A Long Day in the Sun

Yesterday was a full day, much of it outdoors in the sun.  After a late start because I could not find my glasses, I drove up to the Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival.  The day was picture perfect and the drive up Route 40 one of my favorites.  Fortunately I had found my prescription sunglasses a while ago and they helped me through the day.  I had my back-up pair of glasses with the one bow with me as well that I could balance on my nose if I had to.

(In Googling Route 40 I found no photos of the area.  Hmm, is this a possible market for photography?  It seems the only people who have noticed it are painters and realtors,beyond many people's budgets.  Sssh!  Did I type that too loudly?)

My friend Laurie of Sliver Moon Farm could not make it that day.  Her late partner's husband Nick was taking care of business.  (I really miss Kay.  Never, ever forget safety while walking by yourself..) I saw my friend Jackie and her friend, whose company I enjoyed for quite a while and someday I may remember her friend's name.  After seeing the few objects I purchased Jackie said I was bad for her because she had to visit those vendors too.

It appears I have committed myself to the Camilla Shawl prematurely.  Despite its advertisement on Ravelry, the pattern is not available. Murphy's Law has got me again.  Now I have to put in more effort to find another acceptable shawl pattern.  I hate it when I'm in a period when knitting projects come to naught. 

The body of whatever shawl I knit will be a wonderful hand-painted teal to purple yarn by The Fuzzy Bunny.   I discovered I didn't like the color of the yarn that I previously bought for the border.    The teal I already had at home went perfectly, but the combination lacked something.  I found a yarn at Holiday Yarns that I think would work well in some accenting stripe in some stitch in some shawl pattern.  The sales associate was very nice and helpful.  My choice was Andromeda's Big Sister below.

This is the yarn for the largest portion of the shawl:

Andromeda's Big Sister has lavender, blue and a hint of teal to it.  The heavier weight yarn in the color was gorgeous in a cowl.  It had something like a subtle, sun-dabbled effect.  I really don't know how dyers get some of the interesting and wonderful colors I see,   (Hmm, this would make a good photography topic, if I had a camera.)  I may want to play with this color again.

I thought I might splurge on one thing if I found something I really liked, and it didn't matter what it was.  It turned out to be yarn, not a big surprise.  It is called "Cheshire Cat Color Morph, Turquoise to Fuchsia."  Here is a link to Frabjous Fiber's Mini-skein packs.  The 100 percent superwash merino fingering yarn is by Wonderland Yarns.  I'm not sure if I bought a mini-skein pack, but I found the colorway there.

A woman had the one pack in her hand when I came to the stall and I thought to myself, if she puts it down I'm going to grab it.  And she did!  I briefly looked at another one, but I decided it was too dark.  Driving away later, I realized it took my interest the last time at the fiber festival and somewhere, sometime on the web I saw a shawl in the colorway and coveted it.  

I finished our friend Karin at Periwinkle Sheep.  I am still trying to create a sheep out of four skeins of her yarn so I didn't buy more.  I did tell her about the Tre o Molti shawl on Ravelry I thought I might try next.  I think the pattern would be a good showcase for her beautiful colors.  Compared to all the fingering weight merino yarn at the fiber festival, Karin's is one of the best and the rest is up to personal preference for colors.

Jackie wasn't impressed that I bought two pairs of old-fashioned metal knitting needles in size 7.  I was happy, though.  Emily wants to bite the tips off any wooden or bamboo needle, so I have to stick to metal.

I found I could not leave without buying one more item.  I went back to the barn and found out I just missed it.  It was a double-pointed needle holder featuring calico cats sold by Nan Urban Knits.  As I much as I loved Midnight, I didn't want the black cats because they might be hard to find if I dropped them.  I thought the tiger cats would do.  The cute faces are growing on me.

Maybe they will motivate me to return to sock knitting.

The day was only partly over.  My mother is in a Catskill rehabilitation center because of a broken hip.  I wanted to visit her Saturday, but I was exposed to a viral respiratory infection at work and didn't want to chance exposing her.  Instead I put together a care package for her Friday night.  On the drive down, I found a couple flower balloons to tie to the gift bag.

This cute little fellow I found in a flea market last week.

The last stop was my mother's apartment where I spent a few hours with her cat Susie, petting her, brushing her, petting her, brushing her, petting her, playing with her, and petting her some more.  I called Mom while I was there and put the speaker on so that Susie could hear her.  That made her very happy.

I started home just before midnight.