So this year I convinced my (knitting-but-non-blogging) friend Heather to join me in the madness that would be driving 3 hours to Maryland and then staying with 12 other bloggers in a hotel room for an evening. We left at 7am on Saturday morning and made good time to Maryland. As I was told the slowest part of the trip was turning into the fairgrounds. When we arrived we were greeted by a field of more cars than I imagined I would see at the festival.

I will post pictures of my haul tomorrow when I can take pictures in daylight

The first place we hit was Tess yarns. This is the most vibrant colored yarn I've ever seen! I bought some microfiber ribbon yarn. Everyone who saw me carrying this that talked to me about it said two things: 1.) That's a beautiful colorway and 2.) BE CAREFUL WINDING THAT.

After hitting the Tess booth we met up with Jessica, Kate, Maya and Sarah. I met Jess at Rhinebeck for the first time, but had never met Kate, Maya or Sarah. Its so great to meet bloggers in person and find out that -- yes you will get along in real life and that they are as cute, funny, happy, perky, whathaveyou in person as they are on their blog.

Heather and I took in some border collie demonstration after that and then ran into Anne Marie and Betsy. More blogger goodness. These girls are hilarous. After seeing Jessica's sock yarn madness, I bought some Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn in a manly colorway for the mister. I figure it's about time I knit him something. Then it was time for lunch (yummy gyro) and the blogger meetup arranged by Cara.

So. Many. Bloggers. I only knew about 15 of them. It really made me think that reading knitting blogs could seriously be a full time job. I'm amazed at the amount of knitbloggers out there and I also realize that there is no way my bloglines list could get longer if I plan on holding down a day job. At the blogger meetup I finally met Lolly in person and met up with the other girls we were sharing a room with: Lara, Sarah, Paula, and Amy.

The bloggers I met for the first time were awesome. And I didn't realize how much I missed the ones I got to hang out with for a second time (since Rhinebeck). This blogging thing is really cool sometimes and sometimes you don't really realize it until you see a ton of knitbloggers on a grassy field getting to meet each other for the first time!

After the blogger meetup, the shopping continued and I purchased a hank of boucle mohair from Pucker Brush before heading to the mother ship that is Brooks Farm. If you've ever been exposed to Brooks Farm you understand that its really difficult to make it to that booth without buying several hanks. I walked away with a hank of Duet and two of Four Play. I had to restrain myself from buying more.

After Brooks Farm as we were walking through one of our last barns I ran into Every Word's a Purl Carrie. I started reading Carrie's blog relatively recently and had hoped to run into her so it was exciting to see her, recognize her, and then say hello!

The last purchase I made of the day was beautiful alpaca that I think was a steal (is $44 for 1300 yards of sportweight black alpaca a deal?). It is the softest yarn ever. I loves it. I bought i from the Delly's Delights booth, but they don't have a great website to link to. They were, however really nice and had beautiful yarn.

Things I wanted to buy but didn't - neon lime green and purple lorna's laces sock yarn, all the Morehouse Farm kits, a pair of shearling slippers (though I did buy a pair for my mom for mother's day) and numerous farm animals such as angora rabbits, pygmy goats and alpacas.

I have to wrap this up now but I'll post pictures of my purchases and blog more about Saturday night later this week.