Winter Wonderland

Winter down in CT has been very mild. Whenever you see the weather man forecasting northeast having big snow storm - substitute that with rain then it would be about correct every single time. To this date, we have no snow on the ground, which suites me just fine (less shoveling and plowing bills!). But up in Vermont, that's another story.

The view of Killington on Saturday morning

I think while I was there, there must be at least of a foot of snow fallen and even though it looks kinda scary (the snows were coming sideways!) but when it stopped, the time seemed to stopped and everything was on hold so everyone can stop and take a deep breath and taking in the beautiful scenery.

While David was skiing on Saturday, I knitted on for the Moondance for awhile but didn't make much progress as I discovered a mistake way down and couldn't live with it so I had to tink back quite a few rows. But on Sunday, I slept in and prepared to visited the LYSs in the area - to see the layout, and maybe pick the brain of the owners for having a yarn shop.

The first shop I went to was the White River Yarns.

The shop has been open just about year and an half and I am surprised that I didn't know it existed - especially I usually stayed in the Super 8 right down the street whenever we come up this way!

When I first walk in the store, all I can say was "Wow. This place feels inviting." The lighting was great and the store just has a very nice flow to it.

As you can see when you first walk in, you are greeted with comfy space to sit and knit, and the smile of Lois - well, you couldn't see Lois, but she is right in the center/back of the store facing the door. The space is not gigantic so you feel overwhelmed, but Lois carried a lot of different yarn, the key - half shelves! It was such a smart way to display double amount of yarn when you don't have a lot of space!

I expressed my intent immediately after I walked in and Lois welcomed the idea and jumped in immediately and give me pointers after pointers, tips after tips. Time flies when you are having fun - I arrived at 10:30am. Four hours later, David had called and said the race was over due to lightening and to stay at White River Yarns and they are coming back. By 4pm, he finally arrived, and I was still there, chatting away with Lois, and Jamie, who joined us about 3pm. And did I mention that I was going to visit the yarn shopS around town? Well, I only made it to White River, and it was soooo worth it. I can honestly say that I made a couple of friends while visiting and learning (a lot), and knitters are just the best people around the world!

Of course, I couldn't leave without purchasing some yarn:

The brown one is from MT Laurel Llama Ranch located in Grafton, NH. The yarn is fingering weight of 90% Llama, 10% Merino. A hefty 413 yards in 4 oz. The yarn is super soft and the price is right for the local grown and spun yarn.

The second skein is Wool/Bamboo Sock weight from Ellen's 1/2 Pint Farm. The work is just absolutely beautiful. She's got beautiful colorways which you can see the descriptions on her website. She's having some technical issues so you might not be able to see the pictures. I actually have never seen her work before and I am in just awe of the colorways. Of course, I couldn't go home without it. She sells them on her website currently and you can call to order or do online shopping. I'm thinking this one will do up a beautiful scarf instead of socks... hmmm... Time to go on Ravelry and do some pattern search!

So this weekend was just a time well spent weekend in VT. The beautiful view, the fresh air, and most importantly, the knowledge shared and friendship made during this trip. I highly recommend you visiting White River Yarns when you travel to, thru or nearby White River Junction, Vermont. It is well worth of your time.

Home

I can't believe it has been a whole week! As much as I like to travel, there is definitely no place like home. Puppies are very happy to see me. Here is the proof:

I was going through my bag on the floor and Mick put his head on my leg and wouldn't move! I think he thinks that he is still only 10 lbs, instead of 100 lbs.

Also, some packages arrived while I was away:

Zephyr order

Color cards and some samples to try from Sarah's Yarn


Schaefer Yarn and pattern

The Schaefer yarn Judith and the Diamond Spires Shawl pattern are for model knitting for Schaefer Yarn. Archiknist does design for them and when she ran into Laura at Rhinebeck, Laura had asked Archiknist to see if anyone from SnB would like to do model knitting. And here I am, with the beautiful alpaca yarn.

And I just want to say right here, Sarah's Yarn has the BEST customer service, EVER! I had some questions prior to my order so I emailed my question via online form submission. In merely an hour, I got a reply back from Sarah herself! She was so patient (I must emailed her three or four times with different questions) and timely, it is hard not to do a plug for her on my blog. Also, the shipping is superb! Maybe it is located in Brooklyn so it is fairly close, but shipping is 1 day ground via UPS. It is not as much as I thought it would and super fast!

