knitting

Festivals, Yarn Dyeing, and Knitting; Oh My!

There has been a lot going on since my last post. There have been festivals, yarn dyeing, knitting, and more.

Festivals

I wanted to write this post so many times in the last three weeks. By the time the days priorities were completed, I had no steam left.

The first weekend in September, after Labor Day, I was in Jefferson, WI for the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival. What a great weekend it was too! The weather was cool and sunny. It was super busy all three days. I left totally exhausted and needing to dye more yarn. More on that in the next section.

Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival Knitting Notions booth

The third weekend in September, was the 29th annual Wool Gathering at Young’s Jersey Dairy in Yellow Springs, OH. This is an outdoor event in big tents. The weather was hot and sunny for setup day on Friday and also on Saturday. It was cloudy with some afternoon showers on Sunday. The attendance was great even in the heat. Thanks to all who support the vendors no matter what the weather. :-) I especially enjoyed seeing Maureen of KnittingIsSoFun blog. It was so lovely chatting!

wool gathering festival Knitting Notions booth

I had a short day and a half at home, and now I am on the way to Winchester, VA. This coming weekend is the Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival. I drove halfway up today and will finish the drive tomorrow. I will be setting up the booth on Friday. I am excited to see another blog friend there over the weekend. :-)

Yarn Dyeing

So, as mentioned above, after Wisconsin Sheep &Wool Festival, there were some gaps in the yarn inventory. I wasn’t out of anything yet, but the weekend between the two festivals was my only time home long enough to re-dye some yarn. So, yarn dyeing was what we did on the second weekend in September.

I spent most of three days getting the dye and yarn prep work done. Saturday and Sunday were dyeing days, and Monday and Tuesday was spent labeling and storing. Wednesday was packing for Wool Gathering. I had one day after returning from Ohio to reload the trailer with a few things and pack my stuff again. That brings me up to today where I am now, in southwest Virginia for the night. Whew!

It will probably not be a surprise that not a lot of knitting has happened in the last three weeks. I did manage to complete the knitting of the back piece of my Summershine Top. I have begun and knit the ribbing for the front piece, but that is it.

I may be planning to knit the Stephen West MKAL when it launches. I will be in VA that week with a few days to rest between festivals. I have not picked what colors of Classic Merino Superwash Sock I plan to use. I’ll let you know in my next post. This year’s palette is four colors, and I will probably do a gradient set. Is anyone else taking the plunge this year?

Reading

I’ll end this post with a reading update of what I have finished and what I am currently reading.

During my drive to and from Wisconsin, I ended up listening to Gilead**** by Marilynne Robinson. I enjoyed the story but I don’t know that I will read the other books in the series.

During my drive to and from Ohio, and still continuing during my drive to Virginia, I am listening to Blackwater: The Complete Saga by Michael McDowell. This is classified as Horror, but honestly it’s not that really. It’s more of a family saga with a weird monster/supernatural element. The prose isn’t bad, but it’s not fancy either. I am enjoying the story even if it is a bit strange.

I am almost finished with my bedtime reading; Light in August by William Faulkner. Now this one is some fine prose. I love Faulkner’s writing. I am enjoying the story too. Definitely a ****1/2!

I started The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith/J.K.Rowling. I only read the first 12 chapters though. I decided to save it until I finished Faulkner so I can devote ALL my attention to it this week. I am excited to really dig in soon!

Okay, I am kinda tired and really to chill for the evening. I’ll be back soon. Thanks for reading!

Posted on September 24, 2025September 24, 2025 by yarnmama — 2 Comments

Currently Knitting and Reading in Pittsburgh

I am currently knitting and reading in Pittsburgh on my two day break before the Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival.

Travel and Festivals

I’ll get to the knitting and reading in a moment but let’s talk about my travels first.

Last weekend was the Michigan Fiber Festival and it was indeed a hot one this year. The crowds were a bit smaller this year, probably due to the heat. We still sold lots of stuff and thanks to all who came out to support the vendors! You can see my latest booth sample in my Classic Merino Bamboo hanging on the end of my yarn displays. It got some interest.

