Fall in the Sierras

Fall has been beautiful here - lots of yellow, red and orange Aspens, lots of blue skies and warm days.  This scene is of the Truckee River in beautiful downtown Truckee. The San Francisco Chronicle did an article on

Quincy, as a great weekend  trip to see Fall colors.  Quincy is about an hour north of Truckee and we decided to take a trip up there to check it out.

We were a little early for the changing of the leaves, but it was a nice trip.Years ago, we took a trip there and stopped at Medrith Glover's yarn shop, The Wool Room.  In the early days of  The South Bay Knitters group, a bunch of us traveled to The Continental Stitch in Morgan Hill and took a class with Medrith to learn how to knit her Circumnavigated Cardigan, all knit in one piece.  Looked this pattern up on Ravelry and there are about 60 people who have knit it, if you care to take a look.  She is a wonderful and very clever designer and all her work displayed at her shop is really worth seeing.

     
Medrith's sweater designs work well for all body types.  Here is the back of her Elegant Shirt Yoke:

                                                                                                                                                                           The Wool Room doesn't have a web site, but if you contact her, she can send you her catalogue.

Medrith's mother is Emily Ocker, who invented the Circular Cast On , and they were good friends of Elizabeth Zimmerman and are friends of Meg Swanson, her daughter.  Emily's Lace Garden Shawl is on Ravelry  as well.  Medrith's shop is a great resource for all of Elizabeth Zimmerman's patterns, newsletters  and Schoolhouse yarns.                                           

A Trip to WEBS

New England is a knitter's dream - so many yarn shops, sheep farms, talented designers and, of course, WEBS

Traveling back from the Franklin Fiber Twist  through Northampton, I had to make a stop there.  I drove by it several times, because it is actually located in a warehouse in the back of a small mall. The retail shop has been much improved since I was there many years ago with a big selection of yarns, patterns and needles and lots of  tables to sit and browse, however, I was drawn to the big warehouse of yarn in back:

                                                                                
   
Wow!  So organized since I was last there - and better lighting to see it all! You could spend hours going up and down the aisles -  so many beautiful yarns and so many possible projects spinning through my head.  Must practice self control!

Somehow I managed to get out of there within an hour with just a few small purchases and headed off to  Norman Rockwell's home town of  Stockbridge.  I'm standing in front of The Red Lion Inn, a very popular hotel in Stockbridge:

 

Then on to Great Barrington, a quaint little town in Western Massachusetts to check out Karen Allen's shop:

                                                                                                                                                                        Karen Allen Fiber Arts is a beautiful shop selling very fashionable handmade knits.  Check out her website to really get a view of what she carries there.  Karen Allen is the movie actress who was  Harrison Ford's love in the first Indiana Jones and she is an avid hand knitter.  If you stop by the shop, you may see her there.
                                                                                                                                      

More Scenes from New England

Before  I get back into the Fiber Show, a few more scenes from the backroads of  New England:

                                                                               

                                                                                  
Besides Rug Hooking there was lots of spinning and fiber:

                                                                               
                                                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

Then I stopped by to see Kristen Nicholas who was exhibiting here because her sheep farm, Leyden Glen Farm, is in Franklin County.

     She was signing copies of her books and I bought  Kristin Knits
 

 
She has a Navajo-inspired afghan in this book that I would love to make -  she used her Julia yarn and the colors are fabulous! 

                                       

Gail Callahan, The Kangaroo Dyer, was there with her beautiful sock yarns and Heather Hall with a booth full of wonderful felted shawls, pins, and clothing. There were a number of booths displaying beautiful felted items and it inspired me to try more felting.  For a small county show,  I was impressed with the number and quality of the vendors there and the products they displayed.  I would definitely recommend  The Franklin County Fiber Twist, and you get to take a drive through the countryside of western Massachusetts  and enjoy the Fall colors!


                                                                     
                                                                               

Fiber Festival in New England

A few weeks ago, I had the good fortune to be in The Berkshires in western Massachusetts at the beginning of the Fall Foliage season.  What a wonderful sight to see the changing color of the leaves and revisit the charming little New England villages.

                                                                                   
 I also got to attend the Franklin County Fiber Twist held in Deerfield, Mass.  This is a county show put on to display the talent of local fiber artists.  There were spinners, knitters, rug hooking and felting artists.

                                                                         
The show was held on the grounds of the Yankee Candle headquarters and it was very colorful.

 

 

Rug Hooking was a big part of this event and there were some beautiful rugs on display

There were instructors demonstrating the art of rug hooking

These instructors made rug hooking look so easy and the colorwork was wonderful - perhaps a new hobby?

More later!