Craft Show in the AM

Well, I have no pictures because my camera is currently shot (no pun intended!) but first thing in the AM Serendipity will be at the Valley Central High School Holiday Craft Festival. Stop by and get some holiday shopping done, (wouldn't it be nice to avoid all the crowds!). It is from 10am-3pm.
Hopefully tomorrow night I will get some serious blogging done (is any of it really "serious"?!?) and upload some pics I have sitting here (Rhinebeck, anyone??).
Also, be sure to check back on Wednesday for the upcoming sales in the shop for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I have lots to be thankful for and will be passing that appreciation on!

Rhinebeck in pictures:

This year's Sheep & Wool Festival was last weekend and I was there both days.
There were alpacas (but the pictures came out blurry). So this is all I have :(


Some majestic llamas said hello:

Sheep competitions:

A yurt (which was very warm inside!!)

Some sheep (which I thought looked like they had alpaca faces) apparently (according to the sign near them), they are Border Cheviots (so cute!):

I loved the face of this ram, I took a bunch of pictures of him but he kept moving, finally hejust sat his face on the fence as if to say, "here, cheese"!

A goat trying to escape:

A nice man, knitting with some BIG sticks!

Lots of crowds:

With pretty fall colors:

Mmmmm....gyros for lunch:

And a nice bunch of new purchases!
How was your Rhinebeck?

Yeah!! It's almost here!!

Rhinebeck, that is! Two more days until tons of knitters, crocheters, spinners, and so many more will descend upon Rhinebeck, NY for the very large NYS Sheep & Wool Festival. My mother and I will be going both days this year to enjoy all the fibery splendor, though I am hoping the weather moves itself along since I live nearby and they are calling for very cold days and, get this, snow!! I will not be a vendor this year but am looking into possibly having a booth for 2010, thoughts??

The problem with that, of course, being that I won't be able to see or enjoy as much if I am stuck in the same place! I am very excited to be going this year as I could really use the break in life that this little getaway brings. I wish I had had more time to finish a large and fabulous project, like a new sweater, or somesuch but family obligations and business work has taken precedent. Thinking about this the other day it occured to me that I have many of the yarns I bought at last year's Rhinebeck and was wondering how many of you do the same? This was brought up in a chat room on Rav recently as well. What's the consensus? Are we all hoarding our coveted Rhinebeck purchases??

And in Serendipity shop news, I am running a sale now through Sunday for 10% off all purchases made online. So be sure and check it out. I am posting more yarns Thursday and Friday as well and will combine shipping on multiple purchases.

Also, if you happen to see me at Rhinebeck (I will have on my Rav pin with my name LILM4105 on it), say Hi and I will be sure to give you a card with a coupon code for 20% a purchase in the Etsy shop. So don't be shy!!

Hope everyone's enjoying fall and the changing colors, better hurry the snow's on it's way!

Endless Mountains Fiber Festival Review

Serendipity Hand-dyed and Hand-painted Yarn & Roving had it's first show booth at this years Endless Mountains Fiber Festival in Harford, PA. It was a lovely show, perfect size if you ask me. You could walk the show in one day, decide what you like the most and go back around to buy, which many people did! I met lots of great people and got lots of great feedback on the yarn. We sold all but one of the roving so I will be dyeing more of that in the very near future!


There was plenty of fiber (and lots of alpaca) for everyone but it wasn't crowded at all like some of the larger shows have become. There were some animals like these llamas who were across from our booth:

And some colored goats that were for sale (aren't they adorable!):

The weather was a bit iffy the first day with off and on rain but that made for a good bunch of people who showed up knowing it was inside a barn and would be covered, second was nicer. I had lots of fun and will definitely be going back again next year. I would recommend this fiber show to anyone who can make it.
In Serendipity Shop news, I have to be out of town this weekend but next week will be posting a large amount of new colorways and with this chill in the air, will be running a little sale.

Loss: Acceptance: New Beginnings

I know I've been neglecting this blog but life has been very hectic and I'm still not sure how to put that out there for the world to see.

On July 28th, my puppy, Smasher passed away. He wasn't really a puppy, at 4 years old, but he certainly wasn't ready for the fate that awaited him. My brother, who was here visiting, woke me around 3:30am to say something was wrong with Smash's breathing.

After calling the animal hospital we got his 102lb. self in the van and raced off in the dead of night......he died on the way.

