Languishing in the Leaves

I had a wee bit of a cold last week and felt tired for 10 minutes. Upon walking into our back yard in Cumberland, the colorful, dry, crisp leaves beckoned me. I laid down in the sunshine and boy, did that feel good! This was my worm's eye view.


The dogs have had this figured out for awhile and wondered what I was doing in their space. I had to shoo them away so I could 'rest'.


They kept a close eye on me though.


A beautiful fall day, and now I feel a whole lot better.

Break Time

After cranking it out for a few weeks, dyeing, skeining, labeling, painting, decorating, fusing, fussing, beading, felting, knitting....I'm taking a break for a week. I woke up to this Monday morning. I love this view across the road from us. I walked out in my jammies and got these photos. The mist was just rising from the lowlands.




Sunday night right after studio tour I met a group of friends to do our full moon paddle. This is the Hunter Moon and it was big, bold and orange as it was rising
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The first night there were about 12 of us. My friend, Ann, was away and was sorry she missed it, so I said I'd to it again Monday night. So Penny, Ann and I went out. The weather has been so perfect, unseasonably warm for mid-October, so we just had to take advantage. I'd be home knitting and watching tv and this is just so much better.


We paddled up to a nearby island, with the sky turning a bright pink and the moon rising behind us.


The water is quite low and there's a huge driftwood log in the middle of the Potomac.


It's covered in grasses and looks rather eery. We saw a heron on it one time.


This is the entrance to the cove where we beach our kayaks and set up cocktails.


A few times ago there was this washed up drum and the next time we went a flat piece of plywood washed up and makes a perfect tabletop. I'm hoping the next time that 4 tall bar stools wash up. Tuesday night was another beautiful evening so 5 of us women went out again. This time we had a table cloth and a candle. And plenty of wine.


Then on Thursday I went riding with 3 friends from Poolesville. We had planned on ending up at Harper's Ferry but rain turned us back at Brunswick.


This is a just completed renovation of the bridge going over one of the creeks on the Canal.


I saw these amazing bright orange mushrooms. I screeched to a halt, turned around and had to get a closer look.


Outrageous color!


And these cute little numbers.... like fuzzy hats. 'Shrooms are so incredible.


And then every other day, I'm biking around the mountain. The soybeans are turning bright golden and the trees are changing colors more every day.






This is my favorite building on the ride. It's an old general store near Park Mill's Road. I wish it was stocked with goods and we could stop in and get a pop and a candy bar.


Poison ivy is beautiful this time of year.


Fixer upper: with just a little bit of work, a front porch, some columns, windows, a floor, plumbing, electricity, siding, and paint, this would be a great place!


but this place is adorable, with Sugarloaf Mountain in the distance.


Tina riding through the canopy on Mt. Ephraim Road.


We zip by these stone bridges but I never tire of looking at them.




This is Little Bennet, so peaceful. One time Tina and I saw a doe and her twin fawns slowly walking across this river.


You'll find me out biking every day that it's nice. Cya!

Studio Mess

I came back to this! I think someone vandalized my studio! There were crates strewn about, bins topsy turvy, drawers and cupboards thrown open and yarn everywhere.


Things were definetely in disarray.


This is why I tell people not to come by right after a festival. What a mess! I have only a few days to put it all back together, so customers think I'm this totally organized person.




And after many hours, the yarn got put back on the shelves...


the Slubby got hung on the racks....


the jewelry was placed in the cubbies...


and it was all ready to go.


Welcome to the Fall Studio Tour.


Lea Stern came out Friday during the tour and brought this gorgeous sweater for show and tell. She'd bought my hand dyed roving last year, spun it, plied it and knit this most amazing garment.


Bins of sale yarn, needles, samples and jewelry. Luckily it's a beautiful, sunny, dry weekend and I'm able to use the outdoors for display.


Two girls


and two more. This is the last day of the fall tour (Sunday) so hope to see you.

Fall Fiber Fest

Garrett and I arrived at the Fall Fiber Fest last Friday after sitting in traffic for too long. We were able to set the booth up mostly during daylight so that was a bonus. I get 2 spaces there under a tent (unfortunately this year I was under the yellow striped one and it distorts my colorways) but it's a relatively easy set up as I can pull my pickup and trailer right up to the space. And it helps that I had a strong 23 year old hauling for me. Paybacks are hell! After setting up we had our Sheetz sandwiches and some wine (chardonnay goes great with a hot chicken sandwich!), took a look at the sky full of stars and crawled into our 'motel' for the night, our U-haul trailer. I had brought our tent, but when I saw the empty trailer, I thought "What the hell! Let's just sleep in that!" I was afraid that the door would slam down and trap us in there so we put our boots in the way. We were warm (sort of) and dry and it was really dark and worked just fine for us. And we saved $130!


The weather was perfect, not disgustingly hot, not muddy and not dusty. Yeah! My space was chock-a-block full of color.


I had this sign made earlier this year and love it. Garrett designed my logo. That's really my slubby yarn and a photo of my sheep.


Garrett modeling the "Guy Scarf" knit from our sheep Brambles. (It's Brambles!)


The FFF has been held for 22 years I think and I've been going for 18 of them. Wow, time flies when you're knitting! I do really like this fest as it's small (50 vendors) and just a few hours away.


Besides the fiber vendors, the sheep dog trials are a main part of this event.


It's fascinating to watch these working dogs herd the sheep. They are SO fast. When I had bad fencing in the olden days on the farm, my sheep were always getting out. They would take off down the road of course, heading towards the blind curve with oncoming traffic. I always wished I had one of these dogs to herd them back to the property and keep them controlled. Instead I ran after them, throwing my clogs at them and cursing. We now have better fencing and they haven't gotten out in years.




Our favorite food vendor is the "Donut Man". These are the best donuts in the world. They're simple cake donuts but made with all organic ingredients with the secret ingredient being fresh apple cider. oops, not a secret anymore. They're lightly coated in sugar and served warm. Yummmmmmmmmm!


We seized a few for sure.


This is the train depot across from the festival grounds. This is all part of Montpelier, the home of James Madison. They've just completed a total renovation of the house, which we didn't see and are now working on this cute depot. So, it was a good show, saw lots of folks that have been regular customers for all these years, ate donuts, got to spend the whole weekend with one of my sons and even sold some yarn. Life is good.