The Finished Product

As promised and better late than never - a drum roll please - our Turkey!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Montpelier!

Hay, what did you do this weekend?

Andy and I went to the Montpelier Fall Fiber Festival in Montpelier Station, VA.  It's a lovely drive through rolling hills and countryside that we enjoy.  The leaves are just starting to turn here so there was a bit of color here and there.

Montpelier is by far our favorite festival.  It's really low key and everyone is laid back and happy.  You can find fibers and yarns that are hard to come by and lot's of unique ones as well. 

I entered my Holden Shawl in the Handspun Hand Knits Wearable division and it received second place.  This was really exciting and quite an honor.  One of the ladies working at the fiber arts display said that there were twice as many entries as there had been in past years. 

This is Judith modeling her hand dyed shawl.  Can you guess what she used for dye?  I never would have figured it out.  She went to a workshop where she learned how to dye with mushrooms.  Every color in this stunning shawl came from a mushroom.  I have to tell you that this was a hot topic in the car on the way home!

What would a fiber festival be without sheep?  This little gal is one of Heidi Passino's Shetland Sheep.  If we had land for animals we would have several sheep from Heidi.

This is a needle felted wall hanging that was entered in the fiber art's competition.  I love how the artist incorporated locks on the body of the sheep.

A wrap with hand spun angora yarn and emu feathers

The picture of this rug hooking doesn't do it justice, it was just fantastic in person!

This is a 6' tall hand felted wall hanging.  It was outside of one of the vendors tents.

Andy spotted this lovely arrangement in the fiber arts tent.  We have a little wheel like this and I think it would be great to use for a floral arrangement.

 

What Dreams May Come

I had a really horrific health scare late in the summer that required a biopsy.  There were sleepless nights for my husband and I before and after and quite frankly a lot of worry. 

A couple of nights before the biopsy I had a vivid dream where Anne Hanson told me that if I joined her Fall in Full Colors club my breast would be fine. 

Now, Im not into reading into your dreams or fortune telling or anything like that.  But I figured, what the hell.  It's yarn and patterns by one of my favorite designers, how could I go wrong?

Well, Im not saying that the Fall in Full Colors club has magical healing powers, but my biopsy turned out just fine. 

The last time Andy and I were out on the boat the leaves were just starting to turn a beautiful yellowish green.  With the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains the colors were spectacular!  I was thinking that it would be great to find yarn in these colors:

Since I work for Kristi I knew the September shipment would be Shalimar Breathless.  But I had no idea of the color.  There was such a happy dance when this arrived:

Fantastic, yes?

The pattern to go with it is for Hazeline a stunning shawl.  I can't wait to get started on it and will be winding the yarn today.  I have one cuff left to finish on the Vodka Gimlet that Im doing in Honey Worsted Black Truffle and then will get to cast on for the Hazeline.  Im proud of myself for showing restraint and not casting on until the Gimlet is finished.