Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

Cute Alpaca

Went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival on Saturday. Had such a great time and it turned out to be such a beautiful warm day. All the sheep and alpaca were so cute! I want an alpaca so bad, they look like big teddy bears. My boyfriend was also into the alpaca - maybe they could help out keeping the grass down with all the rain we've been having lately! Interestingly enough, Alpaca are mainly raised for breeding in the U.S. The U.S. market has not begun to widely utilize the animals for their fiber. Seems a bit strange to me, but when I saw the prices the animals bring in, I understood completely.



Here's a little sheep getting a haircut just before the sheep judging competition.


A cute little ram.

It was very interesting to see the sheep getting sheared and how they actually behaved while being buzzed by a scary razor. Also saw some people spinning roving into yarn. I think my next adventure will be just that. I think I'll start doing some research into spinning wheels - b-day and Christmas are just around the corner! It would just be such an accomplishment to not only say that I knit and designed my sweater, but also spun the yarn. Maybe a little farther down the road, I'll actually start from the fleece, but starting w/ roving is adventurous enough for now. Now, if I could just manage to find some free time.......

Speaking of roving, that was my only purchase all day. I was so proud of myself! All that yarn was soooooooo tempting, but I held back. I purchased 4 oz of Icelandic wool roving from a sheep named Moonwink. I think that I am going to use it unspun as some sort of funky collar for a cardigan. Then if I have any left, maybe I'll play around and try to spin some of the roving on a drop spindle.


My only purchase

And finally in knitting news:
#1 Finished the left front of lucky tonight. Sleeves are on the way!
#2 Yarn for boyfriend's sweater still hasn't arrived from England. That leaves me at least one more week before I have one more project on my plate.
#3 Rowan Polar is on backorder, should be in this week. One less project to worry about for now!


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