How do you explain Maryland Sheep and Wool to someone who hasn’t experienced it? To be silly about it, I’ll tell you what I told Michael today.  Maryland Sheep and Wool is where “my people” are.  Every third or fourth person I passed had on hand-made clothing: from socks, shawls and ponchos, to water-bottle holders, hats and fingerless gloves.  It was a joyous sensory overload; here it is not strange to find someone looking closely at how your handmade garment was put together.

We stopped by to see the people competing in the Sheep to Shawl competition.  It’s interesting to see the festival from a non-knitter’s perspective: while I’m looking at the spinners envying their speed, Michael’s wondering what the optimal ratio of spinners to weavers to carders is.  We went through several of the sheep barns, with me explaining to Michael what I knew of different breeds.  We went to go see a sheepdog demo – which was REALLY cool.  Perhaps the highlight of my day was a free talk about social media for farmers (which ended up being pretty helpful even though I’m not a farmer).

There was fair food, and (of course) dozens upon dozens of vendors to look at.  We didn’t nearly get through enough of them, but what we did see was beautiful and inspiring and fun.

This is the thing about Maryland Sheep and Wool: it drives home where are yarn comes from.  It tells a story from the farmer to the consumer of the finished product, and there aren’t many places you can go and be able to do that.