Knitting Notions booth Michigan Fiber Festival 2025

I drove to Pittsburgh on Monday. I had a nice drive over and arrived in the early afternoon. I got checked in and unloaded at the hotel and then went to the nearby grocery to restock a few provisions.

I am currently having a two day layover before setting up the booth on Thursday. I am enjoying just hanging out with my books and my knitting. I am pretty easily entertained. :-)

The festival is over three days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Check the link above if you would like more details. If you are in the area, please stop in and say hello. My booths are in the Green Tree Ballroom.

I’ll be on my way back to Nashville on Monday. Even though I am enjoying my time here I am also looking forward to going home. Twelve days is a long time to be away.

Knitting

Okay, so I have had less time to knit that it seems I should have. The truth is that until Monday evening after I arrived here, I didn’t have much downtime in Michigan. I didn’t bring my knitting to the booth since it was hot and I thought I wouldn’t have knitting time anyway.

I had begun the body of my Summershine Top before leaving Nashville. I have made progress. I have worked through two and a half repeats of the chart.

Reading

In my last update I told you that I was re-reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I finished that yesterday and it was glorious as always. This was what I brought in the booth to occupy me in the slower periods of the day. I have the physical book, but I also have the Barnes and Noble Classic edition on my Nook.

While I was driving up to Michigan last Wednesday, I did start listening to Beach Music***** by Pat Conroy. Oh my goodness! His writing and storytelling are unbelievable! If you have not read him, you should, if you enjoy beautiful prose and excellent charter driven books. I am not finished with this yet but it is a 5 star read for me already.

I also began a re-read of Light in August by William Faulkner, for Faulkner in August. I am only on the first chapter, but again the writing! I don’t remember liking this as much last time but I am very in to it this time. It’s funny, I looked up my prior review on Goodreads, and I read it in August of 2012. I guess, I am in the habit of reading Light in August in the month of August which seems appropriate, yes?

Okay, I’ll close for the moment and see you in the next one. Thanks for reading!

Posted on August 20, 2025August 20, 2025 by yarnmama — 2 Comments

A New Vest and Carolina Fiber Fest

I am home from Carolina Fiber Fest and I have finished knitting my new vest pattern.

New Vest

I am quite happy with how the new vest turned out. My favorite feature is the decreases in the V-neck. It grew a couple inches in length. I knit the body to 14″ and after blocking it is closer to 16″. I am fine with the extra length.

I was a bit annoyed that the size I knit used 305g of yarn. I had to begin a 4th skein when knitting the edgings. If the body was a few inches shorter, it probably would have used under 300g.

I have not gotten started on writing up the pattern. I have good notes to work from so I should only take a couple weeks to get it all tidied up. This should be easy to modify to suit the knitter’s preferences too. I’ll let you know when I have it ready to go.

Carolina Fiber Fest

The main reason I have this vest finished is due to some extra down time while I was in Raleigh for the Carolina Fiber Fest. Because of the nasty storms last weekend, I decided it would be safer to stay an extra day. The storms were to the west of NC on Saturday, so we were fine for the festival. Sunday was the day I should have been driving home but the storms were still headed right towards me. I would rather ride out the weather in the hotel than out on the road with a trailer. It got windy and stormy and there was a tornado watch for part of the day and night, but it was a bit less scary than what went on with those storms on Friday and Saturday.

Monday the weather was chilly and still rainy in NC, but the windy, scary stuff was over. I opted to take the alternate route through Virginia instead of the pass through Asheville. It was only 10 miles longer and Google predicted it was a bit faster.

The festival went great as usual. It was nice to have so much less traffic at the fairgrounds. There was a quilt show going on somewhere but it wasn’t an issue. I filmed a short booth walk through video for something different.

This week

I am catching up on a few things this week since I am home this weekend. I will be back out on the road Thursday. I will be headed to Ann Arbor for the Spring Fiber Expo. It’s at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds. I expect it will be chilly but it’s a fun smaller festival. If you are in the area, pop in a say hello! The market hours are Saturday 9-5 and Sunday 10-4.

See you again soon! Thank you for reading!

Posted on March 22, 2025March 22, 2025 by yarnmama — 5 Comments

A Knitting and Festival Update From Raleigh

Good morning friends! This will be a knitting and fiber festival update coming to you from Raleigh, NC.

