Out and About

The last couple of weekends have been busy...and a lot of fun! We've had a chance to spend time with our favorite people...knitters.

First, we were in Austin, Texas at Hill Country Weavers for the beginning of the Best Little Yarn Crawl in Texas. What a great place! And what a great group of knitters! We had a blast. If you are ever in the Austin area, go. It is a fantastic yarn shop, and the staff are all incredible.

The best part is, they are moving to an even bigger place at the beginning of the year. Suzanne very kindly took us over and showed us around the new space...and wow! I can't wait to go back and see it all finished and full of yarn and knitters:)

Last weekend we spent an evening at DeGray State Park Lodge with the Roving Fibers Adventures retreat group. Most were from the Dallas/Fort Worth area, but we had a couple of Arkansas gals in there. We had a special pop-up shop for them.

We had a terrific time and the weather was so perfect! It was cool enough for sweaters and everybody knit, knit, knit. Kim and Diana were wonderful to work with, knowledgeable and fun.

It's always good to take a yarn-filled trip or two in the fall:)

Hill Country Yarn Crawl

I'm excited to announce that we will be at Hill Country Weavers for the annual Hill Country Yarn Crawl. The crawl takes place October 7-16, 2016, and this is the 10th year. There are 19 shops in and around the Austin and San Antonio areas of Texas that are participating.

We will be at Hill Country Weavers for the kickoff weekend - Friday & Saturday, October 7 & 8 - as their featured dyer.

So, if you're planning to be in the area, stop by and say hello...we'd love to meet you!

New England in the fall

A carpet of gold leaves in Bennigton, Vermont

After Rhinebeck, we headed a little further Northeast to Vermont & New Hampshire.

We returned to a few of the places we stayed on our first trip, and added a couple of new ones. There just wasn't enough time to head to Maine, which was kind of a bummer, but it worked out all right in the end, as you'll see.

One of our favorite places from our last trip to New England was Woodstock, Vermont. So it was really great to see it in the fall. We got there just a little past "peak" but it was still beautiful, and the weather was absolutely perfect. Sweater weather:)

Woodstock, Vermont

We got to stop at King Arthur Flour, which I loved. I may have purchased a few things there:) And we had a great pastry and tea as we watched the bakers work.

We headed over to Hanover, New Hampshire and got to see a little of the Dartmouth campus, which was neat. From there we headed to Portsmouth, New Hampshire for a couple of days. Portsmouth is a great town with tons and tons of shops, restaurants, bakeries and breweries in the downtown area. We also visited the historic area of Strawberry Banke, which was fascinating, being the history nerds we are!

Strawberry Banke

Bonus: Maine is just over the bridge from Portsmouth...so we walked over to Maine (Kittery, Maine) and had tea and scones. It was perfect:)

On the way back through New Hampshire, we stopped at Harrisville Designs and I got a couple of skeins of Brooklyn Tweed Loft and two skeins of HD Watershed.

We're already planning our next trip, although we're definitely looking into other options besides driving. Maybe a little train trip? I'm already looking into that:)

Rhinebeck 2015

We went to Rhinebeck!

This was my first time attending the NY Sheep & Wool Festival, and boy, it was crowded! We got to the fairgrounds about 15 minutes before opening on Saturday and joined a long line of knitters and spinners patiently waiting for the gates to open.

I don't think we could have ordered a more perfect day. It was cold, crisp and sunshine-y. Perfect fiber festival weather!

We sampled some fair food (apple cider donuts & maple cotton candy), took lots of pictures of sheep,  saw lots and LOTS of hand knits, and bought just a few things:

I got a needle keeper for my interchangeable circular needles from CrippenWorks. Jimmy got a drop spindle from Jonathan Bosworth (it's curly maple), and I bought one little skein of yarn from North Light Fibers. It's a cashmere/merino blend and it's super soft.

After a few days in the Hudson Valley, we were moving on to Vermont & New Hampshire. I'll share a little about that next week!

