a magical day

Yesterday, I drove to Northampton MA to meet some friends from my ravelry group. That same group that made me my beautiful blanket, which I brought to show to two of the contributors! Jeni came all the way from Scotland to visit a friend in Boston, and of course I had to go and meet her in person. Abby is part of our group also and I have no idea why I didn't catch her in these first photos! She and Jeni traveled together from Boston.

Martha (left) had taken time out of her busy day, driving over from Amherst, to spend a few minutes with us at WEBS. 

 Us being part of the Stash Down group, we saw a lot of yarn we DIDN'T buy. ;)

 After an initial look see, Abby, Jeni and I decided to go out to lunch. As we were walking towards the center of town, we happened by a gallery that had a quilt show. Hungry or not, we had to stop in. Or rather, I great big wind came up and sucked us right into the gallery.

After lunch, where even one of the waitresses stopped to admire Jeni's handknit socks, we discovered an instance of yarn bombing.

On the way back to WEBS, ice cream was comsumed on this beautiful warm springy day. We stopped by Northampton Wools, of course.

Then back to WEBS. Right into the warehouse. Yarn started to jump into our arms.

Those cones of mohair looked way too orderly.

So we had to re-arrange them in an artful way.

You may kow this already, but the staff at WEBS is wonderful. We even met Mary Jane Mucklestone who was teaching a class there (and is a friend of Jeni's), and Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer who is the in-house hand dyer.

After we were done at WEBS, we went to WEBS Beads. It was my first time.
You know what they have there?  Lots and lots and lots of  beads.

After that, we still didn't want to part ways...so we went to a nearby coffeeshop.

And this is the time where I need to tell you about this lovely lady.

Jeni and I have been talking on ravelry and through our blogs for a couple of years now. She lives in Scotland. I have been to Scotland exactly once in my life, but you know how it goes when you start talking to someone (and read their blog), you find things in common. I have relatives in Scotland, so I asked about the town where she lives and how far it is from the town where my relatives live. I mean, what are the odds?

Not far.

In fact, Jeni's mom was the school nurse where my cousins went to school, in Kirriemuir.

Jeni's uncle owns a wool shop in Kirriemuir.

Jeni goes and minds the shop every Friday.

Just before Jeni went on her trip to the US, and I said I would drive anywhere to meet her, an elderly lady came to the shop and they started talking. After a while, this lady starts talking about her niece who lives in America and dyes yarn.

It was my greataunt Christa. Who has always been an avid knitter, who in fact blessed her nieces with annual jumpers. I remember a pale yellow one with a fair isle yoke.

So my online friend Jeni met my greataunt in a woolshop in Scotland and now I got to meet Jeni in real life.
I feel like we've known each other for a long long time.

Here we were. Spending a lovely day together that felt like magic.

Abby bought a pound of locally roasted coffee to bring home to her husband.

 

A stealth photo taken by Jeni with my camera, of Abby's fabulous knee highs.

Oh, we just didn't want to part, and made phantastical plans for another get-together sometime in the future.
At least I'll get to see Abby again at Cummington this spring, at the MA sheep and woolfest. I am really looking forward to it!

And here is the loot of the day.

skein of String Theory sock yarn from Northampton Wools

Cascade 220 sport for a couple of pairs of colorwork mittens

sock yarn to help me finish (and then some!) my socks from last year

wool for gift knitting a pair of gloves and a beret

And here, my friends, I'll leave you to ponder all that!