Very Belated Maryland Sheep and Wool

Well, I know, I promised pictures from Maryland and the scoop. It's a bit late but I've been doing a lot of catching up around here from all the things that didn't get done last week because we were gearing up for the trip. It only took 5 days for things to get back to normal.

I apologize in advance for not having more pictures to show you but I really am horrible with a camera and unlike the great bloggers out there I never stop and think, "Oh! I should take a picture of this for the blog!" Instead I only took pictures of the sheep dog trials. And Lisa only took pictures of her kids. So now you know where our hearts truly lie.

I should have taken a picture of the mobs of people on the sidewalk in front of Rosie's at 7:15 in the morning. There were a lot of folks here and everyone was very punctual (yeah!). There was coffee out on the sidewalk, and tea, and lovely boxed breakfasts from Picnic who do a great job every year bringing us the food, even though we are often late with the final count. Everyone got on their buses, with only a few snags (note: next year ALL the buses are leaving at 7:30!) and we were off, leaving poor Judy behind to tidy up the shop because she is really a better person than the rest of us, go Judy! (and THANK YOU!!). We raffled off exciting prizes on the bus and people seemed to really enjoy getting free knitting related stuff, imagine that! We raffled off books, yarn, Rosie's gift certificates--all kinds of fun stuff. Good times were had by all, until we got the phone call. I got a phone call from Lisa, just as we were pulling off the highway, who had gotten a phone call from (I think) Wendy saying that the Koigu people weren't there. Maie had broken her ankle, which we knew, but Taiu was still hoping to come to MS&W, but unfortunately was unable to make it. I braced myself to make the announcement on the nifty bus microphone and surprisingly it went over okay. Not one person rioted, which was secretly what I was thinking may happen. Whew!

Everything continued without incident until we were on the road up to the festival when a small car decided it would be a really good idea to pull out in front of a charter bus, running us off the road momentarily but we were fine--three cheers for Tropiano bus drivers!!

We arrived safely and everyone scattered to SHOP! My purchases were minimal this year. Some socks that rock, but only 2 skeins, and some superwash merino from Brooks Farm. So soft, so lovely. And then there was the food. I ate a lot. It was good. That's all I'm saying.

The ribbon chips were the winner this year. They were cool, right? Maybe I'm just easily amused. All in all it was a great time, and the border collies enjoyed it too.

Note: for normal pictures from MS&W that aren't all of animals go to Carol. She's better at this than me!