June 7 (yes, I'm still playing blogging catch up) was the annual Granite State Knit In at Loon Mountain... a wonderful hot and long day of knitting, classes, shopping and friends. This was my second time attending and I did enjoy it even more than last year! Joanne was presented with the opportunity to vend this year, so she, blogless Cheryl and I hoped on the road at the crack of dawn and headed North!
With some very creative help of my honey, we rigged a great display board for Stitch Markers by Lapdog Creations...
The day started off with classes. I took Duplicate Stitch, Celtic Cables and Gauge, which were all interesting but Duplicate Stitch was by far the best! Both Cheryl (who also took the class) & I had read about duplicate stitch several times, and we both agreed that it is one of those things that you just don't get until you are shown it first hand.
We had some great items in our goody bags this year....
I was thrilled to find out that the main gift this year was the Beanie Baggie from Mind Your Knitting! These were big at last year's Knit & Crochet show and I ended up not leaving with one, only to wish I had a few months later! Not only did we all have one of the very cool weighted baggies, but they gave us the matching Knitting Knotebook & Accessory Pouch too! I was extra thrilled that I even got the colorway that I would most want!
Following the classes, we had our shopping hour, a super yummy lunch (the baked fish was delicious!), and then we were treated to this year's keynote speaker, Miss Virgina McGlynn of the Abbot Yarn Shop in Beverly, MA. Miss Virginia was both enlightening & entertaining and she brought lots of great knitting memorabilia to show us.
Miss Virginia gave everyone some great free patterns, including this lovely shawl that both Cheryl & I are planning to make... and she graciously signed her books (I got my Finishing book signed).
I was very reserved in my shopping and only brought home a few things...
3 skeins of Cherry Tree Hill Cotton Boucle Mini (which was double discounted... I ended up spending a whopping $12.50 for all 3 skeins!)
The yarn & pattern for my Dream in Color shrug...
My final purchase was this gorgeous lace weight alpaca/silk and shawl pattern from Tree of Life Designs...
The day ended with the contest winners (none of us), the annual State Trooper visit to collect the dressed teddy bears/stuffed animals and the raffle (again, nothing).
A shot of some of the stuffed animals collected this year...
While none of us won any of the raffles, Cheryl's blogless super lucky ducky friend Beth managed to walk away with the uber grand prize (drawn from all non-winning tickets)... this beautiful, bottomless basket of goodies!
Did I mention what a hot day it was? And since Loon Mountain is known for being a ski lodge, well... there's no a/c (can you scream UGH with me?)! So what else to do, but end the day right with a stop for ice cream on the way home! The place we stopped at had a make your own sundae bar (yum-o!) and this cute guy parked out front...