Mostly, the reason I didn't get alot of knitting done was because of this:
Yes, the pool. Not the best pool I've ever been in but, strangely enough the most alluring (if you were there with me this past weekend, you know what I mean). Not only was it private, super clean and out in the very middle of the courtyard of the hotel (also beneath the almost full moon at night), but it was WARM!! Very much unlike my newly renovated pool (which had the EXACT same liner as the pool at the hotel...weird!), which is freezing! I spent most of my time in the pool...even the very first night we got there, which was at about 10 pm....I thought I was in heaven laying the pool and looking up at the stars. Talk about relaxing!
On the way to South Burlington (where our hotel was), we stopped here:
The Quechee Village shopping area, which had this wonderful old fashioned merry go round, a cool diner, a blacksmith shop and a Cabot cheese (which is my husband's favorite) store...not one of the stores was open...but it was fun to take pictures...
Very close by we (by that I mean Laurin and I) found a restaurant called the Black Angus and we had the most amazing, yummy food...the appetizer was DELICIOUS!
Dumplings with Spicy Peanut sauce...oh, god...like heaven!
After the food, nothing very exciting happened on the rest of the way to VT (except a slight NH/VT exit confusion, which Laurin and I refuse to talk about until after we're dead).
The next morning, while we were waiting for Dan and Heather to arrive, Laurin and I went to Knit and Bolts, the yarn store that sells A Piece of Vermont sock yarn.
Sadly, there were only about 5 skeins of this yarn available and a few were the same color. I did find a super cute pink colorway for my friend, Jackie. I also bought two or three sock patterns from Fiber Trends, 2 skeins of a varigated purple Cascade Fixation, a felted bag and cute baby hat pattern and 2 skeins of Lamb's Pride worsted for the hat. The shop was small, but had a nice selection of yarns and everyone was friendly.
Next, we headed out to the Vermont Teddy Bear Company which was very cool....the cutest building, lots of kids and ADORABLE bears...which I decided to buy one each for Tim and Ben...dark chocolate bears with personalized tshirts. (Laurin was very patient and waited almost an hour for me while I designed, stuffed and personalized the bears...thanks, Lovely!)
Finally, we got back to the hotel and we met up with Dan and Heather....
We were all starving, so headed out to the Silver Palace chinese place (just down the road)...which was super fancy, wonderfully yummy and very friendly. I was in love with the appetizer plates....I just had to take a picture of it to show you...
The next part of the day was very frustrating (in more than one way) and also very hot...well, hot for a NH person. We headed out to Kaleidescope Yarns (sorry, but I'm not linking to it...I'm still too upset).
As soon as we pulled up to the store parking lot, a woman came out to dispose of some trash...she saw us drive in...no wave, no hello...I ran out in front to take pics of the store and noticed a tiny sign on the door...it said "Closing today at 2 pm". I looked at my cell phone....it was 2: 05 pm. I tried the door, I knocked at both the front and back. I called the store from my cell phone. No answer. I was very upset. This was the store I was DYING to visit....the one I couldn't wait to see...and it was closed. I had called a couple of days before to get times and it didn't close until 5 pm. To say I was disappointed is a HUGE understatment. I felt so bad that we drove over 3 1/2 hours and I wouldn't even be able to visit this store I had such hopes of "raiding". I was angry because the woman who saw us drive in could have politely said they were closed early or gave an explanation or something...or even opened the door for me so I could ask if we could just sneak in for 10 minutes. Poor Dan drove up all that way to visit this store and one more....but since we couldn't go to this one, only visited one store and had to drive all the way back home! Ugh.
ANYWAY....we headed out toward the last store opened on Saturday....Knitter's Laine (sorry, no website)...it was the only store I forgot to take a picture of...and it is so cute, too. The woman who owns the shop is very nice and friendly and was having a great sale on Cherry Tree Hill (and other) yarns. I got 2 skeins of Cherry Tree Hill supersock in Green Mountain Madness (does anyone have 2 other skeins of this colorway laying around that I could trade some handspun, handdyed or other for?), 1 skein of laceweight Jade Sapphire 100% mongolian cashmere yarn (in hydrangea), more patterns and 2 skeins (on sale) of some funky, pink Classic Elite Tinsel yarn. Here is the cashmere:
The only thing I didn't like about this store (which Laurin did) was that all the yarn was arranged by color. Don't get me wrong, it was PRETTY, but I couldn't find a darn thing. All the skeins were crammed in together in one cubby and I had no idea which yarn was which. I was overwelmed trying to find what I wanted...didn't get the KnitKnack cards or Euroflax linen either...bummer.
Back at the hotel, Laurin, Heather and I ordered pizza for dinner and ate (and knit) by the pool. We invited a friendly South Carolina stranger, Steve, to eat with us...here's Laurin and Heather knitting...
That night, I swam some more in the moonlight...got eaten by mosquitos and we all watched a comedy show in Laurin's room. (We won't speak of the "other" events on the web, will we?)
The next morning, we headed out early (after I got in ONE more swim!), had breakfast at a very neat diner (where they were having Hawaiian day)...here is a pic of our waitress, Mary...
Our very last stop before going home (well, we did stop quickly at a NH gift shop which was open that Sunday) was Creative Habitat (which does have a link, but doesn't ever work for some reason). I thought it was a yarn store, but it's actually a division of Ben Franklin craft store...the store itself had TONS of great crafty stuff...the yarn department was similar to ACMoore. Not really a TRUE yarn store...but I got a couple of patterns and some neat 100% merino New Zealand nubbly wool in a fantastic neon green to make Ben a hooded vest. I also found some other crafty items to bring home to the kids as gifts...AND they took my 40% off ACMoore coupon...cool! Here is Laurin pointing out the sign...
Oh, I forgot my pic of my Trekking socks in Progress...trekking in VT...or actually swimming, I guess....
Oh, forgot another pic...this is the totally beautiful knitting bag that Heather made for me. You can't tell how nice it is until you look inside...lots of pocket and fun, sparkly accents/fabric. What a great bag!
Yawn...okay...your eyeballs are dry from reading and my fingers are falling off. Hope you enjoyed reading about our VT trip. I had a fun time, but couldn't wait to get home to the kids. I missed them so much. Happy Knitting!
4 comments:
Thanks for the picture show and story of your weekend. Looks like you had a great trip (other than the closed store)! I, too, would have spent as much time as possible at the pool.
Thanks for the run down and great pics! Sure looks like you guys had fun!!!
Your weekend sounds delightful and Vermont looks mighty tempting. If I wasn't afraid of leaving my extended family I'd pack up and move there. Between the pictures you've shown and Jessie's farm pictures and descriptions I'm enamoured.
What a great blog entry. Thanks for the info. What an upsetting story about KYarn. You should email them or write a letter, don't you think? I would also very upset, especially because you called a head! WOW. I want to hear more about the Jade Cashmere because of that email I sent you. Curious about the yarn weight and the yardage and the price!! LOL Email me!! :)
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