Maryland Sheep and Wool
May 7th, 2008
Wow.
We had a hunch that this year, at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, a few more people would know about Ravelry than last year… but really, there was no way to prepare ourselves for what happened this past weekend. We got a great big dose of Ravelry love at MDS&W - our voices are hoarse from talking to everyone we could at the Ravelry meetups and party, and our cheeks still hurt from smiling nonstop.
Saturday Meetup
We arrived at MDSW on Saturday just in time for our meetup in the Rabbit Building. As we walked to our location, we saw over 600 people in and around the building, looking toward us and smiling (and clapping!) as we walked closer. What a greeting! We handed our Ravelry username buttons and avatar stickers to our amazing group of Team Rav volunteers - they took on the daunting task of finding the avatar stickers that Casey had printed out and passing out the username buttons so that the three of us had the time to talk to all the lovely users who had turned out to say hello.
It was so much fun to meet so many of you in person, to hear about local meetups that grew out of Ravelry groups, and to connect the faces (and voices!) with the avatars, projects, stashes, and friendly forum posts we’ve admired for so long. Meeting so many users all at once was an incredible experience - to everyone that came by, thank you!
The kind words and hugs and smiles we got have given us so much motivation and energy - we just can’t tell you enough how special it was to meet you all!
Ravelry Party: Saturday Night
Saturday night was our big event: the Ravelry Party at the Sheraton. We’ve been planning this party from afar for some time, and it was even more fun than we could have hoped! Ravelers sure like to have a good time, and our sponsors made this wonderful party possible for everyone.
Once again - huge, huge thanks to our party sponsors: our premium Buffalo sponsor, Buffalo Gold; our Cashmere sponsors, kpixie.com, Namaste, and The Sweet Sheep; and our Merino sponsors, Jamieson & Smith, Potter Craft, The Loopy Ewe, Lorna’s Laces, Bijou Bison Ranch, and Unicorn Fibre Wash.
For all the sponsors who could come to the party, we hope you had a fantastic time; for all of you who were unable to attend, we just wish you could have seen in person what your contributions made possible! I missed getting a picture of Missa from Kpixie.com (darn!) but here are Michelle (The Sweet Sheep) and on the right, Eileen and Carl (not pictured) from Bijou Basin Ranch and Ron Miskin and his wife from Buffalo Gold:
It was a truly incredible night - we had 400- 500 people at the party, all happy, all having a good time, and the Ravelry community spirit was palpable. We said hello to as many people as we could, thanks again to the fantastic work done by our amazing Team Rav volunteer army, who helped us schlep boxes and set up the party in our beautiful location, handed out buttons and stickers (again) with the drink tickets and door prize tickets, organized the beautiful door prize table, listed them for us so that our giveaway went smoothly, watched the time to make sure we had our giveaway as scheduled, and managed to have some fun and party a little bit, too!
Even Frecklemom was on hand to help out!
Thank you to everyone who helped us out over the course of the weekend - we could not have done it without you. You rock.
When we got up halfway through the party to thank our sponsors, give away our door prizes, and draw the names of the Ravelraiser Dream Stash winners (with JulieFrick!), we looked down to see a room packed full of people, smiling at us and each other. We had a good amount of time to appreciate the view too, as our sponsor and friends were so generous in donating so many great prizes to the giveaway!
The night was a real reminder of the amazing community that Ravelry has become - thank you so much to everyone who spent the evening with us! We’re pretty sure the Sheraton is still a little surprised at exactly how many drink tickets our “little knitting and crochet event” used up. ;)
Sunday Meetup
The festival on Sunday was less crowded in general - and this was true of the Ravelry meetup, as well. The weather was perfect, the skies were blue, and we had tables and chairs set up. There was plenty of room to walk around and really talk to everyone who stopped by.
Once again, we met such nice Ravelers and spent the whole rest of the day smiling and recapping stories from our fabulous members. It is really a pleasure to get to meet you all in person at these events - fun to see real, cheerful people and just think, awestruck, about our huge, wonderful community. We can’t even try and predict how many people will stop by our meetups and party next year - but we really can’t wait to find out!
Pictures, etc.
If you would like to check out more pictures from the meetups and Ravelry Party, please check out our Ravelry Events Flickr Group. If you have pictures from these events that you would like to share, please add them to the pool!
A quick note (not quite as cheery): we wanted to help spread the word from Ravelry user colormaker - she posted in the MDSW group that a shawl from a Clara Parkes‘ book was stolen from the Brooks Farm booth first thing on Saturday morning. We really hope that this was some kind of accident - that it got hooked on a backpack or something - and if anyone has any information, please contact Clara and let her know! Thanks, everyone!
Mary-Heather, Casey and Jess :)
May 7th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I wish I could’ve been there! It sounds like such a great time! You will have to head up to the Pacific NW some time.
May 7th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I am still reeling from the amazing weekend! Loved every minute of it!!! so happy to see you, Jess, and to meet Casey and M-H! such fun times :) xox
May 7th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
What a GREAT time!!! And I met so many GREAT people! Thanks for letting me be a part of the Team Rav army! And a special thanks to those folks we roped in at the last minute!
May 7th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
I had such a great time at the party - so thanks guys! It’s amazing how much the Sheraton underestimated the crowd this party would pull in. :)
May 7th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
I can’t wait for the first time I get to meet the Ravelry community in person, it sounds so amazing! Thanks for all the hard work, Casey, Jess, Mary-Heather, and everyone else who helped out!
May 7th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I wish I could have been there! Next year!? I’m so happy it all went so well!!! YAY!