Fiber Festival Updates

Let’s begin this post with our recent and upcoming fiber festival attendances.

Last Friday and Saturday we had a big time at the Middle Tennessee Fiber Festival in Dickson, TN. I am so happy that this festival is still going strong. The weather was a bit chilly and windy but the fiber people turned up and made it spectacular! We had plenty of wool, so we aren’t bothered by cool temperatures. It’s nice to be able to go home each night too.

Currently I am in Raleigh, NC for the Carolina Fiber Festival. The drive yesterday was long but uneventful. I wasn’t sure which route I would take. I had been leaning towards taking I-81 to I-77. The recently reopened the I-40 corridor from TN to NC that runs through Asheville. I was concerned about going that way due to the lane restrictions with my trailer. When I got to the I-40/I-81 split though, I decided to go for it and try the Asheville route. I didn’t love the narrow lane in the restricted part, but that was only a couple of sections. It was probably about 20 miles total, so not too bad. I may opt for the other way when I return home on Sunday.

I will be partially setting up the booth today and finishing it tomorrow. This festival is also a Friday/Saturday show. The hours are 9-6 on both days. I am excited that we will not be on the same weekend as the dog show this year. The dog show people took up so much of the parking, which was frustrating.

Knitting

In other news, I have some exciting progress with the vest project. I finished the knitting of the front and it is blocked. I need to sew the side and shoulder seams. When that is done, I can knit the arm and neck edgings. As you can see, I decided to go with a V-neck.

The remaining yarn from my third skein is only 22g. I am hoping this will last for the edgings, but I am dubious. I brought a fourth skein with me in case I need it.

On Sunday, while I was waiting for the vest front to dry, I cast on for my second sock with the sock blank. I have worked a couple inches of the cuff. It is a nice alternate project.

Okay, I will close for now and start getting ready to head to the fairgrounds. See you next time!

Posted on March 12, 2025March 12, 2025 by yarnmama — 4 Comments

Scenic Stitches and Sock Knitting

It’s Fiber Festival season and time for our first show of 2025. I have also completed the first half of a new pair of hand knit socks.

Scenic Stitches Fiber Festival

I am off to Chattanooga, TN tomorrow for the brand new Scenic Stitches Fiber Festival. I am excited, that there is another show in my home state.

I am making the drive and setting up the booth on Friday. My booth numbers are 61-62 which is in the middle and towards the front of the hall ( I think) . The market is open on Saturday Feb. 1 from 9-6, and Sunday Feb. 2 from 9-5. There are lots of things going on besides the vendor market too. Please to a moment to check out the website for more details.

I have also updated my Event Calendar on the website. I have at least 20 festivals booked for 2025. Oh and by the way, can you believe this is our 20th anniversary year? Crazy!

Sock Knitting

As I stated above, I have finished knitting the first of my 2×2 rib socks made from the sock blank. I love the way the colors played out. I took some basic notes to remind me of details for the second sock. I will probably get the second one cast on for occasional breaks from my other main project, the vest.

I am going to get back to work on that this weekend. It should make good booth knitting. I may be too busy but I usually like to have something with me for slower lulls. It is also great for sharing what I am working on at the moment with other knitters. You know how that is.

Birthday

My birthday was on Sunday. It was a nice quiet day at home, which is just what I like most of the time. I made a carrot cake and spent some time reading and knitting. I also did a bit of book shopping the weekend before for my birthday gifts.

Posted on January 30, 2025January 30, 2025 by yarnmama — 6 Comments

Time For Some Mending and Knitting Updates

I had a pile of items that needed mending that I worked on this week. I also have a couple of knitting updates to share.

Mending

Let’s get to the mending first.

I had several pairs for socks that had holes. I also had one pair that was knit toe up that needed the bind off repaired. In addition to these items, my favorite pair of finger-less mitts had a small hole. Last, my youngest son’s Christmas stocking had sprung a leak.

I arranged the items and some tools, including some needles and a Darning Egg, and set in to work.

