Sheepies and Wooliness Festival '09!

This past weekend was the 36th Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival! So I trundled down to Baltimore to see my excellent friend Elisabeth and check out the sheepies and the wooliness!

The festival is held annually in West Friendship, MD, at the Howard County Fairgrounds and is, unless I'm very much mistaken, the largest Sheep and Wool Festival in the country!

We got to see lots of animals of varying fuzziness:

Baby Alpacas! With really funny haircuts.

Baby goats on lawn chairs!

Unfortunately groomed Llamas...

And, of course, SHEEPIES!! Here's Madame Elisabeth nuzzling a lovely ewe.

Baaaaaaahh....

This is a Jacob Sheep! It has two sets of horns! It's like an extra set of handles!

I spent quite a long time petting this sheep on the muzzle... it was so awesome. And I got to feel it's horns: they were totally warm! Of course I knew that their horns were a part of their body but I really never expected them to be... warm... it was totally weird and awesome.

Oh.. and we also spotted... A nun.

A nun in combat boots.

!!

She was so cool. She was clearly there by herself and even though I suggested a couple of times that we introduce ourselves and make friends... it almost didn't seem appropriate.

Y'know... inappropriate like getting stealthy cell phone shots of her all over the festival.

Holy woman in boots. Lovin' the sheep. And I'm lovin' her.

But besides stalking women of the cloth who love cloth, there were also hundreds and hundreds of amazing fiber booths! Yarns, spinning fibers, spinning wheels. I was in HEAVEN. (Much like the nun. What, too much?)

I even ran into the woman who sold me my spinning wheel! She was there representing the Green Mountain Spinnery of Vermont. It was great to see her and she told me that I could take a class or two from her when I'm in New England this summer! YES!! It's exactly what I've been looking for!

Oooh.. and there were these CRAZY, portable spinning contraptions...

It totally made me think of tinkers and traveling Gypsies. Awesome...

So... I bet you're wondering how much moolah I dropped, right? Not as much as you'd think! I exerted much self controll, thank you very much. I bought a pin that says "Knit Addict," a couple of note cards, a small bag of spinable sparkle, and ONLY ONE SKEIN of yarn! But, oh, was it worth it:

Oh man, it's a hand-spun yarn made of 50% recycled bamboo and 50% organic cotton... so great. Can't wait to knit it up!

Yay Sheep and Wooliness! Thanks, Elisabeth, for a great weekend!