Feeling fall-ish

Fall has arrived in the Capital District of New York. The view out my family room window fills me with awe every time I see the crimson leaves on this tree. My knitting chair sits right in line with these spectacular colors.

Last Saturday was the first fiber festival of the season held at the Washington County Fairgrounds. The scenery on Route 40 on the ride up was breathtaking. The Adirondacks Mountains were clearly visible in the distance.

The farm markets were overflowing with their fall bounty.

 The colors beckoned me to photograph them.

 I almost forgot to shop for some produce because of all the distractions. I did, however, find the sweetest corn on the cob for dinner!

 The residence where my father lives has a feature called "Resident of the Month" and he was chosen for October which coincided with...

 a visit from our Congressman Paul Tonko. He attended a ceremony to recognize the veterans who live at Ingersoll Place and to give special recognition to my father for his service during the Battle of the Bulge and securing the Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen, Germany.

 My Dad, humble as he is, kept asking me why all the fuss. Through tear filled eyes I hugged him and told him because we are so proud of him!

 I'm so happy we got to honor my Dad! He is a very special man and now he knows how special!

 On to our knitting! Last week I neglected to show you some of our FO's. Maureen finished binding off the stitches of her Last Minute Cowl and I forgot to post her picture. Here she is in all her glory.

 Carole's Sanibel Cowl drapes beautifully on the neck. It's a good pattern for tonal dyed yarns, especially hand dyed, since it has a minimal lace pattern. Sometimes a busy lace and multi-colored yarn conflict with each other. I learned that the hard way. From now on I stick with a solid or tonal yarn for intricate lace work to properly show off both and save those crazy printed yarns for stockinette!

 Another Carole FO is her Saroyan Scarf. She used a yarn that has a touch cashmere and angora fibers so it floats like a cloud and feels so soft to the skin.

 I finished my Dream Stripes Shawl after 19 months in hibernation!

 You know how sometimes you just get bored with a project? Well, that's what happened with this one. I was tired of knitting stripes and put it down for a minute to pick up something more challenging and BAM! Over a year went by before I felt ambitious enough to pick it back up again. I feel relief knowing it's done now and can be donated.

Another FO of mine is the Noro Striped Scarf by Jared Flood. I started out using these yarns for a Staci Perry Barber Pole Cowl but found the yarns to be too close in color and kept making mistakes. It was time for plan B and this worked out much better.

 Elaine asked our opinions on how wide to knit her Gaptastic Cowl and was relieved to know we all thought it was wide enough to bind off. Those are a lot of seed stitches to knit!

 Kathleen finished her Amsterdam Lace Shawl. Since she had only enough DK weight yarn for a small scarflette I guess we shouldn't call it a shawl. But that's the great thing about this pattern. You can knit it any size for any need.

 And Kathleen added another warm hat to the inventory. We can never have too many hats!

 Liz finished another Cushy Cowl, a very quick and easy cowl pattern by our friend, Karin Maag-Tanchak. It does not require much yarn and can be knit in a variety of yarn weights, as long as you use the appropriate needle. A word of warning, when you knit this pattern, it looks a bit wonky during the first inch or two. You must knit at least two or three pattern repeats before you start to see the diamond shapes. Then everything falls beautifully into place.

 We took advantage of the warmth and sunshine and sat outside yesterday since there probably won't be many more opportunities for outside knitting this year.

 Cinzia brought some library books for us to browse through for new knitting patterns.

 Kathleen plugged away at her Reversible Stripes Scarf. The greens look great together.

 Carole worked on her Totally Biased Cowl. Does the yarn look familiar? Maybe not, but it's the Jasper yarn from Berroco that Beth used last year. We thought it was all gone but alas! There is more. LOL!

 Speaking of Beth, she finished her Mistake Stitch Scarf. The pattern stitch makes a nice thermal fabric that is sure to keep the chill away.

 Dorah's Sanibel Cowl is almost finished. Just a few more rows and she'll be binding off those stitches.

 And Maureen is back to work full time so she doesn't have as much free time to finish her lovely cowl. But I'm sure it will be beautiful.

 Beth started a pair of mittens last night. They are always a quick knit. Unfortunately, I can't link you to the pattern since I don't know which one she's using. I'll check for next week's post.

We're finally getting a bit of much needed rain around here. So now it really feels like fall. I guess I'll have to hang up the flip flops until next year!

Squeezing in one more day knitting outside and Oktoberfest!

We had a little visitor this week. Elaine's granddaughter delighted us with her invitations to color with her and then showed off her climbing skills with a chair my uncle made for my daughter when she was a baby.

It was good to see Elaine since she's been on "sabbatical" since the spring. We all go through a dry spell where we need to take a break from knitting. Barbara is back from vacation and ready to jump right into her projects again.

Liz worked on her baby blanket and....

brought us two more scarves for inventory.

