Saturday, May 3, 2008

And the Winner Is..... Me!!!


From Westminster, Maryland:


I Won! Let me explain. My spinning teacher encouraged me to enter one of my skeins of yarn in the Skein and Garment Competition at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. So I chose a skein that met the requirements of the competition, filled out the entry forms, wrote a check for $3.00 and sent the yarn off to the competition officials. Now, I have only been spinning since the end of January and had no expectations about this competition. I did hope to get some feedback from the judges about spinning a better yarn. 

When Sally and I arrived at the Festival at 8:30 AM, I suggested we wait to go to the Bingo Building at the Howard County Fairgrounds (where the competition is held) until later in the morning, when the crowds reach almost gridlock level. So we started visiting some of the hundreds of vendors. As we were walking from one exhibition area to the next, I heard someone call out my name and it was my spinning teacher, Debbie. She asked me if I had been to the competition and I said not yet. She said that I needed to go over there. I then asked about the fair isle sweater she entered. She told me that her sweater won her category, but that I really needed to go over to the building and see the results. I must have paused a minute because that is when she told me that my skein won first place in the Novice spinner category!! I immediately started to cry! I could not and still cannot believe it! 

We hustled over to the Bingo Building and there was my skein, with a blue first place ribbon attached and a big purple ribbon for a special award winner! I cried some more! 

So, Sally and Liz will probably tell you that I have been fairly obnoxious about this today, but I bought them a celebratory drink at dinner, so hopefully they have forgiven my overly excited behavior.

The festival was great. The morning started out cool and overcast, but by the time Liz arrived, shortly after noon, the sun was out the temperature very pleasant. We saw and bought some beautiful things. I'm glad we got some shopping done early, because the vendor areas got very crowded. We watched the working sheepdog demonstration and learned some interesting things about that side of owning sheep. 

Liz came back to the hotel with us and joined us for dinner at a downtown restaurant in Westminster. She just headed back to DC because she got a better offer on how to spend her Saturday night! 

Sally and I will head home tomorrow, with a possible stop at the Outlet Stores near Gettysburg. We still have money in our pockets!! The weather is looking good for the drive home, so we will be able to once again enjoy the spring foliage.

Hope all is well.

1 comment:

Tucker said...

Congrats Mom!!!! Looks like you all had a great trip!