an outing

At least once a year every year for the last 10, by friend Anna and I go on an outing together. We decide the general direction, pack a lunch, and off we go. If we happen upon a yarn shop, so much the better.

This year we had to plan a little better, because the second Clermont festival fell on the day of our outing. Anna still wanted to come and sit at the fest with me, but you saw yesterday how we got rained out.

Now I'm going to tell you what else we did.

In the morning, right after it opened, we went to Countrywool. Claudia has been in business for over 20 years, running a lovely shop with all natural fibers, raising angora bunnies, and organizing knitting and spinning retreats. I hadn't been there in way too long!!!!

yes I went home with some of this: Dale of Norway Heilo.

and I went home with some of these cute little spinning fiber packs.

and I went home with a couple of patterns.

I also went home with something I can't talk about yet. It's a stealth project.

After we packed up at Clermont, we found out that Rhinebeck is not far, so we decided to go further south rather than back home.

We've been known to come to a screeching halt when we see a sign that points to a yarn shop - this time there was one near the tiny historic town of Tivoli. I have never been there in my life, and I am glad we turned around.

We found this shop.http://www.fabulousyarn.com/ (ok I'm having trouble with the linky thing. You get the idea.)

It's really a different kind of shop with nothing but the nicest high-end yarns....and some local hand dyed, which of course I had to try.

Then we went on to Rhinebeck.

As you may recall, some of my yarn now lives in the Knitting Garage of a general store.

Here's the store.

Inside, it looks like an old-time Woolworth's store, except this was never a chain store.
I saw some yarn on the way in....but couldn't quite see a "garage".

Kept on going, allll the way to the back,

and voila, there it was. A literal garage, nicely and artfully transformed into a very modern little yarn boutique.

And there was my yarn, right on the shelf. Hi, Periwinkle Sheep!

 We just sat in the quiet space, perused some patterns, bought some of them, and then left to explore more of Rhinebeck's lovely shops before we had dinner and went home.

Wing and Clover had a small selection of delicious yarns, too...definitely click on that link. There is a marvelous art scene to behold.

Now if you are in the Hudson Valley and are looking for something to do this coming weekend, here's a suggestion:

I just hope they have good weather.