Sunday, May 02, 2010

Feeling Sheep-ish

I finally attended Sheep and Wool Day today. "You have to go!" every knitting acquaintance has exhorted me for the past 3 years. "It's fantastic!" They should have added, "Weather permitting..."

It was over 90 degrees today, with humidity to match. Mix that with livestock smells, and the day did not augur well. I wisely left the children home, suspecting I would have a whinefest of major proportions on my hands. I met a friend instead; together we walked around amid the sweaty multitudes and looked at yarn, and llamas, and sheep-shearing, and yarn, and alpacas, and more yarn. I entered a raffle for a spinning wheel. Even though I don't spin. I guess I got carried away by the excitement of it all.

You want to hear the amazing part? I didn't buy anything (except food). No uber-expensive yarn, no adorable clay buttons, not even an alpaca or two. That's not to say I wasn't tempted by a certain bag of llama poop compost - it would be just the gift for the gardener who has everything, don't you think so? But I resisted.

So, to sum up - Sheep and Wool Day? Hot. Africa hot. Smelly. Crowded. But not expensive...


[Photo credit: Natural Llama Beans]

12 comments:

  1. Maryland was this weekend! Well, it's good you went. I'd like to attend one of the bigger festivals some day. Rhinebeck is over my daughter's birthday. I'm going to try to raise her up right, so she starts asking to go as a birthday present. I wanted to go to a little sheep-shearing festival a local farm does every Mother's Day weekend, on the Saturday, but we have two baseball games to go to that day. (And another on Mother's Day.) No sheep for me...

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  2. AnonymousMay 03, 2010

    I'm beginning to get tempted by yard ads. I really must learn to knit. In my spare time. Ha!

    And I stayed indoors as much as possible, far away from alpacas -- but the farm tour is in 2 weeks, so there's that.

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  3. That was what our weather was like this weekend too, but, wisely I resisted temptation to leave the house during daylight hours.

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  4. Am I the only one that laughed when I saw "You have to go!" juxtaposed with the LlamaTwo picture?

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  5. Wool + Humidity = No Thank You!

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  6. AnonymousMay 03, 2010

    This is why I never do the county fair--the SMELLS. Heat makes everything smell worse. But now you can say you did it!

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  7. AnonymousMay 03, 2010

    and i have another plus: no potentially puking kids in the heat with you!!!

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  8. I LOVE fiber festivals! I bet I would have spent money for sure, you are a stronger woman than I.

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  9. I would have gotten on a plane and come to that festival too, but I didn't want to make my stash jealous.

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  10. ARGH! I need to figure out how to find out about these things AHEAD of time. Phooey. I don't read the newspaper, so never get the "happening this weekend" thing. Pshaw. Want to see the sheepdog trials at Oatlands (do they still do them there?) but that has probably happened already, too.

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