint location) and had tasty sushi for dinner.  I've never been so full from sushi before that I thought I might burst.  Well, there were bento box goodies and ice cream too.  Mmm...mango, red bean, ginger, green tea, mochi...why do Americans only believe in chocolate and more chocolate?  Thankfully the filling dinner saved the donuts so we were able to slice them up into little wedges and enjoy them with our otherwise healthy breakfast of eggs, turkey bacon, turkey sausage, and oatmeal-applesauce pancakes.  Sure, they roll out the healthy goodness, and my contributions are donuts and mimosas.

It was a fun drive up to MDSW, until the last couple miles that added nearly an hour onto our travel time.  Gads they needed a cop at the intersection!  Once we got near enough we all piled out of the van and started walking to the festival rather than sit in traffic anymore (Thanks Daven!).  Ever had a dandelion fight?  It's really fun, although hard to attack someone if you have to run up to catch them.  Here we are at the climax of our battle - I wish the camera captured the cloud of dandelion fluff we're standing in.  I also learned a dandelion in the ear is shriek-worthy no matter who the victim is. 

I haven't been to MDSW in 8 years or so.  It was great, but less overwhelming than it felt back in those days.  I think I've learned so much in the intervening years I don't need to see/touch/do everything (oops, I mistyped 'everyone' at first).  I did learn a few things that are handy. 
1. Kilts are great as they totally replace a shoulder bag or purse and leave your hands completely free.  I wasn't sure about it at first (my brother handed out kilts left and right when we were all leaving that morning) but by the end of the day I was glad to have it.  Seriously, I had my wallet, camera, phone, notepad, pen, and snack in my pockets and then clipped all my purchases into the convenient belt clip.  There were quite a lot of kilt wearers there that day, which brought questions from some confused folks who thought we were in a dance troupe or something.
2. Golding Ring Spindles really do spin longer than any other, and are totally gorgeous.  But after using them I lost my decade-old desire to have one.  All the extra spin time is meaningless since you have to stop once you near the ground.  And the shafts are kind of tacky feeling.  It might have been because of the heat melting the wood wax, but they had a feel reminiscent of the Mongolian Grill wooden platters you put your bowl on.  It's kind of like losing a crush.

Oh, you'd rather see the haul of stuff I bought?  Special thanks to my husband for demanding that I buy whatever I wanted.  Here's the pretty yarns:

Top: Mountain Colors sock yarn.
Left to Right: Zauberball laceweight, 2 balls of Mini Mochi for alternate colorway striping, 2 skeins of Claudia's Handpaint for striped socks, maybe the Jaywalker Pattern.
I didn't photograph the blue faced leicester wools, since a camera can't capture the feel of them.  I also got a supremely awesome pendant I'll post later.

We stayed to the end of the festival and by that point were trudging along after a day of dizzingly hot weather.  I knew how hot it was when I realized I'd drank 3 quart-sized lemonades and a bottle of water and never had to pee.  Here's part of our band heading out.

I'm so glad I got to go with such a fun group of people.  Maybe we can all meet at Estes one year...