May 7th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
SO MUCH FUN!!!! What a great group of people. We didn’t make it to the meet-ups at the festival grounds (and looking at the pictures it looks as though it was pretty crowded), but the party on Saturday night was great! You guys did a wonderful job.
May 7th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Sounds like you had a great time and finally have an idea of what an impact you have had on the ‘yarn’ community. Can’t wait to see you all in the fall at Rhinebeck! Meanwhile, keep up the good work and if you need help with Rhinebeck, feel free to contact me! Rock on guys!
May 7th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
so, you’re coming up to nh sheep and wool this weekend, riiiiight? it’s only 1 1/2 hours from boston…..
May 7th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
..sounds lovely! Bummer it was so far away. I don’t suppose there is any way we can convince you to do something in the PNW as Carol suggested? :D
I love Ravelry! Y’all ROCK!
May 7th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
It’s so sad when someone steals something. I had to miss MD this year but last year my DD and I tried to chase down a woman that we clearly saw steal a shawl from a booth. We didn’t succeed and felt so bad for the vendor. I still feel angry when I think about that.
May 7th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Sounds like you had the best time ever! Don’t suppose you’d consider doing “Ravelry - the World Tour”? We’d love to see you Down Under in Australia :-)
May 7th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Sooooooooo many raverly people there - what a great turn out - this was my first year at the event…so glad ravelry had a good showing - you guys deserve it for all the work you’ve put into the site & event. kudos! see you next year! marg (traveled with Knit One of Pittsburgh PA group)
May 7th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Looks like a faboo time.
May 7th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Jess, you sure write a “mean” (Canadian ling for “Great!”) article! Would have loved to have been there! When are you guys coming to Canada?
May 7th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Wonderful! I was thinking of you all over the weekend, wishing I could be there. Thanks for sharing the pics! Sounds and looks like a good intense dose of direct human contact and appreciation was shared… always a good thing, especially when you have to regularly spend a good part of your day in from of a computer or server, troubleshooting problems and necessarily focusing on improving and growing things. I am truly glad you had as opportunity to stop and smell your roses. Good for the soul! Maybe I can make it next year! Keep up the wonderful work; you’re doing a wonderfully fabulous job! Thanks!!! ~Pip
May 7th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
It was so great to meet everyone who makes Ravelry such a magical place - Jess, Casey, Mary-Heather, all the helpers, and so many of my fellow Ravelers. I look forward to spending lots of time with Ravelry!
May 7th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
I love you guys! Thanks for such a fabulous party and weekend. It was awesome.
May 7th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Like others have said, you gotta come to some of the other festivals out there — Estes Park Wool Market and Taos Wool Festival are the two biggies near my neck of the woods . . .
May 7th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
So sorry I missed the party! I’m very new to Revelry and am so hooked already!
Are there any plans for Rhinebeck in October - because that’s one event I will not miss!
Great work!
Carol
Gardenspinner
May 8th, 2008 at 12:16 am
I just wanted to say that I had a great time at the S&W, and that I really, really appreciate the fact that you guys took the time to organize a meetup for what was most likely way more people than anyone would have thought possible, and I want to thank you for the party afterwards as it was just an excellent, chill time! As a semi-new knitter (only for three years here folks), Ravelry has opened my eyes to new styles of the craft and has helped give me the confidence (mostly through the writings of others on this huge internet meeting place) to try and tackle projects that I would have previously thought beyond my scope! So, yay! Thanks for Ravelry and everything you guys do for us!
May 8th, 2008 at 12:20 am
hugs to all three of you. You’re fabulous, dahlings, and I miss you already.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Super fun meeting all of you! Thank you (1,000) for the fun party, the drinks, the buttons!
May 8th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
so awesome to hear the events went so well. Big Congrats!
May 8th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
What a great night it was! Thanks to the entire ravelry team, you all rock.
May 9th, 2008 at 9:08 am
NH Sheep and Wool is this weekend, any chance you’ll be hanging around?
May 9th, 2008 at 9:08 am
NH Sheep and Wool is this weekend, any chance you’ll be hanging around?
May 9th, 2008 at 10:35 am
This weekend was my first time at MD and it was wonderful. I was amazed by how many people were wearing Ravelry buttons! We arrived too late and didn’t get ours (supply ran out) but our group is already talking about Rhinebeck. :) Thanks again!
May 9th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
looks like fun. glad you had a great turn out!
May 12th, 2008 at 7:22 am
Amazing to find the group is soooooooo large. I’ve been knitting and crocheting awhile in various groups here on the net, mostly charitable ones; but had no idea anthing of this magnitude—organized existed.
Occassionally someone would mentioned Rav. in a post and I would wonder about it; tried to find it one day; but, saw it was invitation only, and a waiting list, which made me think it a pretty closed group.
This morning a fellow blogger explained a bit more, and told me how to find the main site etc. I’m que’d up behind several thousand others.
Baaaaaaaaa
Sandy
Looks like the wkend was a huge success and lots of fun
May 12th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Did you really print out everyone’s avatar? OMG
August 18th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Hi –
This was my first visit to Sheep & Wool and it was such an eye opener. I could not manage a straight path anywhere. Loved the knowledge gained and the increase in my passion for knit projects.
Looking for the vendor that was selling the Obaaaama T-shirts. Did a search in Google and only get the one with the one sheep in a circle. I loved the one with several sheep and the thought cloud that said “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
If anyone knows please send me a mail — thanks!
August 18th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Oops! lindahammon7@aol.com
August 20th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Hi, just noticed that you posted recently, I am going
to the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY in October and will grab you a card and
email you with the info but you have to wait a few months. I also wondered whether Jessica and Casey will
be there?