DFW Fiber Fest Recap

Wow, what a weekend! We had a terrific time at DFW Fiber Fest in Irving, Texas, and I pretty much call the whole weekend a rousing success. We met lots and lots of knitters and spinners, podcasters, indie dyers and designers. 

We had a 10' x 10' booth this time, and if there was one thing I would change for next year, that would be it. I will definitely plan to move up to a double booth. You can only fit so many people in such a small space! 

The entire staff at DFW was fabulous, and it was obvious how much hard work they put into making this such a great event. They deserve a huge round of applause for their efforts. 

We didn't get to hear either speaker (Stephanie Pearl-McPhee or Franklin Habit), but I heard they were both terrific. No surprise there. As a matter of fact, I didn't get to do much of anything except sell yarn and fiber:)  I'm a little stunned that I didn't even buy one skein of yarn(!). But by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around and it was a little quieter, I was too tired to look!

I did buy a few wooden buttons...my only purchase!

And now I'm going to take a couple of slow weeks and enjoy the fast approaching spring. And do a little knitting:)

Fiber Festival - Take Two

We're off this week to the DFW Fiber Fest! This is our second time vending at a fiber festival, and our first time at a large gathering. I'm excited and nervous in pretty much equal amounts.

There's always the desire to have more product. More yarn, more fiber...more stuff. But we have to balance that with what will fit in our car:)

Any way you look at it..it's a road trip. And I love road trips. The shop is in vacation mode for the festival, and it'll re-open on Wednesday, March 25. We'll be re-opening the Fiber Club and lots of other goodies.

In the meantime, you can see pictures of the weekend on my Instagram feed. If you're not following me, come on!

The way life should be

Maine!

Clockwise from the large picture:

The famous Maine rock at the entrance to Baxter State Park

Sand Beach in Acadia National Park

Bar Harbour's harbour :)

Jimmy hiking up Mount Katahdin

An erratic along the shore walk in Bar Harbour

Jimmy braving the 50 degree water at Sand Beach (We both did it!  It hurt!)

Shops along a street in Bar Harbour

Another view of Sand Beach from a hike we took

More New England Sketches

These are from the Hand Book sketchbook I got just for the trip.  I'm really enoying this sketchbook....I know I'll be buying more of them.  The paper takes watercolor just great and it's a perfect size.

I'm still working on sketches in this book, but here are a few :

more to come...!

Summit

Hiking in New England was a fabulous thing.  This time of year, hiking around here is an exercise in creative sweating.  I actually had on a long sleeve shirt on this hike, and was perfectly comfortable!

Sketching New England

I had the same experience as this talented lady when it came to sketching on location during our vacation.  I only completed one sketch on site!  Even though it wasn't a "sketching" vacation, i.e. I knew we would be doing a lot (sketching in between), still I thought I'd get a few sketches done on the trip.

But, I have lots (!) of pictures in my head I'm working to get down on sketchbook pages.  It's slow going, though.

I worked on a little journal for a several weeks before we left.  Kind of a planner and sketchbook combo to record all our stops and plans, as well as a few pages just for sketches.

The first pages had our packing lists, itinerary and hotels/inns/camping reservations :

I did a page that showed what our planned route would be.  That ended up getting changed a little bit, but we did see all the stops we had planned on seeing.

I also bought my first Hand Book sketchbook for the trip, and did a cover page before we left.  I'll have a few of those pages next week.

Views from New England

I can honestly say this was the best vacation of my life.  We had such a great time and saw so many beautiful things, it's hard to pick just a few photographs.  Below are just a few of the highlights :

Acadia National Park - Great Head hike...looking at Sand Beach

Bennings Farm near Woodstock, Vermont
Beautiful Jersey Cows in the spring sunshine

Strolling around downtown Bennington, Vermont
We woke up to 42 degree temps (!) and had a lovely, brisk day

In the middle of Acadia National Park at Jordan Pond
We hiked as much as we could while in Acadia.

The famous LL Bean boot outside their flagship store in Freeport, Maine
We could've spent thousands of dollars in there!