I finally blocked and finished the button band on the sweater I started almost two years ago and put into hibernation. It fits my daughter perfectly so she'll be the lucky recipient.

I haven't found the perfect button yet but I had a critter brooch that worked for the time being.

DH and I took a ride to Hunter Mountain on Sunday to enjoy the beautiful weather and partake in their annual Oktoberfest festivities. The trees are just starting to change color in this part of New York.

There was quite a crowd when we arrived shortly after noon but we didn't have to wait long for our food.

We enjoyed Greek gyro sandwiches (yes, I said Greek gyros...I'm not a fan of bratwurst, LOL!) and a great Spaten beer accompanied by the cheerful music of the Oompah band.

Afterward we noticed a significant increase in the crowd. It's a good thing we didn't wait to get lunch.

We took the ski lift ride to the summit and the views on the way were spectacular!

At the summit the sun shone brightly.

We made our way over to the zip line station and watched two young fellas race their way into the forest below. It took my breath away when they shoved off and disappeared into the trees. Wow! They were really moving!!!

A kind stranger swapped cameras with me so we could take turns photographing each other.

Why did they have to spoil the scenery with a "frankenpine"? That's what we call those cellphone towers that are "disguised" to look like a tree. Come on! Who do you think your kidding? They always stand hundreds of feet above the natural trees.

I shudder to think people actually travel down these slopes on their feet in the winter! What an angle! YIKES!

It was a beautiful day on the slopes and Mother Nature cooperated with warm temperatures and sunshine.

I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts but I know this mountain will be just as beautiful when the soft white snows arrive.

It's Autumn! Time for Fiber Festivals and Balloon Festivals

Yesterday was a beautiful, warm summer, I mean fall day. The temperatures were in the low 80's so you can see why I would make that mistake. A perfect day to ride up to Greenwich, New York for the 2nd annual Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival.

It was held on the Washington County Fairgrounds and I could smell the wool fumes as soon as I exited the car. They called to me to come and touch and buy.

There were beautiful fibers to spin....

and blend....

and even cocoons to spin your own silk.

Of course there was yarn everywhere too.

I made sure I visited my friend Karin's booth ( http://www.etsy.com/shop/franknit ) to scoop up some of her lovely Periwinkle Sheep sock yarn to make a prayer shawl for a friend. There's my hubby behind her waiting to pay. He's a keeper!

I love to visit the animals who so graciously let us shear their coats. What a regal fellow this llama is. He stood so proudly.

And who can resist those darling angora bunnies?

My son will be disappointed that I didn't bring this little fellow home.

However, I am just allergic enough that I can't knit with angora. What a shame! Their fiber is so soft and warm.

But I'm not allergic to alpaca. Isn't he a cutie?!

This fat guy was too lazy to even look up at the camera. He's not really fat, it's all wool!

My favorite was this gentle giant.

He just laid there staring at me as if to say, "Who are you staring at?"

There were all kinds of demonstrations everywhere. Here a spinner works her magic.

And here's another with a slightly different technique. She is using a drop spindle instead of a spinning wheel.

There was also a hooker! Rug hooker, that is.

She did a beautiful job!

My great-grandmother was a weaver so I especially like to watch the magic that happens when the fabric appears.

Of course, you could purchase already made garments too.

And there were all kinds of tools. These hand blown glass handled crochet hooks were beautiful.

Since it was a fiber festival there was more than just knitting. There were a whole array of felted items for sale as well.

These bowls were especially colorful and cleverly designed.

And just in time for Halloween were these hand felted masks. I wouldn't want to meet any of these on a dark night!

At that same booth there was an opportunity to felt your own flowers using bubble wrap and warm soapy water.

After a goodly amount of time spent agitating the plastic sheet you get these beautiful flowers.

Now if you know where the fairgrounds are, you'll know that you are only a few hundred yards away from the best homemade ice cream in the area. And we never pass up the opportunity to stop in for a taste.... or three. LOL!

Ooops! You caught me red-handed! I couldn't decide between the pumpkin, Miller's Mudslide, or Hugh's Chocolate Overload so I had a little of each. Bad girl! Well, I'm not going to have dessert for at least until......Tuesday! That's when the Chicks will be celebrating our fifth anniversary.

After the fiber festival we drove over to Glens Falls for the annual Balloon Festival. Due to the bumper to bumper traffic, it took us about an hour and a half to drive two miles to the location where the festival takes place, passing homes along the way where families were all set up with their picnics to enjoy the balloons flying by. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived at the entrance we found out that due to unpredictable high winds the race had been cancelled. All those poor families who were waiting were going to be so disappointed. I did manage to see one balloon before it completely deflated.

So instead Ron and I took the long country back roads homeward and watched the subtle change of colors of the trees in the distance.

It was a lovely day and now I look forward to the cooling temperatures when I get to wear my warm woolies again.