Vermont is for knitters! I had such a relaxing, wonderful time in the Huntington/Burlington area for my dear friend's wedding this past weekend. I narrowly avoided a knitting disaster with the Flower Basket Shawl, and it turned out PERFECT (if I do say so myself!) Two Sundays ago, as we were driving to Charleston to take my sister to the airport, I somehow lost the pattern to shawl... It must have fallen out the car at some point with all the loading and unloading of sister, luggage, baby, stroller, etc. On the same road trip, I knitted up the last few yards of my last skein of yarn with five rows and the bind-off left to complete the project! It was not my day... My friend who taught me how to knit, Dawn from California who is pregnant with a little boy, emailed me the pattern with lightening speed-- Thanks, Dawn! One disaster down, one to go. I guess the yarn shortage wouldn't have been that big of a deal if I hadn't run out on Sunday, discovered that the yarn store (in Columbia, one hour+ away) was closed on Monday, and scheduled myself to work from 7am to 7pm on Tuesday. That left me only Wednesday to procure the yarn, finish knitting the shawl, pack our family, and ready the house for leaving Thursday morning. Then what about blocking??? While at work on Tuesday, I called the store and had a momentary freak-out that the yarn was sold out. I realized at this point that maybe I should have ripped back the last repeat and made the shawl slightly smaller instead of waiting and packing all day on Monday! The wonderful and friendly store owner at In The Loop, Lara, found me a skein, and my mom drove to Columbia to pick it up. How am I 29 years old and my mom is still taking care of me? Anyway, moving on... I finished the shawl Wednesday morning and decided not to block it (which I wasn't exactly sure how to do) until I got to Vermont. The good news about this is that I would get to visit a local VT yarn store! On Friday in Vermont, after some coffee and maple syrup, we drove to Essex Junction to the knitter's heaven, Kaleidoscope Yarns. The shopkeepers were so helpful, and so I had to pick up a few extra souvenirs... the long-coveted Namaste Newport bag in the saddle color... a ball of Opal Rainforest yarn in Daggy... and the super-cute Prehistoric Pals pattern by Knitting at Knoon. My kid needs a Noro Triceratops!.. Oh, and I picked up some T-pins for blocking. The shawl was blocked and dry by Friday night... Here is a picture of it blocking on the daybed in our room at Sleep Hollow Inn. Honestly, I had little idea what I was doing when I pinned it out. I figured the bride was going to be holding still very much, so it didn't matter if it wasn't perfectly symmetrical. I would love to become a better blocker... as I see more lace shawls on the horizon.

Here is the lovely bride in the FO!