Oh, and here is the HRB progress:

It is a little hard to see since it is so much bigger now and I can't stretch it out on my needles. I have to finish it soon so I can give it to my mom - although she doesn't know it yet :) My parents are in the States and will be coming to visit on Tuesday. YAY! :)

Ok, the game is on. GO RED SOX!

Nashville, Tennessee - Day 2

Today was 'me' day. I didn't get up until 8:30, which is 9:30 EST. I had two goals - eat good food and go to yarn stores.

If I had not emphasize enough that Ravelry is awesome, here is where I show you its awesome-ness in two ways:

1. I went to the Nashville Knitters group to find out where the LYSs are and there was a whole thread about it. There are 6 locally, but only 2 of them are within reasonable distance to where I'm staying - Angel Hair Yarn and Haus of Yarn.

2. And by continue reading its forum, I came upon thread made by a knitter, Kasiaiscarly, who resides in Virginia and is coming to the conference in Nashville!!! Small world, huh? So I think we will meet up at some point during the conference to knit.

I did my research and put in the addresses in my trusty GPS for the yarn stores, but first thing first - a girl is gotta eat some good breakfast before all the yarn fumes! So I went on Foodnetwork and searched $40 A Day for Nashville, TN - there it is! Bongo Java was Rachel Ray's favorite pick for breakfast. So I put the address in and off I went. I got there in about 15 mins and it was raining. The parking situation is pretty bad since it's all street parking and this coffee shop is right across the street from Belmont College! Lucky for me, I found one and walked half of the block in the rain to get there.

The place is pretty big but it was PACKED! I ordered Willy Tilly (Vanilla Latte with caramel) to drink and Juanita Burrita for breakfast and because it was so packed, I shared a table with a lady who has her daugher with her. She was very friendly and started chatting with me - I guess it is like this in the southern states everywehre. Then my food came and I couldn't believe how big it was and was wondering how I was gonan eat it!!!

There was so much food I couldn't finish it all! So I took the coffee togo and off I went to Angle Hair first. It is double store wide and it has quite a selection on yarn - almost full line of Rowan, Twisted Sister, Habu, Plymouth, Malabrigo, Manos del Uraguay, Artyarn, Koigu, Colinette, just to name a few.

right side of the store


Left side of the store

One of the knitted item I found in the store caught my attention. I couldn't leave it! I ended up asking permission to photograph it:

A beautiful necklace

Isn't it gorgeous? It is from a Colinette pattern book and I ALMOST bought it, but with the price and me only liking that one pattern, I couldn't justify the cost. However, I did came back with these:

Noni Majolica Bag pattern, Summer Cable Cowl by K1C2 pattern and Holiday Cheers by Diakeito pattern, and a skein of Shokay Yak
Not Pictureed: 2 soak trial packs - aquae and scent for celebration

I have never felt the yak yarn before and it is super soft. I decided that it was gonna be Pidge knock off and now all I need is buttons. Also the Noni pattern was full price, but the others were only 50 cents each! What a deal!

The staff at Angel Hair are super friendly and a lot of fun. When I went, there were people sitting around. Also, it turns out the staffs were on Ravelry as well!!!

R to L: Pam the co-owner, me, Ellen, and Charisse

I had so much fun with them I think I was there for 3 hours! Although I think i can easily achieve that in any yarn stores.

After Angel Hair Yarn, I set out to find Haus of Yarn. The location is kind of weird and on the side of a big complex, which is hard to find if you didn't pay attention. It is a lot smaller feel compare to Angel Hair, but it carries a full line of Noro. Some other lines it carries are Malabrigo, Koigu, Cascade, Colinette, Lorna's Lace, Anny Blatt. (This is not the full list)

The staffs were really nice in this store as well. I had a lot of fun just petting Noro. I also found this line Shibui Knits, which I've never heard of before. One of the things I should also mention is that couple of the staffs had contribute to the book One-Skein Wonders and 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders. I wish I brought my copy with me so i can get it autographed! And from this store, I came out with these:

2 skeins of Koigu KPPPM, 3 skeins of Shibui Sock, 2 Pattern books in half off, 2 ceramic buttons for my Pidge Knock off to be Not Pictured: 3 nail files with Yarn images on them.