I tackled the easiest mending first. The sock that needed the bind off repaired was a quick fix. Next I worked on the finger-less mitt. It was simple to pick up the row of stitches above and below. Since there was a small gap of 2 rows between, I just grafted that back together. So, I was off to a good start, and feeling accomplished. I fixed the stocking in the same manner as the mitts, since it wasn’t something to be worn. It was good enough for my purposes.

Now it was on to the three pairs of socks. There were a few holes and a few places where it was just worn thin with fabric remaining. I started off with the idea of swiss darning, in both types of damage. I tried using the method where you create a network of strands over the holes. Then you use those to use for anchor the swiss darning to the fabric. I abandoned that method because I found it tedious. I also attempted to use the technique for the thin places. I disliked that as well. I had trouble with the small stitches.

After searching on YouTube, I found another technique that I liked much better. It is essentially a knitted patch that you anchor to the fabric as you create it. I ended up using this to fix both the holes and the thin spots. I am happy with the result too. The patches bond and flatten with the sock and are comfortable on the foot.

It is easy to do. You pick up stitches a few rows away and wider than the area you want to cover. Attach your yarn and begin knitting flat. You need to have a length of yarn that will be adequate for the whole patch. Thread the other end with a darning needle. At the end of each row, thread the needle through a couple of bars, in between stitches, to anchor the patch as you knit. I also slipped the first stitch in every row.

When the patch is large enough, pick up stitches to graft it to the fabric. I did this two rows beyond the patch to allow it to flatten. The grating adds a row, so you don’t want that to buckle. I found that my Darning Egg was most helpful for the darning needle portions of this repair technique.

Knitting

Now, let’s talk about my knitting updates.

I finished the back piece of my vest design that I have been working on. I was glad that it blocked out to the size I wanted. I had been wondering if my gauge was on target, and it is.

I will be starting the front piece soon, but I am into sock again lately. I went stash diving and wound up a hand dyed sock blank I have had for 12-15 years maybe? I cast on with 0 US (2mm) needles in a 2×2 rib. I plan to keep the rib on the instep. It’s my favorite plain sock formula. I am looking forward to seeing how the colors play out.

Here is how it looked before I wound it. You can knit straight from the blank, two at a time. I don’t care for that however, so I wound them onto two separate ball winders. I started from the center where all the blue was so that would be to color of the leg. I will probably knit the first sock entirely, then cast on the second before starting the vest front. I am too curious about the sock to work on anything else right now.

Posted on January 22, 2025January 22, 2025 by yarnmama — 2 Comments

New Knitting Design Progress

I am making good progress on my knitting design. I also got some new books for Christmas.

Knitting a Vest

I have been working on my new vest design since my last post. This is the only project on which I have made progress.

I am almost to the arm hole shaping on the back piece. I am enjoying this stitch pattern. It is easy to memorize with just enough happening to keep you entertained. I usually prefer working from charts for stitch patterns, but you really don’t need one for this.

I am close to the end of the first skein of yarn already. I don’t think it will last through the arm hole shaping. I have three skein set aside for this. It looks like I will be using all three but I don’t think I’ll need more than that.

New Books for Christmas

Is there any better Christmas gift than books? Well, maybe, but they rank pretty high in my opinion. I hit the jackpot this year!

I started collecting the hardback copies of the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith (J.K.Rowling) last year. I have read them all and already own the Kindle and Audible versions. I wanted to have physical copies though since they are some of my favorites to re-read. I bought books 4 and 5 this summer. My children got my the rest of the set for Christmas. I am looking forward to re-reading these before book 8 is released.

I also hit the Barnes & Noble hard back sale the weekend after Christmas. I had some reward points to spend too. Here’s a few books I picked up. I haven’t read any of these before.

I just finished The Frozen River and I enjoyed it very much. I will definitely be reading some other books by Ariel Lawhon.

This book is set in the post Revolutionary War period in Maine. The main character is a midwife who reminds me of Clare Fraser in The Outlander series. This story is based on a real person, Martha Ballard. She was a midwife who kept a diary. I remember owning a copy of her biography, A Midwife’s Tale, but I don’t have it anymore.

I planned to start my re-read of War and Peace on January 1. I will do that as a slow, year-long read. All these new books are calling my name right now too. Which one to read first is the question. Have you read any of these?

