Our weekend roadtrip part 2, and other oddities

So that was Saturday and Sunday.

Monday we got up and went with Anna to her pottery studio, where the magic happens. Anna is such a talented potter. She had to finish up some bells that she was working on, so we went to see where she works.

Oh, and I almost forgot. Anna and Bart went to Bangkok, Thailand earlier this year and Anna brought back this beautiful Thai silk scarf for me.

So we hit the road after lunch at a great little Italian restaurant. John was asking me if there was anything I wanted to do on the way home. We stopped at the PA Visitor's Information site, and we found some neat brochures for some shops in Amish country. We headed for a short detour to Intercourse, PA which is right in the heart of Lancaster County which has one of the largest Amish populations in the area of the country. There were handmade quilts, furniture, pottery, preserves, clothing...and it was so much fun to see. We went to one place and got some jams and jellies to try and bought a Shoo Fly Pie too. It tastes a lot like pecan pie, but without the pecans...delicious!

But the best part of our little side road adventure was the little yarn shop we found. John knew we would have to go in, and it was great. They had the standard fare, but they also had fleece ready to be spun, hand spindles, and some great handspun, hand-dyed yarn. And I bought this:

The top skein is alpaca, 600 yards of it, and the bottom skein is regular wool. Both as they came off of their respective animals. Here is a closer peek of the alpaca, it has a dark brown fiber, a grey fiber, and a lighter brown fiber all wound together....it is so beautiful, I wish I had bought more.

Then we continued the drive home. We stayed in NY state on Monday night, and then drove to John's parents' cottage in Wolcott for Tuesday. It rained heavily on and off all day, but we had a nice day with the family.

Unfortunately it was back to reality for Wednesday. Now that the holiday weekend is over, I have class two nights a week now until the beginning of August. EEEKKKKK! That makes for a lot of busy time, not so much knit time. We did decide to slow down and take a breather this weekend, though. My brother came down to visit Friday night, and we went to the Kendall Carnival. Yesterday I went to dinner, the mall and the movies to see Cars with Karen and Eric and the kids. It was a really cute movie. Today is chores and knitting day. I've finally started on my Florida bag, but I've really only cast on so there will be no pictures of that now. And I have to get started on my project for my One Skein Secret Pal exchange...what to knit...?