I was very proud of myself because I had set a budget for today's adventure and I met it. Now, I will not be buying anymore yarn unless I have some FOs!!! (This is where David would say - You don't need anymore yarn anyways! We have NO ROOM!!! He isn't here to say it, but I know he's thinking about it at home.)

By the time I left Haus of Yarn, it was almost 5pm. I met up with some of my friends that came today and we went out to dinner at Jacks - it is a really inexpensive place, you paid for what you want first and you grab a seat where you like. The food was great - I ordered a pull pork sandwich with roasted apples. I don't think I spent more than 7 dollars!

From L around the table: Jen, Ashley, Liz, Michelle, Kristine, Andrea and Jonna with Zack.

Although we are all from CT, we never get to really see each other until the conference! We had a good time and chatted away for quite a bit.

The conference officially starts tomorrow. I have a Jack Daniel Tour all day. I am very excited about it. I think I will bring HRB with me for the trip since it is about an hour away from downtown. I can't wait!

*NOT* Rhinebeck

I couldn't resist the title, because I'm sure in the next day or so, there will be many blog posts title Rhinebeck, aka NYS Sheep and Wool Festival, as many of my fellow knitters had gone to.

Instead, I went to leadership training on Saturday AM, and then right after, David and I drove to my cousin Tracy's in NJ for a Haunted Luau:

When the racer meets the pirate


The hosts - Tracy and Jason


Me, Tracy, and Paul - this one is for the fam

Of course, what else would I be doing while I'm sitting down in a party:

Knitting! Secret of the Stole!! And watching the Red Sox kicking the crap out of Indians!

And here is the progress of Secret of the Stole:

This stole has two points to start and the direction had asked to start them simultaneously using the same ball of yarn, however, I can just see the disaster. So inspired by Costumchick, I also cast on only the left point, and will be breaking the yarn and make the right side soon. Maybe during tonight's ALCS Game 7. GO RED SOX!!! Oh yeah... Check out the new addition of the house!!

Like I said, I couldn't leave the TV home when it was only $1099.99 for this 42" LG TV!!!

We left Tracy's after game 6 was over (which was about midnight) and got home around 2am. I took a nap, woke up at 6am, and picked up Karen at 7am and set out to Farmhouse Yarn Sale. If you've read my previous posts, you've known that I've been having a lot of trouble with the yarn I bought from Farmhouse awhile ago. And you would've also known that Carol had very promptly emailed me back and give me $50 credit towards new purchases of yarn. So there we were, walking into the front yard at 8:01 am (they open at 8am!!). We were the first one there and none of the bins were opened yet!!!

It was cold to start the day, but it warmed up with the beautiful sunshine:

Casey and Erica, the two very helpful ladies - Carol wasn't there today

Supposedly this is the last sale Carol is going to have, and everything else goes to the new yarn store, Connecticut Yarn and Wool, about 10 mins away from her house. So she has this deal about fill 1 bag for $159 and fill 2 bags for $189. Now, who in their right mind would just fill 1 bag when you can fill 2 bags for almost half of the price? (not me) We were there so early and didn't have to fight with others to look at the bins, I was done in record of 90 mins!!! (Karen was way done and waiting for me! I'm a slow shopper) And here is the loot:

The loot!!! And Mick trying to get into the picture on the right!!! :)

The loot: Andy's Merino (L to R, T to B) in Wine Rose (2 skeins), Turkey Red (3 skeins), Watermelon (2 skeins), Lavender (7 skeins), Cranberry 3-ply (9 skeins) and Sunflower (10 skeins). The top right is Silk Blend in Spiced Pumpkin (5 skeins), on the top step are 9 free doily patterns and 1 ball of cotton crochet thread for my future blocking use.

Yes, I filled the two bags with 38 skeins of yarn. I also had some leftover credits from testing knitting for Carol awhile ago, so the two bags really didn't cost me anything! AND they didn't take the giant sweater skein of yarn back, so I might just finish the HRB:

HRB in its the current stage

And I ordered some Denise long cords for this project as well and it came Saturday:

I'm thinking of keeping the pretty giant sweater skein for future center piece, maybe have some needles stick into it to make it a focal point in my future craft room.