Posted on January 2, 2025January 2, 2025 by yarnmama — 9 Comments

Holiday Knitting and a New Pair of Socks

I have some holiday knitting plans. I also have a new pair of socks to show you.

New Pair of Socks

I will begin my post with my newly finished Hedgerow Socks.

I love the simplicity of the stitch pattern. The pattern is continued in the heel flap which is a nice touch. My favorite element is the round toe decreases.

I have made these in the past but I ended up gifting the first pair. I will probably be making this pattern again. It has become my new go to sock pattern.

Holiday Knitting

I am calling this holiday knitting, because I am starting it Christmas week.

Last January I was doing some swatching of a few stitch patterns. I was planning to design a shawl or two. I tabled that idea since it was not working as I had envisioned. This week I had an idea, using one of those swatches, for a vest pattern. I plan to knit the sample and write up the pattern.

At first I was just going to make it for fingering weight yarn, using my Classic Merino Superwash Sock yarn. Later, I remembered that I had swatched the same stitch pattern in sport weight yarn. That gave me a really interesting idea. I think I will make the pattern for multiple gauges. It shouldn’t be difficult to do that.

I am knitting the vest in two pieces and seaming the sides. The neck and arm edgings will be picked up and knit later. I haven’t decided what style I will make the neck shaping. A V-neck is nice but the stitch pattern may work better with a crew neck. We will see when I get there. In any case I am starting with the back so that can wait.

Upcoming Shop Update

In other news, we have been making some new Nostepinnes this month. We have some almost finished and there will be more after the holidays.

Merry Christmas!

Posted on December 22, 2024December 22, 2024 by yarnmama — 5 Comments

A Knitting Update and My 2025 Reading Plans

It’s been longer than I like since my last post. Things have slowed down as far as traveling, but there is still lots going on every day. Most of that lately is just catching up on the household and production work. Let’s start out my update post with my knitting progress. After that I’ll get to other goings on.

Knitting

In my last post I was still on Clue 2 of the Go Go Dynamo Shawl. I began Clue 3 sometime in the second week of October, I think. I thought the brioche was slow. The short row triangles in Clue 3 took FOREVER. I finally got that completed this past week sometime. So, yeah, that was around six weeks to get that accomplished.

I have started Clue 4, finally, and it is progressing much faster. Part of the reason for that is that there are much less stitches. It is now proceeding from the middle of the shawl towards the top. The rows are getting shorter and there is not all the back and forth happening.

There is an additional edge that can be added at the bottom. I haven’t decided whether or not I will be doing that yet. The primary determiner will be yarn supply. If I still have plenty of the balls I am using, I will consider it. On the other hand, I may just be DONE regardless. We shall see.

Last Festival

The last festival on our schedule for 2024 was November 8-9 in Fayetteville, AR. The NWA Fiber Festival was founded in 2023 and I attended both years. I am looking ahead to seeing this festival grow in an area that is a new market for me. I expect to return next year.

I experimented with a different booth setup because there was a pole in the front of my space. That was also where the electricity was. It again took a little canoodling, but I liked it. I plan try some other arrangements next year.

Preparing for 2025

We are making festival plans for 2025. I have booked a few new ones and will be returning to many of our favorites. I haven’t updated the schedule on the website for 2025 yet. I will be getting to that sometime in December.

In the wood shop, Yarn Swifts are in production. Jerry started working on this batch in late September. All the bases and arms are completely finished. He is now making the dowels. I spent a week in November sewing bags and preparing the tags.

I will be starting to assemble, bag and store the Oak and some of the Walnut today. We have enough dowels ready to get started while he works on the rest.

I will be ordering more yarn for dyeing some time in December or January. I am planning to get the restock dyeing done in February. The days are starting to lengthen enough by then. It’s hard to get enough done in the day in December and January. When you depend on daylight hours outside to work by and get the yarn dry, more is better.

Reading Plans

While I am on the topic of plans for 2025, I will share my tentative TBR list. I always have a list in my head. Sometimes I lose focus. The books I wanted to get to don’t happen. So, this morning while I was having my quiet time with my coffee and my Kindle Scribe (LOVE this thing BTW!), I made a check list.

