Sunday, May 3, 2009

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

I went. I saw. I shopped. And I stayed well within my budget! We had a wonderful time. Last year I was so overwhelmed, I don't think I bought anything. I know I didn't blog about it. This year I had a game plan. Yesterday, I just went to look, really didn't buy anything. Just looked around while DH took pictures. I also went to the Ravelry Meetup and met 2 Sistahs Knit Together. I ran into Marie and Rhoda (both blogless). I also met Marilyn from Bona Fide Knitter. I only bought things that might be gone today. I picked up some past issues of Vogue Knitting and Threads magazines and some mohair yarn for a prayer shawl for a friend from church who has some serious health issues.

I worked at home in my office on Friday. That cured me of any plans I may have had to buy yarn. Every time I looked up from the laptop, my yarn stash stared me in the face. Today I bought a second skein of the mohair for a shawl for me and what was my only impulse purchase a skein of yarn from Aisha Cecila because she has the same first name as my eldest DD.

I'm taking a spinning class at the end of the month from the Mannings so I concentrated on fiber to spin. I bought several types to spin, bacause the shops here don't carry a huge selection. Once I work my way through this, I should be proficient enough to make a decent yarn and have a good idea of what I like and don't like. And most importantly, whether I want to continue or not.

Only one mini rant. I absolutely hate kits. I fell in love with a shawl pattern. The yarn cost $28. I couldn't buy the pattern unless I bought the kit. The kit was $49.95. Now I know vendors need to make a profit and I don't mind. But never in my wildest dreams would I pay $21 for a pattern. I'll look around the net and see if I can find one like it and then order the yarn. She's located in Baltimore County, shipping surely won't be $21, will it?? Okay rant over!

I also wanted to see if I could find someone who could turn bobbins. I found 2 vendors, neither of them local. I ordered 3 from one vendor and will order a couple more from the other. I'm too lazy to get up and get his card right now but the guy from the Vermont Spinning Wheel Co (I think) knew a lot about my wheel. It is a French Canadian production wheel and is supposed to be sweet to spin. He's fashioned his wheels after Canadian Production Wheels. He corrected my pronunciation; it's pronounced pair-a-dye. When I order the bobbins I'll also ask him about a footman. I'd still like to have the Hattons work on it, but this way I don't have to do a 10 hour round trip to drop it off and another to pick it up. There's also no idea how long it would take. The vendor I ordered it from made a drawing and took my CC info and will call before it ships in a couple of weeks. The guy in Vermont only needs a measurement.

Speaking of spinning. Wheels were flying out of there like crazy. I didn't see any festival pricing, so I'd have to assume they were full price. I don't know how if the economy affected sales in general, but I didn't see women leaving with huge bags of yarn or anything else as I did last year.

Without further ado:

4 comments:

cici said...

It's always good to see you.I commend you on the spinning♥ I was pretty good at staying in my budget too. Happy spinning and knitting♥

Kathleen C. said...

I went on Sunday only... don't know if you were at the meetup that day... I kind of stayed in my corner.
Congratulations on staying within budget. I did not.
Last year I didn't buy anything either, but this year... I don't know what it was but I saw so much more that I wanted or needed.
And because it was slower I got into the booths and chatted with the vendors, and that always makes me feel like buying.

Gingerbreadshouse7 said...

Sounds like you had a pretty good time and stayed within your budget..Enjoy your spinning lessons at the Mannings ,,Ginny

Beverly said...

Nice spoils. I had the same problem at Stitches South. A lot of the patterns I wanted to purchase were only available as kits. Not cheap kits either. Most were from $100 - $300.