All the Yarn and a Book Review

The last two weeks were even more insane than the regular insanity that is my life. If you are new to the blog, not only am I a public school teacher, but I went to RHINEBECK!!!!! (always all caps, never enough exclamation points). What I did not anticipate was all of the work that precedes a weekend away, and all of the work that follows. The Dodge Poetry Festival was this past Friday which added some extra excitement to the post RHINEBECK!!!!! (told ya) hangover.

I took another Handbrake cowl project on the trip, my second for the Cancer Awareness KAL going on in the podcast Ravelry group. This version was knit using a pink wool and mohair blend a friend purchased in Vermont a few summers ago. A quick knit, I finished this one yesterday.

I'm gifting this one to a mutual friend who has done the Avon 39 mile Breast Cancer Walk in NYC in the past and plans to do it again next year. She deserves it!

While at the festival, we stayed in a lovely house in Hyde Park arranged by Leanne Coppola of Arrow Acres Farm:

I met one of my FAVORITE podcasters, Eric Lutz of the Sticks + Twine podcast. He is even more kind and gracious in person.

I have terrible hat hair but don't care, met Eric!

Yes I bought yarn. I bought my first skein of O-Wool in Pearly Mussel:

Robin (a yarn dyer who I interviewed in this podcast) found this color, and it's so unusual, I couldn't resist. I'm going to make another Linto Creek Cowl with this yarn which will most likely be a gift for my ex-MIL - it is very much her style and color.

My impulse buy was some multi-colored stellina yarn from Ellen's Half-Pint Farm. Apparently, this colorway is called Earth's Royalty but I call it Hocus Pocus after my favorite Halloween movie. Leanne took this photo of me being intimate with my new purchase:

I also bought 2 hanks of hand spun / hand dyed yarn from Pucker Brush Farm, a small vendor I always visit first at any fiber festival. One skein is a prize for the November/December KAL in the Ravelry group (info in the last podcast), and one as a gift for Andrea who keeps that Ravelry group going!!

If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know I won some wonderful heritage breed yarn from Maria Muscarella (ninjachickens on Instagram) to make her Fleece Flight shawl. (Proceeds from the sale of the pattern go to the Livestock Conservancy.) She also included mini-skeins of the other heritage breeds used in the larger version of the shall, and I fell in LOVE with the deep brown of the Romeldale from Marushka Farms. Luckily, Marushka Farms was in the breed barn so I got a full skein of their yarn (the brown skein in the picture above).

I also got an amazing deal on some wool hand spun / hand dyed yarn from Maple Creek Farm in the Dallas colorway - so apropos considering my family live in the Dallas area! And this hank was 40% off! I scored it for all of $20. The next KAL for the podcast will be the Yellow Roses shawl by Clothesline Designs. I wanted to do a winter weight shawl and know I will wear this all the time in January and February! Here's a pic of that yarn (center):

Since I've been so busy, I really wanted a quiet, Jane Austen kind of book, so I started The Rose of Winslow Street by Elizabeth Camden this past weekend. This is a simple romance set in a Massachusetts town in the latter 19th century. A family from Romania shows up suddenly and claims possession of the house belonging to a professor and his daughter while they are away for the summer. Of course, the head of the Romanian family is handsome and smart, the professor's daughter a pretty spinster with what I think is dyslexia. Romance ensues with a little mystery for interest.

I've read other books by this author; they are very similar to Julie Klassen's books if you've read any of hers. I just ordered one of Camden's earlier books, Against the Tide from Half Price Books because  I think I'm going to need another book with a simple story and certain outcome if I'm going to make it to Halloween!

Today I'm joining the The Really Crafty Link Party.  On Tuesdays, I join Nicole at the Keep Calm Craft On link party, and on Wednesdays, I participate in the Yarn Along on Ginny Sheller's blog. Please join us either by contributing a link to your fibery work in progress and current read and / or by checking out the posts to the link parties.  You may find your next book or project waiting for you!