MORE TRAVELING

WHEW .............  TGIF and all that jazz.  I am exhausted. Wonder if I can remember what I 've been doing since I last posted. Come take a little journey with me on my adventures in wool land for the past week.

 DF Karen came up last Friday to spend a long weekend with us. She arrived on Friday afternoon and I quickly whisked her off to a not so local yarn shop called The Local Needle in Macclenny FL.  Karen is doing a KAL with this shop and Joan had special ordered some yarn and shipped it to Karen.  It was fun seeing Karen's project in it's final stages.  LN has knit night two fridays a month but we opted not to stay since Karen had already had a long drive up from South Florida.  She treated me to a wonderful evening at a favorite local bistro called Biscotti's near my work.  We had a delicious cheese tray and some lovely reisling and finished with a great spinach cobb salad. 

 On Saturday our annual rug guild hook was held in Jacksonville.  It was a great time had by all.  You'll have to take my word for it since I did not take one single photo. BOO HISSSSS - I know all you closet hookers will be miffed at me for not posting a single photo of the rug exhibit.  I can only say that all I did was talk and eat.  there were many people there from surrounding areas, even as far away as GA and So Fl.  We had visitors who were interested in learning to hook, we had members who we have not seen in years - it was a wonderful but tiring day.  I did not get very much hooking done but I worked on my Peace and Plenty from Not Forgotten Farm.

Sunday was Mothers Day - I thought about posting a photo of my mom and I that Karen took for us but I looked like the great white whale but my mom looks pretty good - Oh what the heck - I'll post it anyway. We went to brunch at a lovely B&B - The Riverdale Inn in the historic area where I work that has an awesome restaurant open to the public.  The history of the mansion and some local history is contained on their website.  It's a wonderful area and I love coming to work every day in the historic Bensel House.

We went back to my house after brunch - my folks stayed and chatted for a while but they were anxious to head  home.  The minute their car left the driveway - Karen and I were plotting our next trip - HANKS YARN in Gainesville.  WHEEEEE - did we have enough time to make it worth the trip - hummm - it takes 1.5 hrs to get there and they are open till 7pm - oh and what excuse are we going to use to get out of the house - hummm - going to visit a sick friend NAH - going to shop at a sale - NOT GOOD ENOUGH - Going to shop at a sale of a store that is closing UMMM - that might work - so out the door we flew.  I am participating in a KAL at Hanks and the group was meeting Sunday afternoon - well by the time we arrived that group was all gone but we still had fun perusing even more yarn.  I failed to get photos of my purchases but I did get some photos of the shop.

Their Shop has two entrances one on each side of the building. This is a shot of the long narrow space leading to the other door.  Full of yarn of course!

On this side of the shop is another seating area, the purchasing area, the yarn winding area, a nice big window and see all the spinning wheels and accessories.  They do some dyeing of their own at this shop and they have a small dye kitchen over behind that swift which by the way is holding some lovely Malabrigo lace weight yarn that I bought.

Karen had to go home on Monday - and I had to go back to work.  Found out Monday I had to go back to Savannah - OH DARN - Savannah is just about one of my favorite places in the whole world and this time I was not leaving without visiting one of my top 5 fave yarn shops Wild Fibre.  So I got up extra early and started my drive to Savannah.  It is about 2.5 hrs from my house to the dealership the company I work for owns there in Savannah.  Our controller is a long time resident of Savannah and he loves to spoil me.  We discussed visiting Mrs Wilkes Boarding House for lunch but he said we'd have to leave early because they pack out.  OK - I was up for that - why work when you can eat and visit yarn shops LOL

Well - was Brian ever right - there must have been 50 people on the sidewalk when we got to Mrs Wilkes - URGHHH- plan B - did we have a plan B??  Brian said he thought I would love Soho Cafe and it was only a block down from the newly relocated Wild Fibre.  MAN - did I LOVE Soho - you bet I did.  Let's go inside and take a look.

Apparently this was once a garage or repair shop of some type.  See the top of the huge roll up bay doors and there was an exposed ceiling with piping and so forth.  Hope I got a photo of the neat chandeliers they had hanging from those rustic pipes.  It was a very ecclectic place and the food and atmosphere was awesome.  Brian can sure pick the place.  There was artwork for sale displayed all around this enormous venue.  Here are a few more shots of the artwork and seating areas.Doesn't that look like Alice in Wonderland or Mary Englebreit meets Alice in Wonderland.  Needless to say - I can NOT wait to go back to Savannah and spend a whole day having lunch at Soho and visiting with my friend Jennifer who owns Wild Fibre.

So after a delicious lunch - we walked a block down to the new space Wild Fibre has secured.  Oh look - here's the stepsAlmost there - can't wait !!!!!!!!!!!!!!OH MY goodness - here is my first glance inside.  What wonderful light coming in from these huge windows.  I did not have time to ask Jennifer about the history of the building but my presumption is that it was once a private residence that has been divided up for retail spaces.  Look at that lovely marble fireplace.

Did I ever have a hard time making a selection from this delectible wall of wool.Another fireplace and a cozy seating area.

Such a lovely space - look at the hard wood floors.  WHHAAAAA - I did not want to leave but I had to make a quick decision and bid farewell to the sweet Savannah.  I'll be back again soon - you can bet that.

I promise in my next post to show you some of the lovely yarns I purchased on this trip and maybe just maybe - a finish of a HUGE project that I have worked on literally for years.

As a reward sticking with me on my journey - I am going to have a giveaway. Not a lot of stipulations - if you are a stitcher, hooker or knitter - just give me your preference of prize and I'll surprise you with a little gift.  Just leave me a comment on "THIS" post and I'll draw for a winner on Memorial Day 5/31. 

I enjoy hearing from you all and reading your blogs.