This weekend was the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival, and today I drove myself north to have some fun.

I arrived earlier than I have in years, just after 2, which gave me slightly under 3 hours to soak up the whole festival. Even with that, I still didn’t have enough time to see the last section of vendors, so I’m thinking next year I should aim for an hour earlier.

The first thing I did was head inside the animal barns. While some are quieter than others, generally these are busy, loud places. Farmers are shearing sheep. Sheep are bleating. Announcers are calling for animals and their handlers to get into place for judging.

They want to make sure everyone looks their best:

There were adult sheep:

And there were lambs:

I was able to catch the final sheepdog demonstration of the day. The shepherd who runs it has brought a new partner on and the two women had six dogs to help with the task, ranging in age from one year old to 14. Each of them felt that they should be the dog to keep those sheep in check and were quick to judge their compatriots’ work.

Then, it was off to look at yarn. There was a lot of yarn. I didn’t take pictures of most them. I also didn’t take photos of the plant vendors, where I bought tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, potatoes, and basil.

Finally, as I promised, I didn’t go looking for yarn, but my plan was to remain open to a skein or two speaking to me. Well, here’s the one that shot straight to my heart:

This is Coquette Sock Yarn from Bumblebee Acres Fiber Farm. It’s a Corriedale/nylon blend. And the obvious reason this yarn was able to call out to me? The colorway is Soot Sprites 💜 Rainbows.

It’s like they knew me, don’t you think?