Needlephile

Maybe the correct title of this post should be what didn't I do on my vacation, because I was doing something the whole damn time when all I really wanted to do was nothing. But I had fun, and got to see most of my family, which isn't easy to do in a one week trip! Unfortunately, most of the time I was home it was raining... but I guess that's better than New England heat and humidity. I did manage to get a great shot of Wachusett Mtn (above) on one of the nice days, which is almost exactly like the picture on the Wachusett brewery labels (yes, I did that on purpose!).

As I mentioned previously, I also made a trip with my mom to a craft fair at the Big E in Springfield, where crafters can display their works and enter a contest against others in their craft. Man was that a big disappointment! It was $5 to park, and then $5 per person to get in to the show, and then inside there was LOTS of empty space, and hardly any knitted stuff. The most beautiful knit thing in there was a lace shawl, and that won second place! My mom was encouraging me to enter something next year, so I looked into it... it costs $30 to enter something via mail ($5 to enter if dropped off in person). Ok, so what do you get if you win? First place is $10!! So I wanna know where all this money is going to... its not toward advertising, cuz nobody was there (entrants, vendors or the viewing public), and it couldn't be toward people working the fair, cuz most of the people I saw were the actual crafters. Anyway, I could go on and on, but the bottom line is that it was lame.
Fortunately, I had planned on making a stop at WEBS in Northampton on the way home. I went there with the intention of getting yarn for my Knit the Classics project for September's book, The Time Traveler's Wife. After the plane ride out, I was about half way through the book already, so I had a good idea what I wanted to do. I had a pattern in mind, Misty Garden from Scarf Style, and I wanted a variegated blue/green color yarn because I noticed a lot of references to blues and greens in the novel. I thought the blue/green color would represent the waves of grass in the meadow where they meet, and the several references to water. The pattern also looks like waves or ripples in a lake or ocean, or even a grassy meadow. The yarn I found was perfect: Its Filatura Di Crosa Multicolor #5000... mostly blueish green with some bits of pink, yellow and orange... its soo pretty and I can't wait to get started!
The rest of my trip was spent visiting relatives or friends, or knitting my circular shrug (about 50% done!), and EATING... I must have gained 10 lbs! Good thing my mom bought me some new running shoes for my birthday ;) They're so cool.... they're purple!! But in the Providence airport, I just had to get one last dose of Dunkin' Donuts coffee and an egg sandwich ahh... I miss Massachusetts already!