I came home from Farmhouse and crashed on the couch, after all the photographs, of course! I have to say that was a lot of activity/traveling in very short amount of time! Well, now that I am re-energized, I'll be up knitting and cheering for the Red Sox.

GO RED SOX!!!

Cleveland, OH

We left pretty early Friday afternoon to catch our flight at Hartford. We actually got stuck for awhile on the highway due to an accident - it was pretty severe since we saw smoke coming towards us and we weren't moving at all. We ended up following everyone and back track via a on ramp and found a different way to go, and lucky for us, we arrived the airport with plenty of time to spare.

When we arrived in Cleveland, we decided to look up CiCi's Pizza for dinner - we kept seeing the commercial on TV, asking people to contact them if interested in franchise, and we wanted to check out what is up with all the buzz. We did see on TV that it is "All you can eat for under $5!" and on the website it advertise that it has all sort of pizza, salad bar, pasta and dessert. We found one not too far away from the airport, and off we went.

The place was MOBBED! There were so many people in there it wasn't even funny! Although the lines do go pretty fast. We paid our part and I went to grab a seat, while David went to get some pizza and salad. I survey the place around, it is quite a family place/kids hang out - it has a mini arcade in the back. The floors are not the cleanest, but I've seen worse. David came back with a nice plate of salad and few small slices of pizza - cheese and meatball ones. When I went up, I got some jalapeños pepperoni, white pizza with mushroom and chicken (almost like cream of mushroom soup), meatball and some garlic bread. They were actually pretty good, but very bread-y. Then I went up again for some taco pizza - it was actually really good! The dessert was pretty awesome too - cinnamon rolls, brownies, and apple crumble pizza. Dessert was definitely my favorite part of the whole meal :). Overall, out of five stars, I give it a 2 and half stars for cleanliness, 5 stars for value, and 3 and 1/2 stars for tastiness.

After we stuffed ourselves, we went to look for our hotel. As I said before, we think we robbed them on the price. $70/night is just wrong, but I wasn't complaining :) The breakfast was great, with an omelette station, fresh fruit, hot oatmeal, muffins, breads, coffee, tea, hot chocolate - you name it, they got it. The reception was pretty awesome too - free drinks! I got two white russian and brought them back to the room and watch the Red Sox vs. Indians game in our room, with the nice Flat Screen HDTV. We even went grocery shopping and got us some chili and bread for dinner.

Atrium outside our windows

Jumping back a little, we decided to go to the Cleveland Zoo. David and I like to go to zoos, museums (mostly science), that type of things when we go to a city. We enjoy doing stuff like that, plus most of the time, it is free for us to go because we are members of Boston Museum of Science and most of the science museums are reciprocal of each other. The zoo was really REALLY big - we were really surprised and it took us ALL DAY to go through every single exhibit!! Just to name a few animals that we've seen - snow leopard, tigers, wolfs, reindeer, flamingo, ostrich, hippo, rhino, elephant, bald eagle, exotic birds, giraffs, etc. You name it, they got it! Unfortunately, I ran out of battery shortly after the snow leopards, so I am waiting for all the pictures to be developed.

Kangaroo!!!

We went to Fine Points for some yarn shopping (you didn't really think that I'm going to a city I've never been to and not going to a yarn store, did ya?). It is a nice shop in a two story used to be house. Lots and lots of yarn everywhere! There were a lot of knitted garments for sale as well, although way too expensive - one shirt was priced at $460!!!! Although I think the entire garment was knitted in one of the exotic Habu Textile fiber, but still!!! All their yarns were priced either higher or about the same at shops around here, and with higher tax rate, I didn't end up getting any yarn!!! But I did came home with these:

Maple Leaves ceramic buttons

They were really pretty and I couldn't resist! At $3.50 each, I thought it wasn't too bad for ceramic buttons. I'm planning using those for Pidge style scarf. 3Fe's cost way too much money so I am gonna create my own version of it. Although, I am afraid that the buttons might be too small for it... We'll see. So overall out of 5 stars, the Fine Points gets a 3 and a half stars from me - lots of varieties/brands, friendly staffs, but way too expensive.

