Foliage Pictures

Some days I have to put my hands up around my head to make sure that it is still attached to my shoulders. Last week, when I went to post foliage pictures, I searched through every single floppy disk that I owned (yes, I still have one of those old Sony Mavica’s), wondering how I could have managed to have misplaced them or even worse….gasp…….ERASED them! I had pretty much given up, thinking somehow, I must have deleted them and they were forever gone. Now that there is snow atop Mt. Washington, I figured I would have to wait until next year.

Lo and Behold, as I was cleaning my computer desk top, I glanced at this folder on my screen……FOLIAGE. Oh dear……..are these what I think they are?? Yikes…..they are!!!! I don’t know whether to be excited that I found them or groan because of all of the time that I wasted looking for them,when all the time, they were right in front of me. This is what happens to your typical ADD adult, who manages to pile waaaaaay too many things on her plate for fear of being bored, and then can’t understand why things slap her in the butt every now and then….LOL.

Anyhoo, the opening picture and this second one are pictures of an overlook that we drive past every day on our way into town. It is so pretty throughout all of the seasons. Even during mud season, it is a sight to see the river cresting with all of the snow melt.

Next on Courtney and I’s journey was a stop at the Swift River. Take a few minutes if you can to look at this link……..such lovely scenery surrounds us up here in the mountains! Heck, if you have to drive almost 2 hours to the closest mall, there has to be something in it for us, eh??

In the center of town, there is a little park, that sits right around the corner from the Conway Scenic Railway. Any other time of year, you might pass this little park without even noticing it……but not in the fall. Some of the richest reds and oranges are found in this little resting area.

Finally, Courtney and I are back home. As we step out of the car and prepare to go in the house,…. I stop as I hear the local geese honking in preparation for their winter flight and look towards the pond. It too is so lovely at this time of year……..it is days like these that I stop and say to myself, what a wonderf place and how lucky we are to live here. I hope that you all enjoyed mine and Courtney’s foliage adventure as much as we did.

Presents!!!

Now that foliage has past and the chill of what is to come is in the air, I started my typical whirlwind of fall cleaning. When I had, had enough of that for the day, I trekked over to the post office and found a super package from my Secret Pal III. Some scrumptious olive green merino yarn, a pumpkin spice scented candle and some of that fabulous German candy!! How did you know that fall and all the colors and smells of fall are my FAVORITES?? Such wonderful treats…….thank you!!

Too my unexpected suprise, there was another package waiting for me as well! My fellow blogging friend from Germany…..Jean ….RAOK’D me with these lovely presents.

What fun!! You see a sweet little stuffed sheep key clip, a cute little note pad, both from Diddle and more of that fabulous German Chocloate!!! Thank you Jean!!!

Knitting and Frog Pond
Driving to Rhinebeck, I noticed that my socks for the six sock KAL seemed awfully large. I couldn’t figure out why it seemed so big. When I got home, I went to the computer, to double check the pattern, and quickly discovered my error….I was making a woman’s large size instead of small…hhmmppffff!!!! So off to Frog Pond went I and my Bannister Fluted sock. Good thing I like this pattern! Really, I do like it very much…it is an easy, mindless pattern….good for watching TV or riding in the car. I am loving this Regia Silk that my Secret PalIII sent me last time. It is soooooo soft and silky. I haven’t seen it in the States yet…..let’s hope it comes over!

My own personal Random Act Of Kindness this week

I have finished one of my thrummed mittens and I have to say that I am not enjoying this kind of knitting at all. I guess that I like my rovings for spinning and my yarn for knitting. The yarn is lovely and the dyed rovings are pretty, but I have decided that life is just too short to spend time working on something that is not fulfilling. I used to be of the mindset that no matter how bad the book was, if I started it, by God, I would finish it. However as I grow older, I realize that I would much rather admit defeat and move on to something more enjoyable…….so if anyone would like the remaining yarn, roving and the finished mitten, along with the pattern, they are yours :-)).

And finally, in parting, here is a good opportunity for a lovely pattern and a chance to donate to a good cause. These pink ribbon socks are a free download, although, the author of this lovely pattern hopes that you will consider making a donation to the American Cancer Society, as this is Breast Cancer Awareness month. A lovely, lovely pattern for a great cause!

I hope that you all have a great week!!

NY Sheep and Wool Festival, Rhinebeck NY
What a lovely time we had in Rhinebeck, NY this year! I am absolutely amazed at how much it has grown in the 5 years that I have been attending. I remember my very first year……I was going to just run in and pick up a rabbit that I had purchased. Was I ever mistaken…….there is no JUST running in. I was so completely overwhelmed at all of the fiber…..serious overload…LOL. Once over the shock of just how much lovely fiber and wonderful vendors are at this sheep and wool festival, it has now become one of the highlights of my year.

