As if I needed another reason to buy yarn...

I decided to participate in the 2014 Great Rhody Yarn Crawl in Surgical Strike Mode. Wait till Sunday, hit two places, See, Prey, Leave.

Destination Numero Uno: Knit One Quilt Too in Barrington, Rhode Island.

Gentle knitters, it was my follow-up visit to this beautiful, new-kid-on-the-block LYS, and I loved it even more the second time around.

Yvonne Weiss, Inventor, Developer, and Proprietor  is one of the kindest needlewomen ever. She brings graciousness, hospitality, and creativity in various ways, shapes, and forms to her lovely enterprise.  (Think: inspirational materials, in-house designers and resident knitting experts. Also, the shop has big windows and is filled with light--a somewhat rare feature among the LYS in New England.)

Two more bonuses:  the chatelaine of Casapinka was knitting one of her amazing designs, just inside the front door, where she cheerfully greeted non-recovering yarnoholics.

And I met for the first time, but I hope not the last, Holly Kennedy of Fish Belly Fiber Works (New Hampshire), who was displaying her gorgeously dyed skeins.

Thus began my downfall:

The two skeins on the right were dyed by Fish Belly; the cobalt blue is Madeline Tosh "Fathom."  All fingering.

Then, Destination Numero Due:  Mount Hope Farm in Bristol, where the culminating ceremonies of the Yarn Crawl were held. I couldn't stay long, but was happy to see Linda Perry of Thistledown Yarns, June Gonzalez of Rising Sun Earthworks (from whom I bought two splendid sets of ceramic buttons), and the Westcotts (Iris and David) as they demonstrated an antique sock knitting machine.

Thistledown Yarns and patterns on display.

The Westcotts and their venerable sock knitter.

Resolved: Must. Slow. Down.

Must. Slow. Down. And maybe hibernate for a while, as January would encourage? Approaching the seventh decade of my life, I'm swiftly realizing that there's no way I can multi-task anymore. Case in point: last Thursday we were on the verge of a snowstorm, and I rushed around trying to get things done, especially mailing out several parcels and letters before the predicted blizzard. One of them was the monkey hat for Max, and in my haste I put the wrong zipcode on the package. (I discovered this because I paid extra for Tracking, and as I idly studied the receipt saw that the zipcode was for another address in Los Angeles.)

So now it will be interesting to see if the PO corrects my error and delivers to the intended address, or if the package will be returned, or if it will just go missing. I'm trying not to get bent out of shape about this. Worst case scenario is that I knit another cap. HOWEVER, if I'd just done things more slowly I could have avoided this mishap in the first place. GRRRRRRRRRRRR, she said. If any Recovering Type A out there has good suggestions for losing the Multitask Compulsion, please share.

* * *

Last weekend I spent some time at Slater Mill in Pawtucket, RI, where the Hook and Needle Guild sponsored knitting workshops, a yarn marketplace, and other alluring events. My friend Linda Perry was there with her Thistledown hand-dyed yarns

and I had the good fortune to meet Barb Parry, author of Adventures in Yarn Farming which chronicles her life with sheep and yarn at Springdelle Farm in western Massachusetts. My photo here doesn't do justice to the beautiful shades of her Foxfire yarn--the lighting in Slater Mill is beyond horrible--but in terms of saturation and depth of color I've seen few indie-dyed fibers that can match this quality. I bought some of her Cormo Alpaca Lace (70% Cormo wool, 30% alpaca) a beautiful coral red she called "Amaryllis." What will become of it, I wonder?

Barbara Parry of Springdelle Farm, Foxfire Fiber and Design, and Adventures in Yarn Farming.

The book itself, which I'm now reading, is one of those lovely chronicles of a life ruled by natural cycles, in the grand Thoreauvian tradition, with many bonuses, such as beautiful photography by Ben Barnhart, recipes for dyeing yarn and cooking food, and a selection of knitting patterns by assorted designers. It's the kind of book that every knitter deserves, and will enjoy increasingly over time.

For anyone wanting to meet the author and get a signed copy of Adventures, you can find her this Saturday (1/25) in Wayland, MA at the Wayland Winter Farmer's Market Fiber Day at Russell's Garden Center, and from February 28-March 2nd at the New England Textile Arts SPA weekend at the Hilton Garden Inn in Freeport, Maine.  

Stumbling around at Slater Mill

Today ends the Slater Mill Knitting Guild Knitting Weekend and I was damned if I was going to miss it, especially since I'd signed up for Helen Bingham's simultaneous socks workshop on Saturday. Small detail:  I've had a grotesque cold for the past week....Nonetheless I turned on the Stoic Resolve, swallowed a whole lot of OTC cold-nuking drugs, and I can tell you that for me, the entire five hours I spent there, was a total blur. Possibly the drug cocktail had something to do with this? The drive home was equally loopy. I seemed to be in the thrall of Solar Slowdowns, and expected to see ETs among the space alien corn as I reached the top of every hill with its reward of instantaneous blindness from glaring rays of the setting sun.

Helen Bingham teaches simultaneous socks.

After two hours of intense concentration whilst my brain moved in slow motion and enjoyed minor hallucinations, I determined it was time to press Reset --> Delay [48 hours] --> Start; so I packed up my sad attempt at two simultaneous socks

and wandered around the yarn artisans' marketplace for a while, running into my friends from North Light Fibers,

my neighbor, Linda Perry, the dynamo behind Thistledown Knitting,

Linda's beauteous hand-dyed worsteds

and discovered the fabulous sock yarn of Play at Life Fiber Arts, located on Etsy and in Fall River, MA.

Here the yarn stands in for H, who will wear sox knitted therefrom.

Was the jaunt worth it, given my subpar health?  What kind of question is that???