We slept in on Sunday (due to the late Red Sox vs. Indians game), checked out the hotel after a nice breakfast, and set out to find the science museum. What do you know, the Browns vs. Dolphins were to start at the stadium NEXT to the museum! Luckily, we didn't get stuck too much in traffic and we got to park at the fire line right outside of the museum because they were using the parking garage for the game.

It is a small museum compare to the ones we've been to, some of the interactive machines were broken, but we still had fun.

us in various monitors!


Thermal camera - like the CSI!


Tornado effects


David and the bridge

We then went to the Botanical Garden - just in time to catch the butterfly release.

Some of the butterflies coming out of the soft case

While we were there, we found some flowers/plants that we thought might be good for our houses - easy to plant, hard to kill varieties :) And we actually found out the name of the roses we have in our other house!!! The invincible rose bush as I call it - it flowers all four seasons!!!

David under Dortmund - the roses we have in the house

After the garden, David and I went to outback to get some quality dinner (mmm... Victoria filet with horseraddish crust!!!) and I was on my way home.

David is still there for training until Wednesday - actually, he is at the Red Sox vs. Indians game right now...

So Cleveland is now off our map. It is an interesting city, but I guess I wouldn't go visit if it weren't for David going to training there.

Off to sit in front the tube for the game and some knitting... Happy Monday y'all!

The New Addition

No, we didn't acquire anymore animals... Well, kinda. You'll see at the end of this post. Right now, I'm talking about new addition to the SoS 2007 stash!!!

1 skein Alpaca with a Twist Fino in Light Blue, 2 skeins Reynold Soft Sea Wool in Dark Green, 3 skeins of Plymouth Sockotta in pink/orange/yellow, white/pink/orange/yellow, and white/brown/blue/green/yellow, 2 skeins of Regia silk color in white/black/brown, a bottle of Wool Mix in Lavender scent, and a size 2 Addi Turbo

After my business training, I went to Southbury and visited Selma's Yarn and Needlepoint. Selma was there when I got there. There are a lot more yarn than the website mentioned. I got an email from the SnB group, also from a friend from work, that Selma was closing the store and everything was on sale. It's actually a very good sale - everything 35% off! Need I say more? Next Saturday is their last day, unfortunately, I'll be out of town, but I think I stock up enough :).

When I got home, I found this in the mailbox:

A sample of Cash-Silk 2/36 in Tussah from ColourMart

I actually ordered the sample card, but I haven't gotten it yet, but this little sample was mailed the same time and arrived first. Must have something to do with the size. I was considering using this as my Mystery Stole 3 KAL, but I changed my mind. More on MS3 later on.

When I got to the door, I found this in my hanging flower basket:

Little baby bird!!!

Yeah, my plant died because we had a frost after I put them out... grrr... But at least it provided home for other creatures :) I couldn't tell if there are one or more baby birds, because I couldn't actually see them - one of the disadvantage of being only 5'2-1/4" tall. David was nice enough to take the picture so I can see it without tipping and falling over the railing.

We actually have another nest next to the side of the house, on top of the climbing vines, but that was way too high for anyone to see. We are also hoping we don't have any bird nest on top of our chimney... oy...

I was planning on going to Renegade Craft Fair at Brooklyn, but I doubt I'll be going now... Lots to do around the house...

I'm gonna go play around with the new sock yarn now...

Chicago!

I finally got some time to post! I've been pretty busy since I got back from Chicago, and I've got some new yarn to share with you! (Surprised? I'm not! :P)

So after much worries on Valentine's Day with the ice storm we got, we received an email from Southwest telling us that we will be departing on time. We packed and drove in the dark to the airport, sipping extra rich hot chocolate, anticipating the fun we are going to have. Our flight left 20 minutes late, which is not bad for any airlines, and arrived to a very sunny Chicago around 8:30. We took the El (their subway system, except it's elevated up, instead of under ground, hence the nick name El) into the city and checked in to the Hotel. Did I mentioned that I got the hotel for 80 bucks? Priceline, baby, Priceline!!! The Hotel is located right by the El and we didn't even have to go out in the cold to get to it! And it's in downtown so it was close to EVERYTHING! SWEET!

