We just got back from Maryland last night. Some random points:
Mary will probably never get into those metal conveyances which transports people at impossibly fast speeds if Michele (that's me) is driving. :)
People on metal horses (sometimes known as motorcycles) have death wishes. But I had a great time.
Here's a rundown of our extra long weekend.
Thursday night.
I scramble around wildly to get back home from work. Fortunately, the front desk has already let Mary into my apartment so she's calmly sitting and knitting when I burst madly through the door. Then Mary watches in amusement while I throw together my bags and scarf down dinner.
Finally, we are on the road, it’s after nine PM.
I drive like a bat out of hell, and after a couple of wrong turns and merges, as well as a few nerve wracking moments on the Belt, we make it to my sister’s apartment in DC. Why don’t they put up more signs when they are doing construction on the Belt? I mean I almost stopped in the middle of the freeway because I couldn’t figure out where the cones were forcing me to go? Fortunately, it was after midnight so there were very few cars on the road.
Friday morning. In the wee hours of the morning...
We arrive at my sister’s and crash for the rest of the night. I hate traffic circles. And who thought it would be a good idea to add diagonal roads to a vertical horizontal grid? And why aren’t there more car accidents in DC?
Friday Morning, a decent hour
We wake up at around 8AM-ish and get ready to face the day. We consult various and sundry maps of DC from a street map (sort of) to a metro map, as well as the internet. We figure out how to get to the textile museum. (Sort of) We finally arrive at the textile museum and admire, squint at, and view the tent bands exhibit through magnifying glasses provided by the museum. What an excellent idea to have magnifying glasses available in the galleries! I should acquire one when I wander through the museums here! The tent bands were really quite amazing. Showcasing a variety of fiber working techniques from weaving, rug knotting, to embroidery. It was truly and impressive exhibit. The final gallery showed a video of the Kazakh’s (sp?) setting up an entire ceremonial tent. The construction and engineering is really quite remarkable. Of course, the two of us being fiber geeks we really really wanted to see the BACK of these weavings, knottings, and embroideries! Luckily some of the tent bands were so long and they were rolled up like scrolls, so we could see the backs of those!
Then we went upstairs to see the reason for our excursion! The RED exhibit… What a disappointment. We were expecting something quite marvelous and extensive after the display below. However, the exhibit was only one room and didn’t really have that much to show. The exhibit basically consists of what is shown on their website, with nothing extra. I was expecting at least a breakdown of the different types of red dyes and influence of the dye trade throughout history, or something! Nothing… Oh well. But then we went to a SCAdian MECCA. The museum’s LIBRARY!!! I think we spent as much time in the library as we did in tent bands exhibit. After looking through various books and almost trying to read a few, we realized that we had to leave NOW or else we would simply tuck ourselves into a corner and spend the ENTIRE weekend happily browsing through and reading all sort of books and magazines about FIBER. Dare I admit that Mary found me a few times sitting on the floor in the stacks with piles of books around me avidly leafing through them, attempting to take notes? Anyway, we left to avoid getting sucked in like moths to a flame!
Friday Afternoon
We had lunch in Dupont circle and proceeded on to the Mall where we wandered through the Freer and Sackler galleries before deciding that we had ENOUGH walking for one day and found a nice bench and just sat and chatted and discussed what we would ACQUIRE in the next couple of days. As it got closer to 6, we hopped back on the Metro and had dinner with my sister and her fiancé. Then we took off for Baltimore. We got to the hotel at around 9ish and discovered that they had lost our reservation. Fortunately, there were other rooms available but it was SMOKING. Ugh. We got to the room and aired it out as best we could. The smell of the cigarette smoke was quite overpowering and disgusting. We decided then and there that NO fiber was going into that room. It would stay in the car.
Saturday morning
We woke up bright and early and set off for the Howard County Fairgrounds. The Mapquest/Google directions were quite confusing but we get there at 8:15. We start wandering around in search of food! After scarfing down breakfast we head for the Main Exhibition hall where the Yarn Barn and the fleece show are. We wander around for a bit checking out the different vendors. I wander off to go test spinning wheels at the Yarn Barn ooh… The first one I tested was the Kromski Sonata which spun very nicely. However, after listening to the vendor explain to another first time wheel buyer that while the Sonata is a nice wheel it’s probably better as a second wheel rather than primary wheel since one tends to outgrow it rather quickly. I also didn’t like that although it was a double treadle you couldn’t keep it going with only one foot. Next! Then I tried the Ashford Elizabeth and was pleasantly surprised that I could keep it going! The only Saxony I’ve been able to keep on spinning and not reversing direction was the Schacht Reeves big monster wheel! Yay! Hmm… I was only toying with it as a possibility but now even though it’s single treadle… all the other points are in it’s favor like the various expansion kits one can get with it, including a quill spindle! I also started to test the Majacraft Rose, but after I was informed that the unsupported bobbin is prone to breakage around pets, children, and CLUMSY people I decided to pass on it. I take down my notes in my spinning wheel comparison chart that I have posted in the files section of http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ek_fiber/, per Lady Carowyn’s request. I didn’t want to because I really really try to keep the OCD part of me under wraps. I can usually pass for a “normal” person for short periods of time but sigh… Unfortunately, I did not buy a wheel. The first reason is that I felt it would be irrational to purchase a spinning wheel when I don’t even have a BED or CHAIRS in my apartment yet. The second reason… and probably more telling is that I CANNOT decide between the Ashford Elizabeth and the Schacht Double Treadle. The Elizabeth would almost be a perfect wheel for demos and other SCA stuff, but it’s really not that portable. The Schacht would really look out of place at a demo. However, you can get a STROLLER attachment! Wheels are our friends, pun intended!
