Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

I participated in my first virtual fiber festival this last weekend, which was a huge silver lining to this whole mess. There was no way I would have made it to this festival if it weren’t virtual.

And overall, I had a great time with it! It wasn’t without its issues or stress, but of course there’s going to be hiccups when we try new things.

First off, we crashed the website, so attendance must’ve been high. The fix was a series of PDF files that listed the vendors’ and fleece sellers’ online shops and Facebook pages. At the start, it was great, I got the same feel as I would have visiting different booths.

After a while, though, it started to get stressful. I wanted to give all of the vendors fair consideration, but it became tiresome. They didn’t have photos of any of the fleeces for sale, so I couldn’t get over the hump of “I’ll have to process this myself.” I was on the hunt for festival specific products, which there was no way to search for, but I also missed being able to see samples at a glance and fall in love with a new project, exclusive or no.

I also missed the comradery of seeing what everyone else was working on and wearing. There was the Facebook group forum where some people made such posts, but they were drowned out by vendors posting their show specials. I absolutely want to see those, too. That helped me make decisions come buying time, but I would have loved a forum system where these posts could have been separated.

Regardless of my stumbles, I made a couple of purchases I’m very excited about. Bead Biz featured a gorgeous, double-knit, flapper-style hat with beads, so I purchased a kit to make one of those.

I also particularly liked CeCe’s Wool special festival colorway, and you had the option to get an 8oz skein of it. I’m planning on using mine to make a summer tee or cardigan.

Were you able to participate in any of the festivities this weekend? If you made any fun purchases, I’d really love to see those. Leave me a comment or tag your photos on social with #fiberadventures!