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!

Sit back, relax, and enjoy.

Kathleen finished another vest for the women veterans and I'm sure she'll be here next week with another finished garment or two!

Barbara worked on her sweater for herself and Liz knitted a scarf for donation.

Maureen worked her second pair of Kimono slippers. We Chicks decided to finish up donation knitting so we could concentrate on Christmas gifts until the holidays. In January we'll take up the donation knitting again.

This weekend was the Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival at the Washington County Fairgrounds. Amanda and Phil brought the boys up for a visit. Moose took Poppop and Daddy apple picking and bowling while Amanda, Leo and I enjoyed the festival.

The weatherman predicted 40% chance of rain on and off all day but it was sunny and warm all day. A perfect day to visit a festival.

The first booth inside had beautiful yarns and patterns but I had my pennies saved to visit a special booth!

This gentleman was hand turning drop spindles and knitting needles, among other hand tools for crafts.

He did amazing work.

I was almost tempted to buy a drop spindle just because they are so pretty. But I like to get straight to the knitting without wasting time spinning first. That's just me.

There were some wonderfully scented soaps.

And beautiful handwoven baskets.

But our favorites were the yarns. You just have to cuddle every one of them. The colors and textures are so luscious!

Amanda was admiring some yarns when a lady thought she was very clever to carry her purchases in her shoulder sack....uh....

No, that was Leo. He was such a good shopping companion. He slept most of the day and never cried once.

He even slept through the visit with our fibery friends. These baby angora bunnies were just too cute for words.

The guys were just hanging around.

And these angora rabbits were content to sit on top of their cages and watch the world go by.

This little friend seemed to say your welcome when we thanked him for his contributions to our knitting addiction.

Mr. Llama was just sheared so he wasn't looking too sociable.

We stopped and watched the spinners for a bit.

And then admired the ready mades.

Isn't this shawl glorious?!

We had to stop long enough to watch the felting demonstration. It's amazing what the people at this booth make.

This girl was needle felting a sheep.

The items at the booth ranged from this scary looking mask to....

this gorgeous hat!

Then we finally saw our favorite booth! Here we come Periwinkle Sheep!

Karin, (right) and her friend Amy (left) were working hard helping customers, but they had a minute to pose for me.

Amanda found what she wanted right away.

I, on the other hand, couldn't decide between the sock weight or the lace weight.

Leo came out of his cuddle spot long enough for Karin to get some good hugs.

I think there were as many people stopping to look at Leo as there were those looking at the yarns.

But by midafternoon we were all feeling a little tired. So I knew it was time to get going...

Right next door to The Ice Cream Man!

You can't go all the way to Schuylerville and not stop in for some of the best ice cream in upstate New York.

When Amanda and I got home we checked out our purchases and I wound the skeins for her.

I bought this silk cocoon fiber which is hand dyed.

You pull thin layers off and spin it or knit it right from the "cap".

Here is the sock weight yarn I bought from Karin. Notice the lovely cloud/sky color.

Then I realized I bought an alpaca laceweight yarn at another booth. Check out the color.

Now look at the shawl I made using yarn from another festival I attended this spring.

What color are my socks? Shirt? Knitting? Do you think I might have a problem? LOL!

I finished the shawl last night and couldn't wait to show you. It needs a good blocking still but isn't it beautiful?! I can't wait to wear it!

I had to throw in a couple of photos of my sweet babies. I don't know what he's dreaming, but Leo looks content.

And Moose is always a happy guy! He just loves the Dr. Seuss shirt we brought back from our trip to Universal Studios last spring.

Now I have to save some money for our next trip to the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck come October. But first, I need to knit some of the yarn in my stash before I can even think about adding to it!