The vet worked on him for about 30 minutes and then called it and at 4:38am told me my dog had died of what was most likely bloat. I had no idea what that was but apparently, it's very common.

After I collected myself, filled out some papers, paid and left the vet, I somehow made it home though I don't remember the ride. I climbed into bed and all the kids joined me and I told them what had happened. We all cried together for a good, long, time. To be honest I just couldn't believe how much I was going to miss him.

It took me a day or two to really gather myself because I really felt as if I had just lost my best friend. I just kept thinking how great he was and how irreplaceable in my family he had become. He was a german shepherd-dobie mix and weighed 102 lbs. but he was a big, sweet baby. He would bark like crazy to scare people and protect us but wouldn't hurt a soul.

When I was pregnant with my daughter, my husband was working nights and I would go and sit on the living room floor in the dark with him. He would lay his head on my belly as if he knew she was in here and just peer up at me, like he was telling me I was safe; I wasn't alone.

When she came, he was her personal protector. He would bark like crazy and come running if she tried to climb on the counter or went on the front porch or anything he thought she wasn't supposed to be doing. She would lay on him and watch tv and he would just lay there no matter what. Whenever anyone would cry, he would come running and sit there with his head in your lap, raising his eyebrows as if to say, "it's ok, I'm here now". I always felt safe alone because he was always there watching out for us.

Christmas morning last year.

After a few weeks had passed I noticed that our house felt so empty and that my family was always going to be a dog family. I began looking on Petfinder.com and craigslist and emailed tons to my family, but I wasn't truly ready. So in the beginning of September my family and I were out running errands and they suggested that we stop at the shelter, just to look. I wasn't feeling terribly well so I wasn't really up to it but gave in anyway. Once there we looked at some pups and there was a litter of very young puppies who had just arrived. The kids were at the fence petting them all except 1, who was sitting all alone, by herself, waiting patiently. She was the smallest one of all, the runt as they call them. Now it is my experience (mostly proof from my family!) that the runts are the toughest. I walked up to the fence and she walked straight up to me and put her paw to my hand through the fence. In that moment, it was decided. My DH looked at me and said "well, she just picked you" and we filled out the adoption forms. Four days later she was spayed and we brought my new baby home!

Along with a kitten (!) that my oldest refused to leave without! They had both just come into the shelter and decided that our family was to be theres.

I will never forget my Smasher and all the trials we faced together.

However, I know that my family is able to love and give a home to someone special (or two someones as in this case!). If anyone reading this has lost a pet they loved, I send you my sympathies because I know it hurts something awful. But I also know that it slows and dims over time and the happier moments begin to shine through. So if you can, when you're ready, please go to a shelter and take home a new friend. I promise you, they'll let you know how appreciative they are and who doesn't love having someone to come home to? :-)

PA Endless Mountains Fiber Festival

Seredipity Hand-dyed and Hand-painted yarns will be at this weekend's PA Endless Mountains Fiber Festival. It is Sat. 10-5pm and Sun. 10-4pm. If you're able to, please be sure and stop by, (mention you read about it here on the blog and receive 10% off your purchase). So, if you can, come on down ( or up as the case may be), pet an alpaca, check out some yarn and say Hi. I'll be in booth #30.

And then there were four....

Broken needles that is. I have NEVER broken a knitting needle and I have knitted quite a few socks. I have only ever used some kind of wood (usually bamboo) so I was excited to get these needles (Knit Picks Harmony DPNs) but now, not so much. I have been (very slowly) plugging along with the Classic Socks and then night before last this happened:



I have NEVER broken a knitting needle before these and I have knitted quite a few socks. Two of them were broken when I was on the ribbed edging at the top of the cuff (my sister and daughter were playing and landed on them, no injuries just 2 broken needles!). I was able to knit with one as long as I only used one side, then a 3rd broke WHILE I WAS KNITTING and a 4th snapped (along with my patience) while I was checking how far along I was against my leg. Needless to say I am not happy about it. Since I very obviously could not use these for the rest of this project I have switched to some bamboo dpn's and have been continuing along just fine.
Hopefully, I will finish these sometime in the near future! I really like the pattern and the way they are turning out but they seem to be taking forever. The pattern is written to be done two at a time but I (stupidly) decided to do them on DPNs and now have to start all over again with the second sock (Arghhhh!). I keep reminding myself STRESS FREE Summer of Socks but am beginning to wonder why I didn't start my Rhinebeck sweater instead! Any idea what to do with these??




I have no words...