Mega Stash Enhancement

Mom and I have returned tired, achey and poor from Rhinebeck. We actually visited a couple other stash enhancement establishments (SEES) along the way and marveled at the gorgeous, near peak fall colors from the Cape, thru the Berkshires, to the foothills of the Catskills.

A major storm was brewing Friday; we drove through changeable skies...one minute raining, the next sunny, the next overcast. We were glued to the Weather Channel Friday evening hoping things would clear up for Saturday...we lucked out...it was a gorgeous day. Many thanks to mom for driving...this enabled me to get lots of knitting done BOTH ways.

Along the wayI finished the first Loskins sock...

Dashboard Confessional...

Making Progress...

VOILA! C'est fini!

And here are some of the fall colors I was alluding to...

It was a busy couple of days...mom and I stopped at Wonderful Things in Great Barrington, MA. Mom has heard it was a "wonderful yarn shop." It was quite interesting...I've never seen some many DIFFERENT kinds of yarn in one shop. However, the store was strangely laid out, difficult to navigate; prices were posted in alpha order in each "room" but some rooms had entire pages of yarn prices missing. Also there were tons and tons of patterns, but with no kind of system other than by manufacturer. I asked for a simple glove pattern and got very little direction...the woman working said to me, "people aren't really making gloves anymore..." I purchased a couple of skeins of a Colinette Cadenza Yarn that is about the weight of Kersti...the shop was nice enough to throw in a free pattern for a baby Kimono. This yarn was $11 a ball...cheap for Colinette. I purchased one of my fav colorways, "Fire." I also bought some great rosewood needles. But honestly, I couldn't wait to get out of there...I won't return.

Next stop, The Sheep Shop aka Morehouse Merino's shop. I told mom, this shop is literally at the "fork in the road."

Sadly, blogger is having issues with photo uploads at this time; so I'll finish with the narrative and post some more photos from the weekend later.

Mom and I loved the Morehouse Store. Unlike last year when Wendy and I went AFTER spending the day at Rhinebeck WHEN IT WAS MOBBED, Mom and I received amazing customer service AND I was able to score some great yarn for a vest out of the sale bin...for $4 a hank (I needed 5 for the vest! What a steal!) It was nice not to have to fight our way around people to get a look at things. What I also love about Morehouse is their kits; they really give great inspiration and make it easy to shop and plan for holiday knitting. I scored some really cute scarf kits for the Wynne kids; the boys are getting dragons and Sammy is getting a purple catepillar.

We met my old friends Tige and Annemarie for dinner and honkered in for the night. I wish I could say I slept better, but the combo of mom's snoring and my excitement did not make for a restful night.

We headed to the Eveready Diner at 730am for breakfast *YUM*** and were at the Fairgrounds at 825am. We parked in the 4-h lot and were able to get in early. We made a b-line for The Fold and mom and I both purchased some STR. I also got the last gift for my secret pal. We also hit Brooks Farm and mom is now a Brooks convert! I'd been telling her about this yarn forever and I was so happy she fell in love with it.

My biggest purchase was a new ball winder. It is not your typical ball winder. It is amazing. Can't wait to share the photos...Mom got a new swift too, so changing those skeins into balls was NO BIGGY last night.

We spent the rest of our time in Rhinebeck meandering around the booths. The festival seemed very crowded by 11am. Lots of strollers (yuck!) and rude people...more crowded than last year. The other thing I noticed was just how big spinning is getting...there was SO MUCH for spinning, roving, wheels, carders. Also, weaving seems to be getting bigger too! We visited with some of the animals; sheep, angora goats, alpacas, llama's, a gorgeous border collie and a few bunnies. We also really enjoyed the frisbee dog demonstration and the guy juggling fire.

The deep fried pickles were there again-but my favorite food was the apple; dipped in caramel; dipped in chocolate!!!! Holy crap it was good. We also had cider that had been pressed just a day earlier. Although it was really warm out, there was still a taste of fall in the air.

On the way home, I continued knitting. I have a scarf I've been fooling around with with I'm calling "Variations on a Theme by Grumperina" or "A Jaywalker Scarf." I'm knitting it in STR colorway, Rooster Rock. It is gorgeous and I can't wait to share photos and the pattern. It's perfect for all of us that couldn't quite get the socks over our ankles...

We are back on Cape now and spent some time recup'ing in the hot tub. Like I said, more photos to follow once blogger repairs the photo uploader...