Time for my (overdue) recap of my Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival experience!
The trees leading up to the fairground entrance were yarn-bombed in a big way!
It was a great day for the festival – warm, but not too hot, thanks to a light blanket of clouds in the sky. You might notice my sunglasses on top of my head. I always struggle with my prescription glasses at the festival – I go into a booth or barn, and it’s dark enough to wear my regular glasses, but then I walk outside and Bam! I’m blinded. It makes it a challenge for looking at colors. Does anyone else struggle with this at the festival in particular?
Now, for the acquisitions!
I bought some lovely light-worsted weight hand-dyed from the Miss Babs shop. This is Yowza in the Slate colorway. In my typical fashion, I felt drawn to this yarn, but had to walk around the entire festival and come back for it later. I figure, I know it’s true love if it still sticks in my mind after seeing hundreds of other lovely yarns. And, I even have a plan for it! Wool permitting, it is going to be a “On the Grass” sweater, which you may have noticed in my festival preparation post, was one of the sweaters on my list.
My other acquisition was Fiber Optics Kasmir Gradient Paintbox, in the Swamp Muck colorway. My word, is it gorgeous! I am absolutely a fan of the trend of selling gradients already put together, and I stood in Fiber Optics booth for a very long time, pacing back and forth between the sample shawls and the yarn. My hubby was very patient with me – he says he knew what he was getting into, not just when he agreed to go to the Sheep and Wool Festival, but when he married me. He even gave very thoughtful opinions about which colors I would be more likely to wear, and enjoy knitting with.
I don’t have any specific plans for this yet (and it is my most luxurious purchase ever, with cashmere in the blend!). I really loved the shawls they had, so I’ll be spending more time on Ravelry looking for inspiration. Perhaps the Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief?
marynvoigt puts up a very good case for making this kerchief with the paintbox gradient. Click on the picture to go to her project.
Any other ideas? It’s a total of 450 yards of fingering weight, so yardage is definitely a consideration.
Now I need to go back to the Neighborhood Fiber Co. website, to give a visual component to my yarn dreams. And wait for my bank account to recover.
Happy knitting!
pikaknits 
That gradient is super awesome! Really, almost any top-down shawl would look awesome in 450 yards of gradient. For a different idea, this Dreambird is particularly impressive, and you could use each color for a feather with a coordinating color for the body: http://maikikistudio.wordpress.com/2013/10/11/fo-friday-4-dreambird/
“Particularly impressive” is a good way to say it! Hmm, it would be a fun challenge to pick out the coordinating color. Time to hold yarns next to each other and see what happens!
Wow, you got some fabulous yarn, I don’t know how I could make a decision at a festival 🙂
Like they say, where there’s a will there’s a way. 🙂 And for me, I was determined to leave with SOME yarn in hand, so it had to happen!