a singular knitter

After a year of missing both Maryland Sheep and Wool and New York Sheep and Wool festivals, I couldn’t handle the wait leading up to MDSW this year.  Since I didn’t have any purchases that were necessary, we took a different approach than in years past.  This was the year M took the lead… and did she ever.

For every festival we have attended in the past, my mother has joined us – both to help out so there were two of us keeping an eye on M when she was super young, and to enjoy the festivities.  This year, though, my mother opted out so it was just M and I going to our first festival alone.  Oddly, it was also the first festival we went without a stroller….

Losing both my mother and the stroller did present some obstacles – especially including me not having a place to put my growing shopping bags and M not having another adult to distract her.  But M wasn’t phased.  She was so excited to be spending the entire day just the two of us to celebrate Mother’s Day a day early.  What I didn’t expect was her shopping enthusiasm.

Though, really, she is my daughter.  I’m not sure why this was a surprise.  I encouraged her to lead me wherever she wanted to go throughout the fair grounds.  We made it only steps past the gate before she was pulling me into a booth.  Luckily, that was the information booth and I didn’t start hemorrhaging money yet.

Our first several purchases of the day were definitely for M – she fell in love with a basket, a hand-woven coin purse and a stuffed llama within ten minutes.  I then, somehow, managed to convince her we couldn’t buy an entire ceramic tea set at the very beginning of our day as it would likely be broken by the time we would head to the car.

I am incredibly lucky, though.  She hasn’t lost her love of sheep. We spent the majority of our time in the barns staring at and petting all the different breeds and loving every minute of it.

I also can’t complain about M’s love of shopping as she pulled me into several amazing booths to purchase yarn and fiber.  She even helped me pick out a new Jacob fleece – this one only about a pound and much smaller than my last.  I couldn’t justify buying anything larger, since I still haven’t spun up the last Jacob fleece…

Overall, it was everything I needed it to be.  M and I had some serious mother-daughter time and enjoyed being outdoors and surrounded by the things we love.  M’s favorite part? “Walking and spending time with you, Mom.”  (Insert a serious AWWWW face here – because my heart totally melted)