I had a Saturday off with no obligations and planned to stop by the SAFONA Fiber Festival. It was being held about a 45 minute drive from home through some Amish farmland and pretty historic parts of Pennsylvania. The whole drive out had me making a mental checklist of all the places I wanted to see on the way home – wineries, shops, etc. Met some wonderful people and made purchases from Rock Creek Yarn, Wolle’s Yarn Creations, and Black Diamond Alpacas. All are wonderful vendors and I had a blast taking time to chat with each of them and oogle their display items. Practiced my knitter’s handshake a few times (grab knitted item, squeeze, ask wearer if he/she made it). After having my fill of fiber, I turned the car around for the adventure back home.
First stop was the Goodville Fabric Outlet which is basically a HUGE warehouse filled to the top with fabric. All kinds of fabric. Cheap fabric! It was really overwhelming and while I wasn’t looking for anything specific, it was really neat to stop there and find the deals for future reference.
Then I came across the Poole Forge which had been turned into a beautiful park with a classic red covered bridge, winding stream, and lovely old stone buildings. I stopped for a while with the camera, smiled at an Amish man passing by with his buggy, and took in what had become a gorgeous afternoon.
Next stop was Olde Peddler Wools. Great shop with a good variety of classic, workhorse yarns – the stuff that is cost efficient and quality fiber. It’s a shame that they’re not closer to home!
The next detour was the Kog Hill Winery. When I walked in, the gal behind the counter who was running wine tastings was KNITTING! She had just learned and was working on a garter stitch scarf. We chatted about knitting as she fed me wine samples, and it was one of many random-acts-of-randomness that really made the day. Bought some wine, wished her luck with the knitting, and headed back out.
Wineries? Pennsylvania has a lot of them, and it’s almost hard to drive more than 10 miles without running across at least one and the next detour brought me to another winery. Most of them produce decent wine – stuff that’s delightful to drink, but nothing really world-class incredible. The J Maki Winery is not that kind of winery. Their wines BLEW ME AWAY, specifically the Gewurztraminer which is a really unique interpretation of that grape. The reds were dry – just how I like them – and the ice wine, particularly the Cabernet Franc ice wine, was phenomenal. Really quite the gem of a vineyard, and I will definitely visit again to pick up some more wine.
My final stop before home was the Glasslight Studio. I took a detour for a historic sign that didn’t pan out the way I thought it would and ended up passing this place on the way. After being greeted by a large, black Bouvier mutt (who later nudged my arm for more head-scritches and buttrubs), one of the glass artists talked to me for at least a half hour about the glass blowing classes they offer. He let me look in on the class that was in progress and took my email address for future classes.
I know this post has gotten long, but honestly, the whole day was filled with such wonderful people and I really needed this kind of a day after a sort of rotten week. Now, a photo!
