MDSW 2013 part 2

Guess what! There are harps in this post!

I know, I mention "harp" in my blog tagline, and when I started out this blog, I had intentions of including occasional links to my own home recordings.  Well, for a couple reasons, that hasn't happened. I don't even talk about harps most of the time, and I apologize.  So I made sure to get photos of harps at Maryland Sheep and Wool for ya, as if that makes anything better.  Two of the three harps I saw are even the same make as my own Dusty Strings!

I don't know if it was my preoccupation with sheep taking me to different parts of the fairgrounds that is to blame, but I didn't catch as much music as I would have liked.  A couple other years, the grounds seemed to be almost overrun by musicians; I kinda missed that this year.

Still, I did manage to steal a bit of time Saturday afternoon to work on my shawl at the music pavilion. I  enjoyed watching the people in front of me do a bit of spinning, too.

The weather on Saturday was gorgeous.  Cool enough that I was able to wear my vest (and fish) comfortably all day, but warm enough that the breeze on my arms felt very nice.

We had delicious fries. I didn't even miss ketchup.

People always complain about the food at Maryland; this year we decided not to fuss over it, and simply made pb&j sandwiches back at the car. It made for a great chance to drop off all that fiber I bought.

On Sunday we missed most of the goings on because of our class, but I did manage to snap a few pictures of the sheep-to-shawl contest.

Here's one of the completed shawls, which -- despite not winning first place -- went for hundreds more dollars than the others at the post-contest auction.

And now, speaking of handmade shawls, here's the shawl I finished just yesterday!

This is a big deal for me, since I've been wanting to knit a shawl using my own handspun for a couple years. In fact, it was five years ago that my first trip to MDSW introduced me to handspinning! Some of my first yarns were in a blue-green colorway, too.

 

I blogged about it in more detail over on girlsinsheepclothing.  I'm already planning to do another similar project, in order to blend the colors better at the transitions; I can think of about two or three simple ways to improve them. The process of making this shawl has been so much more thrilling than merely knitting it would have been.  The knitting took less than a week, actually. But the spinning feels like the culmination of all I've learned so far, and represents the learning I continue to acquire.

Sigh.  Lace.