We start the day, early in the morning, with our hot coffee in our hands and dreams of fiber floating in our heads. I always get a bag of roving from Spinner’s Hill of NH so I went directly to her booth at 9:20 am. Oh No!!!! You are what???? You are sold out???? Oh my!!!!!! She tells me how sorry she is, she knows that I visit her every year, but a few ladies came really early and bought up almost all of her rovings. Hmmppfff!!!!
Being the kind hearted person that she is, she offered to make up anything I wanted, but given that I haven’t finished last year’s stash, I figured it was probably an omen and I would make sure to come back extra early next year.

Over the course of the day, I visited some of my favorite people. Gil Gonsalves of Robin Wheels, unveiled his new traveling wheel. Not quite complete, but fascinating. I will be trekking over to Porter, Me to give it a whirl soon. Next was a visit with Claudia of Countrywool. Claudia owned a very dear rabbit of mine. Lucky Claudia, her Norm Hall wheel was ready for pick-up. I am still on the waiting list, 4 years now, but it will be worth the wait. Norm had a few wheels that he made available for sale and I came close to purchasing a cherry production wheel, but when I sat down to the double treadle Norweigan wheel, I knew that I needed to wait. It spins like a dream! Only 2 more years to wait.

Next on my stops was a trip to Carol Leigh’s booth. Here is where I lost most of my savings. Into my basket was a lovely cherry stand for my 2 foot triangle loom, a really pretty shawl pin, some fiesta LaBoheme and a wonderful exotic wood tapestry beater. Whew………..the feet are gettin tired……time for lunch. Here is a view of the pathway from the food vendors to the festival. The afternoon was spent with more trekking around, but not much spending as the crowds made it almost difficult to concentrate. One of the treats of the day was to run into Norma and Kerstin. Now, I had never met either of these women previously, but I recognized Norma’s Vanilla sweater from her blog (check out her Vanilla Monologues from her Oct. 19th entry…LOL) and very quickly recoginized Kerstin from her blog as well. Kerstin was lugging and hugging, a lovely spinning wheel from my dear friend Gil. It was so fun to meet them and put some faces on the blogs that I so enjoy reading with my coffee in the morning. It is amazing the strength in the community of women that blog……my horizons have increased incredibly! Take a look at their blogs, you will see some great pictures of their experiences in Rhinebeck!

After a long day, we left the fairgrounds for our annual Saturday dinner with some dear friends who just happen to live right outside the gates of Rhinebeck. Great food, wine and conversation got us renewed for a new day of shopping. Hopefully Sunday will calm the crowds a bit.

Sunday was indeed calmer and low keyed. Better for strolling around the festival, not so great for the pocketbook…LOL. There were some more goodies added to the basket and
a good amount of time was dedicated to strolling thru the animal barns. As much as I love my rabbits (and there are many) and I love my dogs, I still long to add those sweet little alpacas to my family. As it is not feasable right now to have the four legged version in my barn, I settled for some lovely alpaca rovings and fleece……….but I keep telling my DH, to prepare……we WILL have those lovely, humming babies in our barn someday and hopefully sooner rather than later…grin.!

Here are some photos of the purchases that somehow managed to leap into my basket over the weekend.

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First the fiber…….A bundle of lucious Rose grey Alpaca from Hampden Hills Alpaca, and nice bagful of soft fawn Alpaca as well. Of course, the fiesta LaBoheme and some great rayon chenille. Enough for a scarf for me and a scarf to sell. 🙂 and finally a skein of hand dyed yarn from my fiend, Ken Abert of Dorchester Farm Angoras. Eeekkkkkk………there is that kitchen that is still in progress, but keeps threatening to be finished soon 🙂

The wood products: Next into the basket were theWood Products. As much as I love the feeling of soft fiber, I also love the patina of a nicely finished wood product as well. So….. into the basket went my Cherry triangle stand, a yarn counter from Serendipity Farm, the lovely tapestry beater from exotic woods, along with a great diz and threader made from Cardinal wood…..darned if I can remember the name of the vendor, but his work is some of the best that I have seen. I was a furniture refinisher in one of my past lives, so I can really appreciate a good wood craftsman. Along with these items is a rosewood circular needle from Susanne……….I have some double pointed needles from the same manufacturer and I LOVE them!! Lastly in the basket were 4 Schacht pirns for my end feed shuttle

and finally, The Glitz……the jewels that lept into my basket. First was a sweet bunny pin that was made by Rachel Badeau of Moosup Valley Designs,along with the great shawl pin from Ram’s head and some lovely beaded stichmarkers. Of course a few secret pal presents were tucked into that basket as well, but they are hiding…hehe.

