Holy Sheep and Wool! It's Ysolde!!

The highlight of my day at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival came while I was...drum roll...waiting in line for the bathroom. First, here's what I learned about the bathrooms at these things. Because the population is primarily female, there are ALWAYS lines at the ladies' rooms and to calm the unruly hoardes, many of the men's rooms are opened up to women. But you DON'T really want to stand in the line for those particular facilities (unless of course, you want to spend your time schmoozing in line. Don't get me wrong, this is definitely part of the Sheep and Wool experience, but I don't get up at the crack of dawn and drive for and hour and a half to do it.) Why? Because, nature being what it is, the guys get a choice between standing up and sitting down. Consequently, they have twice as many urinals and half as many toilets. No one wants to sit on a urinal, so we stand in line, three times longer. (The math seems counterintuitive, but trust me, I timed it.)

To get back to the story, there I am, standing in line with my daughter, discussing her current project, and silently praying to the Holy Mother of Bladder Control. A young lady goes walking by me in a grey lace cardigan and she stops to talk to Casey, aka. Code Monkey, from Ravelry. I know it embarasses Julie when I talk to strangers, but I have to know. "Excuse me, but your sweater...is that Liesl?" The young lady turns around and I see her face. I couldn't have been more overwhelmed if it had been Mick Jagger. "Oh, my gosh! You're Ysolde!" I stammered and she laughed. Yes, Virginia, it was the famous Ysolde Teague, one of my favorite knit designers, who'd come all the way from Edinburgh, Scotland, to attend the festival. And yes, the sweater she was wearing was Liesl and now I have to make it.

I apologize to Casey for using a photo of him with his eyes closed but the fact is, I took two photos and Ysolde has her eyes closed in the other one. Since she's the subject of the story, I picked this one. Besides, I've taken four or five pictures of Casey in the last two years and he almost always has his eyes closed.