Golden Woods

Hello friends!  (this probably will be centered again.  Blogger is terrible)

We spent the weekend in Jim Thorpe, and we discovered that there are a lot of yarn shops within 45mins of town!  There is also one lovely shop in town, called Hooked on Yarn, and the owner, Diane, is a fantastic lady.  I didn't buy any yarn, but we talked to her about her life, Jim Thorpe, and our lives for almost an hour!  It was the best way to spend time in a small town, just hanging with the locals.  I also loved the weekend because we didn't really have anything planned.  We knew we wanted to go to the yarn store, go hiking, eat a nice meal, that was it.  We did all of those things, and the next day went to a couple of wineries!  Wineries!  In Pennsylvania!  Who'd a thunk it?  We went to Mountain View Winery (amazing logo, right?) and Sorrenti.  Mountain View was better.  They exaplined their wines, had a distillery "tour" - it was mostly the owner standing in front of the still and explaining how to make moonshine - and they make tasty chocolate truffles imbued with one of their dessert wines!  It was great.  

I also made a lot of progress on my yellow hat.  I do knit slower than I thought I did, though.  I've finished the brim and 1.5 repeats of the pattern.  It's taken me quite some time to do just this little amount!  I'm still worried about how much yarn I have though.  I hope I have enough to finish!  If not, I'm making a trip to Purl Soho this Thanksgiving to get some more!  It might not match, but I may just have to make it a completely different color!

The cascading leaves pattern.  The pattern repeats three times around the hat.

So what else is happening?  I mentioned a few project ideas last week.  Let's talk about number 4:  "Unknown custom pattern for mom, in Unknown yarn, in either dark blue or wine color".  My momma is hitting a big milestone in her life in April - she's turning 70!  She has asked me a couple of times to knit her something, and I just haven't.  I started on some socks, but they failed and stressed me out, so those got frogged.  Last time she was in town, I showed her my shawls, and she requested one, in either dark blue or dark red/wine.  I've decided to make this happen.  However, it can't just be any pattern.  It must be large enough to wrap, and have nice decorative elements - some lacework, and some stockinette or garter stitch.  I found this peacock shawl, which is gorgeous, and mom does love peacocks, but I want to do some more research before I buy a pattern, especially a $10 pattern!  It does deserve the $10 though.  Also, based on how slow I'm going on this hat, I may need a long long time to make it!!!  I don't want to try something super crazy and only have 6" ready for the birthday!

As for yarn, I really need to start researching some yarn.  Knitpicks is having their sale now, but all of the yarn I've bought from them I've been rather "meh" about.  I like the yarn, but I don't think the colors are as vivid as I would like them to be.  I will probably buy some of their yarn to try some more socks and maybe bulkier hats.  Wandering Wool always has lovely yarns, and I've never knit with Madeline Tosh but EVERYONE loves it.  I'll take a look at the stores, see what I can find.  I need to purchase by EOY I think.

I leave you with this lovely remixed Mr Rogers.  It's all about learning who you are and feeling good about what you are doing.  It's also a nice tune.