Happiness Is a Long Weekend with Fiber

I am pretty happy. I took off last Thursday & Friday as well as this Tuesday. So I got a super long weekend.

Friday was my birthday. My husband bought me a POUND of black alpaca roving! He bought it from someone in Minnesota/Missouri/some M state in the middle. *chuckle* He found it through Localharvest.org. He was trying to find something close, but that is about the closest he could find. It is yummy stuff. *sigh* It has some pre-drafting done so it should be lovely to spin!

Thursday I asked Paul if he wanted to go up to the Adirondacks which is always pretty unfair as questions go. I don't know if he has ever said no! *laugh* We are still going up Columbus Day so I didn't know if it was really feasible. But we decided that if we brought groceries and didn't eat out much we should be good. So we head off Friday morning.

In the car on the way up, I finished the Argosy Scarf in Unique Designs by Kathy Handspun. I *really* need to take some pictures of it. But I want to wait until I block it. Which if I am good should be tonight. But I don't honestly know. It is already 6:30 pm and I haven't left work yet. So we shall see.

I like the pattern a lot and think it works well in Kathy's Handspun. I am hoping it will look even better after it is blocked. *crosses fingers* I will post more details when I get the pics done.

I have some Scout's Swag Superwash/Tencel Sock Yarn in Socktoberfest that I got from a trade with Silvercat. It has some orange in it which really isn't my colors. But I figured I really should do them up for Halloween. (There is also greys & purples which definitely are my colors! *smile*) So after finishing the scarf, I cast on the Zombie Socks. (Ravelry only pattern)

I wasn't sure if the pattern wouldn't be way too busy for the yarn. But I really like the way it is coming out. I got about 6 hours of knitting on the way home on these as well. I really like them.

The pattern has drop stitches which isn't as scary as I feared. I think these will be fun. Though the drop stitches do cause gaps. And I do wonder if they will indeed be warm enough for Halloween! But just have to see.

Saturday I stopped at the Adirondack Woolery in hopes of picking up some more roving. No luck. It was during their hours. But my guess is that the women who run the place were away for the long weekend. Too bad as I really want some more of the grey sliver roving and maybe some other stuff. Their prices were good so I will stop by over Columbus Day weekend.

Paul and I walked around the Newcomb Visitor Interpretive Center.

We did the Sage Jr. trail (yellow) and most of the Sucker Brook Trail (blue). There is part of the Sucker Brook trail that you skip to make a longer loop. I think we did the Peninsula Trail (green) a couple years ago. And I know we did the Rich Lake Trail (red) in the past as well. It was a beautiful day.

Though of course, fiber was still lingering in my mind. So I asked Paul if he wanted to wander off to Lake Placid. Luckily, he can be bribed with the lure of some tasty Ubu at Lake Placid Pub. (And I was smarter than to every think about yarn shopping *after* the beer... I need every bit of willpower I can get! *grin*)

On the way there, we stopped at Adirondack Yarns.

in Lake Placid. I really like the place. I stopped there last year. That is where I got hooked on Catalina yarns last year.

This years addiction may become Great Adirondack Yarn Co. *sighs lustfully*

I got this lovely Great Adirondack Yarn Co yarn. It is called Silky Sock. There were a lot of lovely colorways. I decide I wanted the Charcoal colorway.

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It is 70% wool, 20% silk, 10% nylon.

This yarn feels so yummy. The silk makes it amazing to touch. I kept rubbing it against my face. Can't wait to see how this knits up.

I also got some Schaefer Yarn Lola in different purples.

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It is 100% Superwash wool. I got some Lola at Rhinebeck last year and love it. It was th first superwash wool I purchased to see if it would irritate me. It definitely doesn't. It is super smooshy and soft.

Mind you, this is thicker so it definitely makes house socks/winter boot socks. But I love my Lola socks in the reds. So when I saw they had the Lola I had to get some more. The purple is brighter than I normally would get, but I really like it.

Sunday & Monday were a whole lot of spinning.

Most of the time was spent spinning the Adirondack Woolery natural wool carded with colored fibers into singles.

It is 6 oz. of natural colored wool carded with colored fibers. I purchased this at the Adirondack Woolery over the July 4th weekend but this is the first I have spun it.

I am spinning this for my mother-in-law for Xmas. I was going to create a 2-ply it with the same fibers. But given the random colors and the combos that could happen, I think that is a bad idea. I am going to pick up some other fiber to pair with it. But I don't know what yet.

I could use a grey easily as there it a lot of grey in the blend. But then there will be large segments that are all grey and I am not sure I want that. If it were for me, I would default to my beloved black. *laugh* I need to hold this against some reddish brown fiber. I don't know why, but I think that might really work well. I need to find the right one, but I am hoping to find something that would work.

Also, I am *very* tempted to go with something much softer. I found some of the wool in the blend is nice and soft. Some was hard with a lot of tight crimp. So I would like something else to balance that out and make a nice yarn. I am leaning towards alpaca. But I am not sure yet.

