Rhinebeck Wish List and Reality Check

My Rhinebeck wish list is as follows:

Bijou Basin Ranch
Mainly to see the Outlander inspired yarns.

Dragonfly Fibers,
Because I love their yarn and the only local person who sells it is not my favorite place to go.

Green Mountain Spinnery;
They have wonderful, crunchy* yarns.  I may not buy anything because I still have yarn I purchased from them last year (and the year before that), but I love looking.

Hope Spinnery
I love this yarn, despite the fact that I haven't knit with it.  I think it's the colors and the crunchy* factor.

Into the Whirled
I know I've seen their yarn before, but I want to take a closer look this time.


Jennie the Potter
Even though I've never bought from her, her stuff is amazing and maybe this year, I can pick up an ornament or something.  

Lisa Souza
THIS yarn I love and I've made a scarf I love out of her Polwarth Silk and am half way through a Wingspan in a gorgeous blue/green yarn.  I will definitely buy yarn from her.  Definitely.

Melissa Jean
I love her buttons, but I think I'm only buying stitch markers this time.  Some more for me, but mostly for my knitting friends' Christmas gifts.  Love them!!

Seacolors
Similar to Hope Spinnery, I love the colors, the fact that they dye with sea water, and the crunchy* factor.

*When I say crunchy, I mean the yarn feels homespun and rustic, but in a good way, if that makes sense.

Truly, this is the year I need to be careful with my money, as I don't have a lot of it and I already own a RIDICULOUS amount of yarn.  So this list is to help me focus on keeping my acquisitions under control.  After all, the experience of the festival is really enough of a thrill; I truly don't need to load up, especially since I get to go fairly often.  This will be my fourth time and I'm just as excited as I was the first time!!!  And I love that I get to share the experience with my daughter.  That makes it extra special. 

Finished! On a Friday

This was supposed to be posted on Friday, but Blogsy is acting up; unless my iPad is in the process of dying, which may be the case.  Either way, I finished the shawl for my cousin on Thursday night, and can't wait to block it and mail it off to her.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and hope she likes it.  I used three skeins of Quince & Co. Tern stranded with Luna, a glitzy, fuzzy yarn to glamor it up. 

 

I picked a surprisingly large number of cherry tomatoes Friday after work; I planted quite a few plants but really only one of the plants was producing.  Pretty happy to still be eating fresh tomatoes.

I just got this "new" table on Wednesday; as I was headed to work, I saw that a neighbor had put this out on the curb for the trash and I slammed on the brakes, threw it into the back of my Honda CRV, and dropped it off on my deck.  It is super sturdy, fairly old, and I can't wait to clean it up and bring it inside.  That was my plan for yesterday afternoon or today, but instead, I had a killer migraine.  My migraine meds blurred the edges enough for me to stay at work until I was finished with my classes, but I left at 3:00, thinking a nap would help.  I ended up having to go to urgent care for a shot, and today, it's still nagging at me a bit, and my energy is low.

.

 

This morning, I went with a couple of friends to an Indie Craft Fair that was being held at one of our local breweries, which was fun, but as I was still a bit under the weather, we didn't stay too long.

 

Don't you just love this sign?

As soon as I got home, I took a nap, then got up and took a bath and put on my jammies, so I can be sure to rest and relax.  I'm back to knitting my Lisa Souza yarn Wingspan, and hoping to pull another almost-finished project out tomorrow too.  I also rented the BBC television's Father Brown, which I'm looking forward to watching tonight while knitting.  The temperature has dropped about 20 degrees since noon, and the blustery wind and gray skies are just perfect for snuggling up on the couch with Gracie by my side.  My Saturday nights are so blissful.  I love this time of year. 

And on Friday, I leave for New York, my daughter, Meredith, and Rhinebeck!!!

Achingly Beautiful

Sailboats on the bay:

This weekend was another gorgeous one with more than a hint of autumn in the air, and as a result, I spent lots of time outside, either walking, sitting on the beach, or knitting on the deck. When I was inside, I had the windows wide open and the bay breeze blew the curtains about constantly. All the sunshine, blue skies, and breezes gave me so much energy that I ended up accomplishing a lot in the way of cleaning and cooking. It felt a lot like nesting, which makes sense if you think about the cooler weather coming soon. I shook out rugs, washed blinds and window ledges, and baked. I made pumpkin bars from a Trader Joe mix, pan-fried oysters, delicious black beans with lime juice and mushroom quesadillas, and roasted butternut and acorn squash. Warm, delicious, comfort food that tasted fantastic.

Steve and I went to Arbor Day yesterday and brought home three trees, drank good coffee, and wandered around downtown a bit, including a visit to the Farmer's Market. I met Melissa for more coffee today and the two of us walked around as well, just to enjoy the amazing weather.

I'm almost finished with my cousin's shawl, I'm on the third section of my Lisa Souza yarn Wingspan (shown above), and itching to cast on for something else, although I won't just yet.

 

Also enjoying my Shake It photo app, shown above.

Apologies for the randomness of this post, but it's either this or nothing. Be kind this week.

 

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