Fiber Near and Far

It was so flippin' cold here this weekend! I'm not really complaining because I find that the cold, taken in small doses, can be really refreshing. I think I've had enough now and I'm ready for the spring. At least it was sunny. We were out and about this weeked in pursuit of fiber and the cold clear days were perfect for long drives.

On Satuday we, my buddy Felicia, Stinkerbelle and I , drove out to Middleburg to check out Hunt Country Yarns. It's about an hour away so I'd never been there before. It's not a bad drive but it's kind of long.

We found the store with no problem and inside it was full of fun yarns. There was a seemingly endless palette of Cascade 220 and other familiar yarns. There were also a bunch that I see less often like Crystal Palace, Diakeito yarns and Quiviut. I resisted them all. I did examine the fiber though and I brought home a little bit of white Coopworth and some Blue Faced Leicester. I want to try different fibers and se how they feel and spin.

We had lunch at a nice little italian restaurant and walked around town a bit after we left HCY. Middleburg is a tiny but very cute town. It's full of nice but very expensive shops. There are country stores and tack shops. We also followed the signs to a little tucked away spot called Mello Out. I wish I could tell you more about it but, we arrived at this tiny little shop just ahead of a huge birthday party. They were being led around town picking up goodies at many of the shops.

Once we recovered from having been overrun by the party we got hot chocolate and homemade marshmallows and left quickly. I should mention that the host of the party paid for our treats. I guess he felt it was the quickest way to clear the shop or letting us pay for our own treats would have taken too long. It was a little weird.

We left Middleburg and drove to Vienna, VA to check out Uniquities. I am amazed because this place is really nt far from home and it's got lots of fun yarn. I got a little Cherry Tree Hill and Louet Gems to test a Sock Madness pattern. If I were not on a yarn diet I could have gone a little crazy here. This is not good at all because it's not too far from home and very close to where a bunch of my friends live. How did I not know it was there? I thought that my yarn radar was pretty good.

This morning I contiued my fifber-full weekend with a trip to Springwater for their annual Superbowl sale. It was a really good sale and I got a bunch of fiber (Romney, Corriedale) pretty inexpensively but I had to get up at 6:30 to do so. I am not a morning person. I live to sleep in on weekends. There was a bonus involved in going to the sale. I was able to have the waterfront mostly to myself to take a few pictures of my new shawl. Here they are. Enjoy!

The pattern was Susan's Forest Canopy Shawl which I knit in Bombyx silk from Woven Gems dyed by me. Its pretty much as written except that I added a few repeats because I had the yarn to do so.