Feel the Fiber, Smell the Fiber, BE the Fiber...

It was a glorious day at the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck, New York. The air was crisp and cold, the sunshine was warm. Elaine, her friend Jill, and I arrived at 8:45AM before the all traffic jams.

We pushed on, head first, into the wonderful world of colors and textures.
Elaine and Jill were absolutely giddy with delight at the prospect of all the selections.
My first purchase was a cute little angular scarf pattern. I was trying to start out with some restraint. HA! That didn't last long!
We saw cuddly soft baby alpacas...
regal llamas....
the sweetest little sheep...
cutest little lambs....
and the most beautiful colors of all were from Mother Nature herself.
We stopped in to say hi to Karin as she worked the Sliver Moon booth. She's on the left advising a customer on some yarn selections.
The rovings were dyed with breathtaking colors. If I were a spinner I could easily be tempted.
Some of the ready made garments were spectacular too.
I was sidetracked watching the spinners working their delicate craft.
And saw a mother/daughter team trying out some modern looking wheels. Start them young!
The live entertainment by a Peruvian Pipe band was a perfect compliment to the excitement in the air.
We stopped for lunch of delicious pot pies and lamb sandwiches. But this wasn't it! LOL! Someone was dyeing wool with all natural ingredients.
The talent overflowed everywhere as can be seen here in these hand felted blossoms.
Handmade baskets were everywhere too. I had a hard time walking away from this booth.
We stopped for a moment to admire the babbling brook, which even at the end of the growing season still looked beautiful and inviting.
And I have no words appropriate to give justice to the beauty of this gossamer lace shawl.
By 12:30PM we had seen all there was to see, touched all the fiber our hands could handle, and admired some of the most beautiful handmade sweaters, shawls and scarves that fellow knitters wore to the celebration. It was time to go home, although the pull was strong to stay a little while longer. There is something special about the art of creating. It brings the best out in people. And the Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck is the best!

Clapotis on Parade...A Visit With Kate Gilbert

Thursday, October 16th was a treat for all the knitters at Robena DeMatteo's Trumpet Hill Yarn Shop in Albany, New York( http://www.trumpethill.com) . Kate Gilbert of http://www.twistcollective.com/ was a guest speaker for the evening. She is in the area for this weekend's http://www.sheepandwool.com/ festival in Rhinebeck, New York.

She was introduced wearing this beautiful sweater called Wysteria. She is such a cute little knitter with loads of talent!

Kate brought along some really beautiful hand knitted items, the patterns for which are available on the website http://www.twistcollective.com/

Robena supplied us with plenty of good food.

But the biggest crowd gathered around the table with the knitted goodies.Since Kate designed the pattern for the Clapotis scarf (which is available for free at http://www.knitty.com/) everyone who made one was asked to wear it to the gathering. Here is Gretchen with her pretty multicolored scarf.
There were so many knitters that they had to line the walls of the store.

We saw beautiful socks....
and sweaters...and lots of Clapotis scarves.
Some of the ladies even squeezed in a little knitting.
The grand finale of the evening was getting to see everyone's own interpretation of Kate's pattern. The varieties were beautiful.

All in all it was a wonderful event. Thank you Robena and Cynthia for arranging to have Kate visit. And Cynthia, thanks for taking the group photo!

Have you ever seen a Moose at a wedding?

Last Friday my grandson, Moose, was one of two ringbearers at his cousin Melanie's wedding in New Jersey. He was all dressed up and ready to roll when I took this photo while we waited for the bride to arrive.

Cousin Wade was the perfect gentleman and a great role model for his baby cousin. Although as soon as Moose arrived at the altar, he threw down the pillow and raced back down the aisle. It's a good thing I was sitting close enough to run interference!
Melanie's beautiful gown was redesigned by my talented daughter, Moose's mom.Everyone had a wonderful time and even Baby Phil had a chance to dance with the beautiful bride!

The Apple of Her Eye

Alexandra wore Grandma Elaine's handmade apple hat and sweater to Indian Ladder Farm Orchards where she was the pick of the crop!

A New Chick Visits

We had a pleasant surprise last night when new mom, Allison, came to visit with Baby Ellie. I thought everyone had arrived, when about a half hour after we started knitting, I heard the back door open and in comes our newest Chick! Isn't she adorable?!

