We visited the museum back in August and enjoyed it. I had checked out their events and class calendar (I wish we were a little closer, their classes all look great) and noted their biggest event was in October. Since it was nice weather this past weekend we thought we thought it was worth a drive.

We went to Flying Fibers and then drove about 25 more minutes to the museum. I wasn’t sure what to expect, the descriptions were a little vague—food, demonstrations, pumpkins—and it said it was family friendly. Family friendly is great but when you don’t have kids it can be a red flag—is it code for “this is really for toddlers”? We came up with some back up activities in nearby Ephrata and figured it was worth the risk.

I’m glad we went! It was actually a lot of fun. It was kid friendly and they had some small kid activities but it was largely groups of adults and older elementary or middle school aged children. One little girl was dressed in an old fashioned dress and bonnet with a cloth doll and seemed very excited to be there which was fun to see.

Neither of us were really expecting vendors but there were a lot of niche vendors what sold niche crafts and were showing off their goods. we bought a sassafras bowl/dipper from a cooper (who also teaches coopering at the museum at times!), some wool from a spinner, had a long chat with a woman who canes chairs (my husband now really wants to do this) and a woman who made jewelry out of human and horse hair like Victorian hair work. I think she might be a good speaker for my weaving guild next year! It was very interesting to see the weaving process. There were also farmers with pawpaws and different types of apples, potters and gourd artists. One table was selling tape looms (even fancier than the ones we had bought at the museum before with an extra decorative hole section), pot pie noodle rolling pins (I was tempted) and other wooden handcrafts.

The museum had a lot of artisans out doing cooking demos in the wood ovens, butchering and making scrapple over a wood fire, apple cider pressing and the Lancaster Weaving and Spinning Guild was there. They talked to us about their sheep to shawl competitions in the PA Farm show and we bought one of the shawls they made during practice runs. I never really thought about them practicing but it makes sense, it’s basically a relay race but with sheep and wool!

The woman we talked to suggested I join the guild because they have frequently talks with guest speakers and it’s all over Zoom. Apparently they have some members who live further out in PA and only make the big in person events so my hour or so away in MD isn’t that big of a deal. Honestly, it is quicker for me in Northern Baltimore City to get to the Lancaster area than it is to get to the area where the “Greater Baltimore” weaving guild meets/holds their shows heading down towards DC/Columbia.

I went ahead and joined. I can’t imagine I could come to too many in person activities but their offerings are plentiful and still largely online. The woman told us how having them via Zoom has been a boon because they don’t have to pay for travel and lodging for their guest speakers because people can remote in from anywhere. I love my current guild and of course will remain a member there but for $25, the membership benefits of the Lancaster guild are great. They even have a private YouTube channel with old classes on it.

I’m really glad we went! It was a beautiful day, everyone was so nice, we were so inspired and I even foraged some black walnuts to try to dye some yarn for my local guild’s dye challenge.