After testing the spinning wheels I move off to FLEECE show! I wants one! I do I really truly do! I’m also a bit concerned that I seemed to have lost track of Maria Noret. Oh well… I have a cell phone. She can eventually reach me. Besides… I’m the one with the car keys! Evil smirk. Ok I wander around the fleece show and I’m a bit overwhelmed by the amount of stuff on the tables under the tables, with esoteric stickers and markings all over it… etc etc. Hmmm… perhaps I should just take Carol for Indigo Hound up on her offer tomorrow to show me around. But I’m a member of the instant gratification generation… Wait? Me? No way! I see someone from our local mundane spinning guild. We start chatting and she directs me to the longwools, since I want to make a cloak. I start rooting around in the bags of fleece. PU!!! That Wensleydale stinks! Yuck! that one is all grimy and greasy and full of vegetable matter. Ugh… If I can’t even bring myself to touch these things how am I suppose to wash it? Then I see this silver fleece buried deep into a corner under the table. I reach in and pull it out. Ok, so I crawled under the table and dragged it out behind me. The thing is monstrous HUGE! I reach in tentatively and pull out a lock. I snap it, as I’ve been instructed and look at the staple length and most importantly, I SNIFF the thing. Ooh… ok. Just a wooly smell. (I love that woolly smell! But then I’m a fiberholic) I can deal with that. It’s little greasy but not disgustingly so. Hmm do I want it? I mean it’s almost TEN POUNDS. Then I come nose to face with that smelly fleece and that dirty fleece and decide. What the heck! It’s good that it’s that BIG! This means I don’t need to worry about getting ANOTHER one. Or worse FIND another one. I trudge off to pay for my find. And I mean trudge. 10lbs doesn’t sound that heavy until one considers how BULKY the thing is! The lady manning the cash register is none other than Barbara Clorite Ventura herself! She’s taught and Rhinebeck and offered to show me around the fleeces if I could make it to the fair on Friday. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take her up on her offer. But I introduced myself. And she kindly inspected the fleece I picked out and told me that I had actually picked an excellent one! That she knows the breeder and the breeder typically takes first place if not best of show each year however her daughter was getting married so she wasn’t in the show this year. SQUEE!!! Let’s hear it for beginner’s luck! Barbara also said she’d hold onto the thing for me until I made it back with my luggage cart. ☺
My Fleece!
The staple! It's
about 4 inches
So, at this point, I’m getting a little hungry. I’m also getting a little concerned that I haven’t heard from Maria. I decide to look around the barn for her and when I don’t find her, decide to head for the car and pick up my luggage carrier and come back for the fleece. At this moment, my cell phone rings and at first, I think it might be Carowyn, announcing her arrival, but it’s Mary, she’s actually across the way from me sitting down enjoying a cool drink after being unable to locate me. She said she was wandering around calling my name like a complete fool. When I realize that the reason she probably didn’t see me was because I was crawling around underneath the tables. And I didn’t hear her because I was a lemming on a MISSION! Oops.
Oh well, alls well and ends well, we found each other! We get lunch. I got an Italian sausage sandwich and Mary got lamb sausage. It’s funny even though I like just about everything sheepy the taste of lamb is just BLECH. Oh well… The strawberry lemonade with strawberries at the bottom was unbelievable!!! Yummy going to have to do that next time I make lemonade! Party!!!
Onward!
Saturday Afternoon,
After fortifying ourselves with lunch we set off to collect my luggage carrier from the car to pick up the fleece. You guested it... We got lost in the parking lot. Sigh... It's so embarassing but I completely understand why my ancestors invented the compass if I my sense of direction is genetic. Eventually, we locate the car and dump our purchases into the trunk. I grab the luggage carrier and head back to the Main Exhibition Hall to collect the fleece. Of course, I had to stop off at the Carolyn Homespun to pick up a set of Strauch hand cards! Then I collect my fleece! Mary was suitably impressed by my find and especially by the dumb luck. Barbara Chlorite Ventura gave me some tips on how to wash the thing.
