festivals

Two great friends, 3 fibery stops and 1 day away with no commitments = bliss.

That pretty well sums up Saturday.  After a week that was exhausting and personally difficult, what I needed more than anything was a day away.  The stars aligned for me – a colleague was willing to cover my on-call duties for the day and Jenni was up for driving, meaning all I had to worry about was getting in the car and pointing the way.

Jacie, Jenni and I took off early Saturday morning, headed for New Hampshire.  Our first stop – my happy place, Harrisville.  We poked around Harrisville Designs and stopped in the General Store.  From there, it was off to New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival.  Its definitely one of my favorite festivals – not too big, not too crowded but with a nice variety of vendors.  It was, once again, delightful (and dry this year!).  From there, we headed back toward home – knowing we could make it to Northampton to get to Webs’ Tent Sale.  That worked out perfectly – we had a solid hour to shop before they closed, plenty of time to break Jacie and Jenni of their stashdown nonsense score some deals.

Of course, I carried my camera all day and yet still only took 4 blurry pictures with my Blackberry – the best of which is above.  Trust me, if was a fabulous, if dreary, day.  I came home with 3 new projects’ worth of yarn and a strong desire to cast on everything – right this minute.

From left, that’s 2 skeins of Cascade Eco+ from Webs (30% off through May!) for a Hemlock Ring Blanket, a skein of Shelter for a Habitat and Ball and Skein’s Glissade (50/50 merino/silk – of course) for a Daybreak.  I think I’m most in love with the yarn for Daybreak – its a must knit over the summer.

It was a great day away – lots of laughs, lots of fiber and yarn.  Just what I needed.

I’m a little late posting this – work, life, work, etc got in the way…

In a word, the day was GREAT!  So much fun!  There were sheep (and lambs!) and border collies and  bunnies and llamas – llamas who would simply not stay still to have their picture taken but are simply too cute not to share.  There were spinners (like this one – spinning up more of the merino/silk blend I’ve been playing with) and knitters and weavers and all kinds of fiber folk.  Of course, there were friends – so many people that I haven’t seen in months or don’t get to spend enough time with lately.  It was a great day for catching up and hanging out.

And then there was this: Me, doing a dye demo and apparently making funny faces when I hold up yarn and fiber   How I wish I knew what I was saying in the moment!  The crowd was large and fun and asked great questions – thanks to all who came out!

And lest I forget, there was vendors.  I was well behaved (remember that destashing I did recently?  I’d like to maintain something near that – and its only the beginning of fiber festival season).  I only came home with this wee little bump of fiberSurprise!  Its purple!  And 50/50 merino/silk.  I’m happily in a color and fiber rut these days.

What a great kickoff to the spring fiber festival season.  I’m already looking forward to the next one – NH is just over a week away.

I finally made it back to NH Sheep and Wool this weekend.  I think the last time I went was 3 years ago?  Maybe 2.  The memory’s a little foggy pre-coffee – the important thing is that I was there this year.  It was rainy and cold and windy and yet still wonderful.  In fact the whole weekend was just about perfect.

My mother and I drove up to my parents’ place in Vermont on Friday night after work.  Actually, what I should say is that my mother drove.  I knitted.  And dozed.  And knitted some more.  The last time I had that luxury on a long car trip – pre-divorce.  In fact, this continued all weekend.  I wrestled the car keys from my mother for a bit on Saturday, to drive from the festival to Keene – long enough to get a good test drive in of her new Subaru (love!).  It was grand!

I went to the festival on Saturday with my mother.  It was her first fiber festival.  She had quite the introduction – not sure that the weather was what she had in mind.  She enjoyed it nonetheless – loved seeing the yarns and fibers and tools (animals, not so much – barns aren’t really her thing).  She was amazed by the variety and all of the things to play with.  It was fun to see it through her eyes.  I, of course, was in heaven.  Between seeing some of my favorite vendors and some of my favorite people, I was in my glory.  I ran into Nancy and Carole and a few others (again with the pre-coffee fog – I’ll remember all the details around mid-morning).  Of course, there was a little bit of shopping.  I came home with a lovely addition to the stash:

That’s Ball and Skein’s Elise wool-silk blend (more of my favorite blend, yes!) in the Manise colorway and the lovely Ishbel pattern by Ysolda.  The yarn will make the smaller version of Ishbel – which I may do as a test run before doing the large version of it in the alpaca laceweight I recently got from Long Ridge Farm.  So pretty!

The rest of the weekend consisted of knitting, reading (Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert of Eat, Pray, Love fame) and hanging out with my family.  I got to spend a lot of time with my mother, which was a perfect way to spend Mother’s Day weekend.

Bonus – I finished something and made headway another UFO.  More on that tomorrow.