The view from my hotel room

Of course, we were way early, but they let us checked in anyways because it was a Thursday and they weren't that busy. We then found some place to eat, right next to our hotel - it's like a little mall food court place, except it's much better than food court and cheap! Needless to say, we ate there for breakfast any chance we got!

So while we were in Chicago, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry and the Field Museum - for free! We belong to the Boston Museum of Science and they participate to a lot of science museums around the country. We sure got our money worth. In the Museum of Science and Industry, the one exhibit worth mentioning is the U505 - The German U-boat captured during World War II. We got to go inside the U-Boat, but was not allowed to take any pictures. I did take one from the outside though:

U505 U-Boat

The thing is so huge I ran out of the room to back up in order to get the whole thing in! oh well. If you are ever in Chicago and want to find something to do, I think this is a piece of history that you shouldn't miss.

In the Field Museum, there are couple of things that were really cool - First is the real dinasour bone and real elephants displayed in the museum.

Real dinasour head!!!

Two REAL elephants!! Yeah, I am miniscure compare to them!

They also had a gorilla and a mountain cat as well. I don't know what happened to my pictures though...

The second part of it is the Egypt tombs... They have REAL mummies in the museum!!!!! It really was a history on how mummies started and why they mummified others and how they did it before they figured out to preserved the dead the way they did then.

There is a real dead person in there!!!!

I actually was pretty freaked out by the mummies, thinking they are gonna come to live and... yeah, I definitely watched too much TV...

We of course couldn't miss out on shopping at Chicago! We went to Loopy Yarn first. It was a cute shop that is definitely bigger in the inside than the way it feels from the outside. The shop wasn't too busy on that Friday afternoon. When I first walked in, I was welcomed by several people who works there, and the first thing you see in the shop are patterns - nicely displayed, organized patterns. I wish all of my LYS are as organized!!! Then I saw the yarn - there weren't any labels on each cube, but each skein/ball was labeled individually - weird thing though, the label are always right on the names of the yarn companies and the yarn names, which I find it a little annoying. The yarn were seperated by the brand but were group in the same area for similar contents. They had a whole section for vegan, non-wool section - a really good selection for cotton, silk, linen, bamboo, soy and some other ones. In the back of the shop, they had a section for 40% off!!! I of course could not resist on NOT buying anything, especially it's on sale...

Loopy Yarn located right on the El

My New Stash!!! 7 skeins each of the Dolce Mohair and 1 skein of Dali

I plan on using theDolce Mohair Purple Lilac, Pink Selfstripe for Baltic Sea Stole and the Blue White Selstripe for Clapotis. The Dali is going to be a scarf mixing with the other green mohair I aquired awhile ago.

After departing the yarn shop (David made me, otherwise I would still be in it!) we went up to Michigan Ave for a little regular shopping. We went into the building where the Lego store was... We saw some of the coolest lego constructions:

Did you know that Lego now makes "Winter Wonderland" targeting girls??? I didn't!


David with my yarn bag sitting next to the Lego guy

I'm sitting with the Lego old lady

Oh, I also have to mention this place:

Yes! Chipotle is SOOO GOOD! and inexpensive! They had the best non-homemade Guacamole I've EVER had and I am VERY PICKY about my Guacamole! Awesome Hot Sauce too! The whole thing is just an experience! Clean restaurant and inexpensive. I suggested them to come local so all my friends can enjoy them too!

Friday night, we rented a car and drove up to Michigan to see David's brother and his family. We were SOOO tired by the time we got there we just went to sleep! Saturday morning, we decided we should do this while snowing:

That was a big helmet!

It is the first time I've done snowmobiling and I really like it! I had a lot of fun. Colin and Page had fun too, although not snowmobiling, but definitly sleding :)

Page and Colin

Sunday we got up really early and drove back to Chicago for our flight home. While on the highway, David pullover and took a picture:

See anything wrong with this picture?

The picture was taken from the rear view mirror, pretty good for a rear view mirror shot, huh?

We got home in the early afternoon, but we were beat! And we definitely did not want to go back to work the next day!!! And we are definitely looking forward to our next trip, which is only a few days away!!!

And I want to leave you with these:

Bruno and Mick sharing the same space to go night night


Vanilla sleeping in Bruno's bed... how she curls herself in that little bed is beyond me.