A spectacular view while hiking around Monhegan Island

A covered bridge in the center of town in Woodstock, Vermont
We got to drive over several covered bridges on this trip...a first for us!

New England

We're back from our big trip to New England (it was love at first sight!)

Here's a glimpse of a typically New England harbour :

I'll be sharing more about our trip and some sketches in the next couple of weeks.

Acquisitions

During our little trip to NW Arkansas, I made one yarn related stop.  ( I would've made another, but the shop was closed.)  I had a delightful visit to Mockingbird Moon in Bentonville.  And sure enough, I acquired yarn :

The shop owner was lovely and friendly, and they had a nice selection of yarns - several of which I'd never seen in person.  One was Spud & Chloe, and I purchased a couple skeins of their Fine Sock...it's the purple yarn in the photo above.  Another was Imperial Yarn from Imperial Stock Ranch, which I resisted.  But I love that it's made in the US.

Other purchases were Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere (that's the beautiful, vibrant green),

Classic Elite Vail, which I couldn't stop petting.  It comes in 8 natural colors and boy, was it hard to decide.   I would've loved to grab one of each color, but I chose Sand, which I'm pretty sure is destined to be a lace cowl.  And a few skeins of Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport - one of my favorite yarns.  

All in all, I was pretty restrained.  I have plans for everything I purchased, which makes me happy.  I won't be going to the Arkansas Fiber Arts Extravaganza this year, so this is probably my last yarn purchase for the year.  We're saving all our pennies for our big trip to New England next spring....and there will definitely be yarn purchased on that trip!

Do you buy yarn on vacation?

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Well, we made our visit to Northwest Arkansas and Crystal Bridges, and a great time was had by all!

We enjoyed nice, moderate weather.  Not too hot (yah!), but not very cold (boo!).  But the sun was shining and the breeze was lovely, and it was great to just get away.

Crystal Bridges was interesting...we were probably more interested in the trails and the building itself than the art inside...if you're anywhere in the area it's worth a trip.  And free...did I mention that?  Free.

We walked all of the trails around the museum, some a couple of times.  We saw some cute stuff and enjoyed some lovely landscaping, with lots of local plantings.

Do you take autumn trips?

A Little Fall Excursion

Photo Credit : Kay Gaensier

We're planning a little getaway in a few weeks to Northwest Arkansas.  We usually take our vacation in October.  But this year, we went to Florida back in July as part of my husband's parents 60th anniversary celebration.  So we won't be taking a grand vacation this fall, but it's always nice to just get away for a few days.

We're planning to visit Crystal Bridges, in Northwest Arkansas.  It's big news around these parts, and we enjoy art and hiking.  So we thought we'd check it out.  Probably a little time in Eureka Springs, as well.  And who knows what else....

Of course, I'll be making a couple of yarn stops.  I've been looking at the yarn shops in the area and have found a couple I'm excited to visit.  Yarn shops aren't as plentiful in the south as they are in other parts of the country, so it's always interesting to be someplace where there is more than one every 100 miles!

Mockingbird Moon
This looks like a great little yarn shop!  I'm intrigued by the great photo on the web site, and they appear to have a nice selection of yarns.  If anyone has been here, I'd love to hear your reviews.

The Rabbit's Lair
This is a combo fabric & yarn shop.  It's fall, so I'm all about the yarn right now, but I never turn down looking at nice fabric.

Handheld Knitting
This looks like another great little shop.  They have a nice variety listed on their website, and the pictures indicate it's a good sized shop.

By the way, have you used KnitMap?  I've been using this resource for a few years when we travel, and it's great.  You can plug in the area your heading to, or even heading through, and it'll bring up all the yarn shops in that area.  You can click and get detailed info and oftentimes comments and reviews from folks who've been to the shop.

Now, let's just hope for some true autumn (read : cool) weather for the trip!

Back from the Beach

We've just gotten home from a week at the beach...and boy, was it fun!
Sun, sand and salt air....good stuff.

Road Trip, family memories, vacation food, tacky souvenirs, no news...the whole lot!
Now to get back into the flow of things here at home...