I hope that everyone had as great of a time as I had and I look forward to seeing old and new faces next year!!!! For a great picture trail of Rhinebeck, please visit this website…….it is great! A must for anyone that was not able to attend the festival this year.

Have fun with all your goodies and as I end this post, I have to give another WOO HOO………the Red Sox have clinched the penant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG……maybe I will see them win the World Series in my lifetime. A girl can dream…….(and chew on those “choke” words that she mentioned to her son, from many years of experience…haha)

I thought that I would share a preview peek of our Rhinebeck trip with you as there is just too much to put into one post. Every year a group of us, heads to Rhinebeck, NY for the NY Sheep and Wool festival. It has become a tradition to leave early on Friday, so that we can visit the folks at Morehouse Merino in Red Hook, NY. As you can see, there are scrumptious yarns, everywhere you turn. The colors, the patterns, the scarves, shawls, mittens, sweaters, hats…………what does a girl choose???
Here is a picture of the goodies that I came home with. First into the basket went a little camisole lace kit with 4 skeins of soft, tempting black laceweight yarn that will be a Christmas gift for my son’s girlfriend. Next was a pattern for a simple lace weight cardigan for me and a really pretty shawl pattern. This is going to be a handmade Christmas…grin. What you don’t see is another nice kit for my Secret Pal III. What you DO see is my kitchen is still in progress. If anyone ever tells you that a kitchen renovation is painless………RUN…LOL!

Morehouse Merino is great place to visit and great fun!!! More on Rhinebeck tomorrow~

BTW…….I found my foliage pictures and that is a story in itself, but I am going to save them for another day after the Rhinebeck news. :-))

Oh Dear!!! I had taken some fabulous pictures this week of what life looks like in the Mount Washington Valley of New Hampshire and when I sat down to make this entry, the disk was nowhere to be found….ggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am hoping that I just misplaced it and did not inadvertently copy over it.

My middle daughter, Courtney and I had fun pretending we were tourists this week, jumping out of the car to snap photographs of lovely foliage as we came upon it. The Valley is literally crawling with tour busses and tourists. Great for the economy up here……..but not so great for traffic. The picture above is a picture of the soccer field that my girls play on. This is the view that we have as we watch our children playing sports……just spectacular, even on a cloudy day, such as it was when I snapped these photos. I so hope that I can find the other photos that were taken in brilliant sunshine, so that I can share a little piece of heaven with you all. It is so hard to describe the incredible overload of color that we are fortunate enough to experience every day. To make this knitting related, I really study the colors and how they infuse together, so that I can try to recreate it when I am dyeing wool.

Knitting News

Now that the fair has finished up, I am trying to get caught up on some projects here. I have started the
Fluted Bannister Socks for the Six Sock KAL. They are being knit up in the lovely Regia Silk that my Secret Pal 3 sent to me. I don’t know if you can purchase this wool in the states as it has come to me from Germany, but let me tell you……..it is a TREAT to work with!!! It literally glides onto the needles. Wonderful stuff!!

Next on the list is the Thrummed Mittens for that KAL as well, hosted by the ever talented Yarn Harlot. I know that there are people out there that think of KAL’s as just a group of followers, however, for me, I view it as a method to get things finished. If I put it into print on my blog, I feel committed to getting the project done, so therefore, this lovely purple yarn and handpainted (by me) roving is coming with me to Rhinebeck. It will be a fun, mindless project for the 5 hour drive.

I am also going to bring another project, in the event that I am bored……I really don’t think that will happen, but a girl can never be too prepared. This lovely Noro is 60% silk and 40% kid mohair. Can you get much better than that??? The photo doesn’t show the lovely shades of blue and olive clearly, so I will take another photo when I am finished with this project. It is going to be a lace/garter stitch mini shawl, from Fiber Trends.

I am looking foward to life slowing down a bit, so that I can start working on some of the longer term projects, such as the vest from Knitters and the Alice Starmore, Innishmore Sweater. Life has just been too busy to work on either of those right now…….but soon!

Here’s to Rhinebeck!!!!!!! Happy Shopping!!!!!

