A Llama Wedding Weekend!

So my co-worker got married this weekend in Massachusetts on a llama farm. Yes, a llama farm! How cool is that?!

Saturday started off with a huge rainbow that went from one end of the sky to the other. The rain from the previous day had finally begun to break, so good news for an outdoor wedding.

Later that morning, we took a llama hike on the property which was a working farm for 200 years. The farm is long gone, and the trees have grown in, but portions of the very old stone walls used to keep the Merino sheep inside were still visible. This is Tanner, the leader of the pack who kept me company on the hike. He was part llama and part alpaca (and so very cute!)

The bride was beautiful, the groom was happy, and the rain managed to stay away til we were all tucked safely under the reception tent. Here we have the wedding party posing with the llamas.

I was also able to see a few yarn stores in the area and walked away with some goodies. We stopped at Wonderful Things in Great Barrington on the way up. Very nice selection of yarns and the friendly cat kept my husband busy while I browsed.

On Saturday, before the wedding, we took a short drive to Lenox where we visited Colorful Stitches. It had a wonderful selection, the staff was very pleasant, and I got to see the St. Denis yarns trunk show (which I just found out will be at Knitty City on Oct 12th & 13th).

While we were at Coloful Stitches, we also got to witness the annual tubs parade. We had seen flyers, but had no idea what this meant. Well, it was a parade of horse drawn carts, carriages, coaches, fire "engines", and delivery trucks. It was certainly a site to see! Sadly, I forgotten my camera back at the farm, so couldn't take any pictures.

On Sunday, as our stay was wrapping up, we took a trip over to The Mount - Edith Wharton's estate and gardens. This is where she wrote her most famous book, The House of Mirth. The house and gardens have been under serious restoration work since 2002 and they have made tremendous progress. The house was lovely and the gardens were so beautiful. The estate is one of the mere 5% of historic landmarks dedicated to women.

We will definitely have to return to the Berkshires soon! There is so much we were not able to see in the short 3 days were were there. Also, Webs is about 45 minutes away from where we stayed, so we'll definitely be back!

Knitty City Recap

Check out the knitscene blog today for a recap of the event I did at Knitty City last Thursday. It was so much fun! Big thanks go out to Knitty City for inviting me and to everyone that stopped by!

Knitty City - September 10th!

For those of you that live in New York City, I'll be doing an event at Knitty City next Thursday, September 10th. Interweave was kind enough to lend Knitty City my four Knitscene designs for a mini trunk show and I'll also have a few of my neoknits designs with me as well. I'll be discussing my collection for Knitscene, talking about designing, knitting, and whatever else you guys are interested in (you get extra credit for coming prepared with questions!).

Hope to see some of you there!

Details:
Thursday, September 10th from 6-8pm
Knitty City
208 79th Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam)
Closest subway: 1 train to 79th street

A Small Diversion

This past week between a deadline project (or two or three) I managed to sneak in some personal knitting time. A few weeks back Connie gave me some leftover Shepard Sock in Echo from her gorgeous Mountain View Cardigan and I knew it was destined to become a second Bliss shawlette.

I cast on last Monday, had a finished little shawlette by Friday, and it was all dry by Saturday. Bliss then took a little tour of Astoria, mainly to Martha's Country Bakery. Mmmm, best cupcakes ever!

I really like the way it turned out in the fingering weight yarn, definitely a bit more lacy. The shawl did end up blocking out to the correct size, but the length shrunk up slightly since the original Seasilk has a bit more weight to it. As far as yardage goes, I used a little over 1 skein, about 270 yards total of the Shepard sock with a US size 7 needle.

Ok, now it's back to the deadline knitting!