Travel Knitting - And Other Vermont Fiber Pursuits...

I set aside my two pairs of socks on the needles because the needles themselves were sets I didn't want to lose to TSA. So I started the Austermann Step Striped Socks in pink/orange/gray and took them on the trip. I made good progress and turned the heel then began the slipstitch back of the heel and was about to do plain vanilla stockinette, when I realized I'd dropped a stitch - WAY back at the beginning of the slipstitch heelback. Since I'd flown to Vermont, I didn't take my trusty Stitch Saver as I was afraid it wouldn't make it thru check-in.

So the sock went into the box I was mailing home and I picked up the stealth knitting project that's unbloggable...it's mostly garter but suddenly I realized I'd gotten off (badly) on the little bit of pattern in the piece. Into the priority mailing box the stealth project went.

OH NO - I had nothing to knit! And I needed it - I wasn't the driver so my yarnless state had to be remedied, dontcha know.

I stopped at my new favorite LYS (ok...only local when I'm there, but **OOoohh! Look** they have a website!). I fell hard for this shop on Friday when we arrived - both yarn and fabric under one roof!

Well, I think I died and went to heaven! We stopped by again on Monday - the ladies at Knits & Bolts remembered me and why we were there, asking how the reunion was the second time I stopped. They're also wonderful enablers...my sis-in-law and niece nearly swooned over the Berroco Comfort which is why there are two colorways of it in my possession. One of the Knits & Bolts ladies was making a sock in the blue/green/brown colorway and it's stunning! You have already figured out that it also got put in the priority mailer I sent home, too, right?

Down in yesterday's post is the photo of the other skein of Berroco Comfort Sock yarn (and bamboo needles, too) I picked up there - the pink, brown, orange colorway. This is such yummy yarn - and it's 50% acrylic, 50% nylon! Feels just like silk.

I know...pinch me!
I also bought my first-ever skein of Opal sock yarn. It should not surprise you that the colors are purple and denim blue. *wink*

(yards of fabric were mailed home, too, btw)

One more skein of yarn made it into my mailer box, but it wasn't from Knits & Bolts!

On Saturday, we shopped at the Bristol Farmers Market and I visited two booths that drew me like a magnet. Meetinghouse Farm (no link, sorry) had yarn from a cooperative of sheep farms - the fleeces are pooled to make a sort of generic yarn and dyed there, then the skeins are distributed for sale by the owners of the sheep. The price of a single skein was $3.50! I had a hard time picking the color from this basket, but chose the denim blue. I'm pretty sure there's enough for a hat, tho' the seller had no idea how many yards there were, or anything else that would tell me what I could use it for. I guessed that the skein is probably worsted weight. It weighs 3.8 ounces. Hopefully there's enough for a cabled hat!
Then I discovered KiKiBird Crafts and picked up my own small stash of needle-felted acorns and a needle-felted and covered rock (sounds odd, eh?).

It's lovely...a weighty little Vermont riverstone covered in the muted needle-felted natural fleece, it will sit in my pocket on the days I'm forced to endure meetings without yarn to help me remain calm. *wink*

There were so many places I'd love to have gone. I must discuss the possibility with Lynette of driving up and spending a week or so with my aunt and traveling around to see the sights we missed as well as hitting all the fabric and yarn shops we can find.

Or perhaps next October? Nana Sadie Rose will have a booth at Vermont Sheep & Wool? It's right at the peak of fall foliage!