We head out of the barn to go explore the other other barns when my cell phone rings! It's Corwyn! They've arrived at the fair and we need to come pick up the thing that Aellin wants. Hmn... I still have my doubts as to the provenance and life status of this mystery object. I'm pretty sure if it's an angora bunny the cigarette fumes in that hotel will so it in... Using our cell phones we navigate to a meeting spot after some confusion. We introduce ourselves and Corwyn leads us to his lady who is waiting on a interminably LONG line. We say hi and chatter away madly or rather Mary and Carowyn chatter away while I wander off and look at the cool fiber stuff. I have the attention span of a gnat at times. Carowyn finally pays for her purchases and we wander out of the barn
in search of Carowyn and Corwyn's travel companions. We meet them outside the barn. See! There they are. Yeah, I should've changed some of the camera settings before taking this shot. I collect Aellin's thingagummy from Carowyn. And we wander off to the Indigo Hound where I show Carol my fleece! She was kind enough to offer to take me fleece shopping on Sunday, but I got the fleece already. I also pick up some Viking combs from her. Then we troop off to settle down in on a bench or rather we gather around a bench some of us sit on the bench which others of us who are too twitchy and hyperactive sit on the ground and spin and then pop back up and spin some more. As we are chatting about fiber, on the the ladies... of course I can't remember her name (so sorry)... asks about carding wool and how to use cards as opposed to a flicker. Mary starts to explain, but it's difficult without cards, so I pull out my new cards and hand them over. Of course, ALL of use are armed with fiber galore, so she pulls some of her newly acquired fiber out and Mary proceeds to demonstrate carding! I love my fellow fiberaholics and SCAdians! :)Meanwhile, I'm standing and spinning on my Kundert spindle. A couple of kids and parents wander by intermittently and ask me what I'm doing. I attempt to explain and let a couple of the kids play with the spindle. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my bouquet of CD spindles and easy to spin roving. Note to self: bring giveaway spindles to next fiber fair. Must be prepared to enable! JoAnna, since we are Brokenbridgers either by right of residence or adoption you can put this in your A&S report :) Mary and I taught some people in MARYLAND some fiber techniques! It was witnessed by a bunch of SCAdians from other parts of the East.
Anyway, we sit and chat and get to know each other and admire each other's acquisitions. After about an hour of chatting and resting sore feet we separate and visit other barns. It's getting late and we are tired we so head back to the car. This time we are NOT lost. We have dinner at the Crab Shanty and also locate an easier route between the hotel and the fair. After a HUGE seafood dinner we head back to the car. I notice that Letty Klein one of my teachers from my Shepherd's Rug class Rhinebeck just sat down in the booth in front of ours. I say hi and we exchange pleasantries. She is just a lovely lady! Karakuls are cool!
Ok then we head back to hotel for a good night's sleep. But before that we attempt to rearrange the car and consolidate our stuff to make leaving the next day easier.
Sunday morning
We take our bags (which we packed the night before) and put them in the car. Then we check out of the hotel and head back to Festival. We stop along the way for breakfast. Back to fair and more shopping. This time we pick up honey from a local apiary and sheep's milk cheese from an artisan vendor. Mary has lots of fun picking through the various other hand painted roving. We systematically wander through the barns. Wow! The art show was absolutely amazing. The hand felted lynx was simply unbelievable, especially the way the artist constructed an entire scene around the figure. Unfortunately, I did not take pictures :(.
Later, we head back to the Main Exhibition Hall, so I can pick up dyeing stuff from Earthguild. Ooh! I forgot to mention the ALPACA weavings in one of the outdoor booths. I pick up a couple of Andean drop spindles and a bag of cochineal. Yep! the dead bugs themselves, unground. Hmm... I wonder if this is how coffee conniseurs feel about their unground beans.
We are pretty much shopped out. So we eat lunch. Mary has acquired quite a stash of lovely handpainted rovings! I take a walk through the Breed exhibitions picking up brochures and snapping photographs of sheep for our fiber display. One of the ewes had lambed! So cute. Ooh and how could I forget the booth that carried fiber from various ancient British sheep breeds? And the Jacob sheep conservancy where I saw Catherine Snook of the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival?
Anyway it was a long day, so after I snapped my photographs go back to where I've left Mary. She's spinning and chatting to people around her. We head back to the car and of course can't find it AGAIN. But eventually we do and we head back up North and home.
Sunday night
We are back in NY/NJ. Exhausted but happy with our excursion! We were so lucky perfectly beautiful weather and we met absolutely wonderful people.
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