I am so bummed that I forgot to take my digital camera with us, when I took my daughter, Hannah and her friend over to Sweden, Maine, apple picking, so I will share our bounty after the fact with you all. Yesterday was an incredible day up here in the mountains….warm and sunny, with just a hint of fall in the air by late afternoon. The foliage is just starting to turn, here and there. Mostly it is just the Sugar Maples showing their brilliant red leaves, but going just the little bit north that we went for the apples, I can see that it won’t be long before the “Tapestry of Color” begins here too. I remember when I moved here 14 years ago, being so completely overwhelmed by the intensity and amount of color that presents itself in the autumn. I grew up in Massachusetts, so foliage is nothing new to me, but…….oh my…. I will definitly have my digital camera ready to show you all some of the incredible foliage that comes to the Mountains of New Hampshire soon.

Knitting News
I finished the little hat that was on the cover of the latest Spin-off (Fall 2004). I will be sending it up to PSU to my daughter, Ashley, in a little care package. Modeling it for you is my middle daughter, Courtney with Dora. It is a wee bit big on Courtney, so it should fit Ashley just right. A very easy and enjoyable knit!!

Dyeing Disaster

Last week was a dyeing week. I had someone contact me to do up some custom angora/blend dyeing. She was very specific in asking for Crayon Red, Sunny Yellow and Light blue, but not too pale. I was pleased with the results of that dyeing job.

Since I had the dyeing pots out and the Fair IS next week, I thought that I would dye up some of the angora/blend yarn that I had made up last spring. Well………..it wasn’t looking so good. YUK, is the word that came to mind. I took the yarn out and rinsed it and then looked at the other dye pots on my stove and thought:
“Eanie Meanie Miney Moe, in the Red Pot You Will Go~”…LOL.

Actually, I tossed 2 skeins into the pot of red dye and the other 2 skeins into the pot of blue dye.
Seeing that I was liking the red pot skeins more, I took the 2 out of the blue and tossed them into the red…….and this is what I got. Not too bad……not too bad at all :-))

Fryeburg Fair
Fryeburg Fair starts next Sunday!! I can’t believe that the summer has come and gone so quickly. Well……….not THAT quickly with the torn up kitchen..LOL. I love Fair time. The days are warm and sunny and the nights have that pre winter chill. Candy Apples, Onion Bursts, Cotton Candy…….Fried Dough……yum!
In addition to the rovings, here are some of the items I have been working on to sell and for demonstrations. All of the hats I make are made with my angora blended handpun yarns.

I spent a good part of the morning, sipping coffee, listening to classical music and blog surfing. I always get so overwhelmed and awed by the amount of knitting some of you folks get done. However, when I was putting items together for a FO photo album, I realized that I have finished a good amount of knitting, spinning and weaving too this year :-)) You just don’t realize it, until you put it all together.

Next Fair on my Calendar after Fryeburg is my spinning group’s annual trek ………………..RHINEBECK!!! I won’t be working at that one…LOL………I will be “a spending” Woo Hoo!!!

Luxury Rovings!

How’s that for a picture…..LOL!!!!!

I promised pictures of the Lobster bake and what a time we had!! The hostess of the party is married to a huge Jimmy Buffet fan. A few years back, I mentioned how much I missed living on the ocean and eating lobster, so, for my birthday that year, they really did it up with lighted lobsters and lighted clamshells. Dinner consisted of lobster, mussels and lots of Jimmy Buffet music. Although John was not with us this year in person, as he is out at sea as a merchant marine, I am sure that he was with us in spirit, as we celebrated in the traditional Jimmy Buffet way………Cheers John!!!

Wow………..posting 2 days in a row……..whew! Actually, I have decided now that the kids are back in school, that I will try to post a little more regularly, so that I am not writing epithanys.

In the Mail

On Friday, I got 2 packages in the mail :-))). The larger package came to me from Margrett of Running Moon Farm and the bunch of rovings on the floor, came to me from Carole, of TBF fibers on Ebay. I knit hats with Cavaliers on them for our November show, out of handspun and angora, so I am gearing up for spinning time on the spinning wheel!

Friday was such a lovely, crisp day, that I hung some skein to dry. After the yarn is plied on the spinning wheel, I always wet them down to set the twist. The skeins to the left are going to be a vest for me…..(I will post pictures of the pattern from Knitter’s soon) and the skeins to the right will be a neckerchief for the fairs. That is the llama, silk, angora blend that I had been spinning.

The Dancing Competition
Well, I am down 5 pounds since the first of September…….so I am polishing those dancing shoes. Of course, I still have 35 pounds to go, but we are moving in the right direction :-))). I have to figure out a way to make those knitting progress bars work for my weight loss progress. Keeping it online, helps to keep me honest and moving in that forward direction. Motivation, I tell ya, motivation.. 🙂

Tomorrow, I will try to post some pictures of the puppies. They are getting soooooooo cute!!!!! I also hope to post pictures of the Flower Basket Shawl………but we will see what tomorrow brings…Grin.