The Power of Connecting

In recent years, the most profound times of growth and satisfaction in my life have been the times where I've been able to connect at a very meaningful level with people.

Plus, I get to wake up on Saturday morning and open my door to this:

The trees had just started to change color, but Autumn wasn't in full bloom yet.  Weather was gorgeous.  I forgot the memory card for my camera (again!) so, I only took these two photos on my iPhone.

Connection Batteries Recharged!

This past weekend I went up to the Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival (SAFF), which has turned out to be my very favorite type of these events for a number of reasons.

First of all, it's smaller than Maryland Sheep & Wool and Rhinebeck...quite a bit smaller.  But it's also MUCH less crowded than either of them as well.  The smaller size provides ample time to speak with most of the vendors, shop in a leisurely way for fiber, and not wait in ridiculous lines for food.  I have a feeling, this event will start to outgrow itself within a few years.

It's bigger than the NJ Sheep Breeders Festival. I love the NJ event, because its 10 minutes from my house, but the small size of the event doesn't allow it to have the same range of independent dyers and interesting vendors as some of the larger events.  SAFF has a wider variety of excellent vendors and I always end up finding items that I can't find at my local yarn store.

But more importantly than the size of the event, is the fact that SAFF takes place in the same town where the annual Men's Spring Knitting Retreat is held, and I get the chance to spend a night at Easton Mountain when I go to SAFF.  We always get at least a couple of the guys from the retreat attending SAFF and this year was no exception.

I got to see Aaron and his brother Steven and Steven's son Darius (not a knitter yet).  Also, I got to see Steve, Dave, Kirk and his husband, Matt.  And Rob and I spent a great night at Easton Mountain before the event and hung out on Saturday at the event.  I also got a chance to meet and chat with a blog reader, Jeff who was a delight as well.

SAFF

In addition to the knitter-men I communed with, I also found two new vendors to me, who I needed to by yarn from:

Mt. Rutsen Studios - Rhinebeck, NY

I couldn't have been more thrilled with some of the colorways in Pat's yarns, so I bought three hanks to make two pairs of socks.

I'll use the orange as the contrasting toes and heels yarn and to extend the amount of yarn in the green colorway to make a decent size man's sock.

Michael Hampton at Hampton Fiber Mill & Spinnery - Richmond, VT

Michael was a delight...and his yarn was beautiful as well (and rather inexpensive, I thought).  I bought a sweater's worth of worsted weight yarn in two colors that have inspired me lately when I've seen them mixed.

His mill is about 2.5 hours drive from Easton Mountain, but I would love to drive out there before the retreat to get a tour of it.