I also finished plying the Ember superwash wool from Etsy.

I got this roving from The Ranches Angoras aka theranch Etsy shop and had created the singles for the Tour de Fleece. I had already plied part of it but was glad to finish plying it.

This is my first 3-ply yarn. I am hoping to use it for socks. I will have to see if it has enough give or if I will need to do something else with the yarn.

So all in all it was a great long weekend filled with fiber. Hooray!

Yarn Stores In the Adirondacks

I was up in the Adirondacks for the July 4th weekend. I wanted to hit some fiber stores of course. I was really interested in some roving for spinning. So I asked on Ravelry and some wonderful folks gave me some suggestions.

I am going to do these in order I hit them as it is the easiest way.

The Yarn Angel

485 Glen Street

Glens Falls, NY

518 761-2031

Stopped here on the way up to Camp on Thursday afternoon.

The Yarn Angel is a nice LYS. They carry a lot of Berroco yarns. But I was interested in something local that I couldn't get at home. I found some Eastside Weavers superwash sock yarn (Ravelry link). It is lighter purples than I would normally purchase, but I like it. They also had some other yarns by that company and some others. They have the Morehouse alligator pattern as a kit paired with some Berroco Ultra alpaca. It looked great. If I liked alligators at all or knew anyone who was a fan, I would have picked one up. I think the yarn really made it look & feel better. The woman at the store was very sweet and super helpful.

Adirondack Woolery

48 Pine Tree Road

Newcomb, NY

518 582-3663

http://www.adirondackwoolery.com/

12-5 Saturdays & Sundays or by appointment

Stopped by Saturday a bit before noon.

I loved this place! I would have stayed even longer by my husband and I weren't on our way over to Vermont! So I only spent an hour there. *laugh* They have some lovely roving. My favorite is some natural colored sliver from their own sheep. The woman at the store, Pam, wasn't exaggerating when she said it practically spins itself. *sigh* It is so yummy. It is grey with some brown in it. It spins 'like butter' to quote Pam. I spun up all 4 oz. on Sunday to start the Tour de Fleece or Ravelry group. I really love it an need more.

I also bought several other kinds of roving and some sheep locks. Pam was kind enough to show me how to spin them. They are this lovely grey with black. I am not sure I am ready to spin them yet. But I am going to give it a shot. Those are from a sheep she met elsewhere (I think the name was Pansy). I will pick up a brush before I try those to open up the locks. But I definitely like it.

I also got some other lovely rovings. Can't wait to spin them up!

I shouldn't leave off the yarn at all! They had a lot more yarn than roving. Some of it was beautiful handspun done by Pam and Judy. They also had some knit scarves and other items as terrific prices. It is a wonderful place and I will definitely stop by the next time I am up there.

Pam was even so sweet as to give my husband coffee to go! He asked if there was a Stewarts in the area. She said there wasn't and offered him coffee in a cup. She said just to drop the cup back after he was done with it. That was so kind of her. She is great.

Gore Mountain Farm

2642 State Route 28

North Creek, NY

518 251-3040

http://www.goremountainfarm.com/

Store & farm tour from 10 am to 6 pm daily

Stopped by Monday a bit before noon.

Barry, one of the owners, took me around to meet all the alpacas. They have 21 or 22 of them. They were so beautiful. Though Paul thought they were sorta funny looking. *chuckle*

They were in 3 different pens. It seems the males can get aggressive so they are kept away from the females & babies. I really loved getting to meet them all.

Then we went to check out the store. It is a room in their home. It has a lot of their awards hanging up. It seems they have made out pretty well. And it had got me curious about the show where they won so many awards. It seems that it will be in November. I might need to go back up!

They have a lot of items made with alpaca. They also carry alpaca yarn & what I was after, roving! I got 7 oz. of black alpaca fiber. Yummy! I can't wait to spin it. I have some off white I got from Granny Alpaca's etsy store. I might do a single of each and then ply them together. It could be a great way to go with it. Loads of yummy alpaca fiber. *sighs happily*

Turns out that while looking up the event in November, I came across a video from one of the people at the farm. It is pretty cool as it is some of the alpacas I met. *grin*

I do want to check out Moonlit Alpacas on the Vermont side on one of my visits. I tried to stop by Saturday after the Otter Creek brewery tour. But they close at 4 and it was 4:02! *sigh* Ah well. Gives me something to look forward to next visit, right?

I will definitely have pics to share of my goodies. But it will have to wait until things come out of the freezer. It was probably nothing, but I did see a moth in the house in the Adirondacks. So I figured it was better safe than sorry to freeze it all just in case. I didn't see anything in the yarn or roving, but I would rather be too cautious than end up with a house full of moths. *shudders*

All in all, this was a great fiber trip! Probably spent too much. But on the flip side, it was a lot more reasonable than it would have been down here. So I am thrilled with it.

*happy wiggle*