Now, this is just to remind me of what I really want to get to in the coming year. I am still somewhat of a mood reader. This is mainly a pared down list of my higher priority books that I already own. This doesn’t mean new books can’t jump to the top. I can decide to do that. :-)

I included a good variety of books I haven’t read, and re-reads of classics. There are plenty of shorter works and chunky reads. I love both! Again, it depends on my head space and mood at a given time. I am sure about one thing. I want to start War and Peace on January 1. I plan to do a slow year long read. I want to just live in that book while also picking other ones for variety. I am excited to start!

I have only read War and Peace once. I did some background reading this past summer to prepare for this re-read. I read a History of Russia and a very thorough and interesting biography of Napoleon. I think my read through this time will benefit from the additional historical familiarity. (not an affiliate link, but I do recommend these).

Closing

This has been brief, considering how much time has elapsed, but I covered the basics. I hope to get back to a more regular schedule of 2-4 post a month.

I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving celebrations!

Posted on November 30, 2024November 30, 2024 by yarnmama — 4 Comments

An Unexpected Post From Home

I shouldn’t be at home this week, but because of the sad tragic losses inflicted on Asheville by Hurricane Helene, that is where I am. Hopefully there is restoration in progress and they will be getting their lives back to normal soon. My prayers are still with everyone affected.

Upcoming Travel

I do have two more festivals before we wind down for a couple months. I am driving to Frederick, MD on Wednesday and Thursday. The Frederick Fiber Festival is on Saturday October 26th. This will be my first time attending there. I wouldn’t normally sign up for a one day event that is so far from Nashville. This year I thought I would try it out since SAFF was going to be the weekend before and it would be a shorter drive from there. Of course that all changed but I didn’t want to cancel the Frederick show, especially after losing our SAFF income. Therefore, I am doing it anyway. I hope it will be worth the drive for us. I have heard good things about it so that I am hopeful.

I was at the Fall Fiber Expo in Ann Arbor last weekend. Here’s a few pictures. You may notice my Geogradients hanging in the booth. It got a lot of attention.

Knitting

While I was still in Virginia earlier this month, I decided to join the Westknits MKAL again this year. On the day that Clue One released I picked out my two colors from my Classic Merino Superwash Sock yarn base. I chose Cypress and Sea Oat. I was able to work on it all day that day and get the first section of Clue One done.

Over the course of the next two weeks, I finished the rest of Clue One. Clue Two was released while I was in Ann Arbor, MI for the Fall Fiber Expo. I waited until I had completed Clue One before I even looked at Clue Two. I said that if brioche was involved I wasn’t going there.

It turns out I am going there after all, however. The alternative to brioche sounded too boring, so I decided to go for it. It’s not terrible, but it’s slow going. For every row work, you have to work it twice. So for 8 “rows” of knitting you actually work across 16 times. At the end of the whole clue there are over 400 stitches, so they are are pretty long rows.

I have completed the first brioche ribbing section. After that is another section of the Bubbles. Then you do both again. Clue Two is going to take awhile. I like how it looks but man, it’s time consuming.

In other knitting news, I have done a bit of knitting on my sock in progress. It’s a nice palette cleanser when I don’t want to have to focus so much.

Closing

It has been three weeks since my last post, so it seems like there is probably more I could report on. I can’t think of what all that might be at the moment though. I think I’ll close for now since it is getting late here and I want to have some knitting time tonight. See you soon and take care.

Posted on October 22, 2024October 22, 2024 by yarnmama — 6 Comments

Festivals

Yarn Dyeing

Knitting

Reading

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Travel and Festivals

Knitting

Reading

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New Vest

Carolina Fiber Fest

This week

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Fiber Festival Updates

Knitting

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Scenic Stitches Fiber Festival

Sock Knitting

Birthday

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Mending

Knitting

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Knitting a Vest

New Books for Christmas

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New Pair of Socks

Holiday Knitting

Upcoming Shop Update

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Knitting

Last Festival

Preparing for 2025

Reading Plans

Closing

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Upcoming Travel

Knitting

Closing

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