I must admit we were all a little distracted from our knitting.

But we actually did knit a few stitches. Our current project is making lap robes for our veterans in the local VA Hospital. It is a part of the Soldier's Angels Blankets of Gratitude. The goal nationwide is to make 25,000 blankets which can be crocheted, knitted or loomed.

If you would like to participate on your own, you can contact Shelley Folkerts at Va.crochet.craftteam@gmail.com

Shelley will give you the guidelines for size and when they are due.

Happy Knitting!

Autumn fun and TAG YOU'RE IT

My grandson, Moose, visited last week and we packed as much fun into three days as is humanly possible! He's growing up so fast that I feel like crying but he makes me laugh with his silly antics. He learned how to make "poofers" into your belly (that's when you blow a raspberry and make babies laugh) so now he runs up to me and THBBBB! on my tummy and then he laughs hysterically.

Last Thursday was a beautiful day for apple picking and we got a half bushel full.
The monkey on his back is his harness so he can be "Mr. Independence" when he doesn't want to hold hands. Watching the donuts on the assembly line cooker is fascinating.
And now for our little game. It goes like this:

1. Link to the person who tagged you

2. Mention the rules

3. Tell 6 quirky, yet boring, unspectacular details about yourself

4. Tag six other bloggers by linking to them

5. Go to each person’s blog and leave a comment that lets them know they’ve been tagged

I was tagged by my very talented knitting friend, Karin http://knitting-and.blogspot.com/

She is an accomplished knitter and quite a good photographer as well. You will enjoy her blog. She just finished a personal knitting challenge, using up over 7,000 yards of yarn! Check out her finished projects.

Now for my quirky facts:

1. My deepest secret dream was to be a nightclub singer in a sultry, dimly lit place singing smooth jazz.

2. I am a night owl and find myself most creative and productive after 10PM.

3. I always eat an ear of corn starting with the fat end in my left hand.

4. My favorite snack as a child was a whole can of anchovies with a chunk of fresh, crunchy Italian bread. I would still eat it now except the salt isn't good for me.

5. I love to eat whole pats of salted butter, just the butter! Hmmm...I'm seeing a salty pattern here.

6. I like to read gruesome non-fiction crime stories. The Woodchopper Murder was my favorite and it happened a town away from where I used to live.

I feel like you know too much about me now! But I have to tag six more people, so here goes:

Amanda http://fashiondeevasblog.blogspot.com/

Shelly http://stitchingfortheseasons.blogspot.com/

Catherine http://foreverknits.blogspot.com/

Cecile http://knitting-rosemaler.blogspot.com/

Anna http://fromtheheart-anna.blogspot.com/

Stephanie http://www.woolnwordramblings.typepad.com/

Have fun reading all the blogs and for those of you who were tagged, good luck!

Chicks have a visitor and Lunch with the ladies

We had a pleasant surprise visit from Kathleen's daughter, Pat, this week. Pat lives downstate NY and is a VERY talented knitter. She is an artist as well, so she has some beautiful design ideas and color combinations. Pat is on the far right sipping her tea. We all need a beverage break now and then.

This is the sweater vest Pat is working on. Aren't the colors fabulous?! It just blew me away! She kept insisting how easy it was to knit since she uses only two colors per row. But I don't know..... it looks pretty hard to me.Elaine and Karen were discussing Karen's progress on knitting with double pointed needles. She's the "Crochet Queen" you know, and she dove right into the deep end of the pool when she picked up knitting again after a long hiatus.
On Wednesday, Oct. 1, the Chicks had the first of what we hope will be many more field trips. We had a wonderful lunch at the Italian-American Community Center in Albany.

Mmm-mmm-good is all I can say.

From left to right sitting: Liz, Elaine, Karen, Kathleen

Back row standing: Jody, Maureen

Only Kathleen, Liz, and Elaine could continue the field trip where we visited Trumpet Hill Yarn Shop to say hello to Robena. We had a lovely visit and touched and sniffed all the beautiful yarns. We didn't buy anything that day, but Elaine and I have a pattern on order and we'll get the yarn when the pattern is delivered.

I can't wait for our next field trip. Hmmm....where shall we go?