MDS&W

I don't know where to begin, and I've even had a few days to process the whole shebang.  Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival was a huge hit!  I arrived with a bazillion batts, painted tops, and yarns, and left with only 30% of what I came with.  Because of the late notice that we made it into the festival, I kicked off a collaboration with my Mum, MarigoldJen, to create over one hundred hand-dyed yarns, and we only brought 18 skeins home.

The big shocker for me:  the dozen artsy yarns I spun sold within the first two hours of the Festival on Saturday.  I don't even have pictures of them because they're GONE!

Other big sellers- painted BFL/silk top, painted merino/yak, a new product called "Ply packs," which contain 6 different coordinating colors of hand-dyed merino/bamboo or merino/tencel top, Tidbits of hand-dyed superfine Merino for felters, Battlings (a near sell-out!), and BFL based batts.

Of course, being the giant doofus that I am, I didn't take as many pictures as I should have.  We started off busy, thanks to cute little buttons and bumper stickers from ZippyPins which I consigned at the front of our tent, and maintained a line for 4-6 hours straight on Saturday.  Sunday was a big day for batts, and when I came home to check out the receipts, I noticed that a huge stack are from buyers who returned to our tent after shopping on Saturday.  Thanks for coming back for an extra scoop of wool, folks!

I only managed to sneak away a few times- mostly for food or to grab a few woolies for myself.  My favorite purchase- a super-glitzy Jazzturtle batt from the CloverHill booth. 

I finally had a chance to meet many of my customers and fibery "co-workers" at a spin-n-swap Saturday night, and came home with a huge bag full of fluff, which I plan on spinning into a huge half-pound DK weight yarn for a toddler raglan sweater.

Speaking of the toddler, guess who managed to keep herself entertained during set-up?

We built her a cabin out of discarded boxes, and she was content to read to herself for far longer than a toddler can be expected to sit.

Now that I've organized everything that has found its way back to my studio, I'm preparing for a monster update.  I've got six huge bins filled with things to list in my shop, and will start unleashing the batts tomorrow, followed by hand-pulled rovings and painted tops within the next few days. Many of the batt colorways that I'll be adding have multiple sets available, so if you're looking for sweater-sized portions of fiber, be sure to take a peek.

 

So, what's in store for this summer?  Local demonstrations, more art yarns, my first bump of Polwarth wool, spindle & wool kits for newbie spinners, and thousands of happy little (and big!) batts.