I had the BEST time taking a two-day shawl design class with Bristol Ivy at Harrisville Designs in Harrisville, New Hampshire.  It was EXHAUSTING, but fun!

But the fun started way before arriving at Harrisville.  Sue picked me up and after a stop to pick up cider donuts (freshly made, still a little warm….) at The Gade Farm we made our way to WEBS in Northampton, where we met Lisa, Christine and Robin.  Needless to say, we bought some yarn.  Just a little.  Here is my haul selections:

And this, which is my favorite purchase from there:

I already started it:

(Did you see the project bag?  Knit More, Work Less!!)

Then we had lunch at Paul and Elizabeth’s (yes, that is the name of the restaurant!!!!) and then made our way to meet Lynn at Harrisville.  The six of us stayed in their boarding house which was on the third floor of one of the old buildings in town.  Several rooms, bathrooms to share, a full kitchen and a great, comfy living room to knit in.

What a beautiful, picturesque New England town!…

I made this really yummy (if I do say so myself – but others did too!) tomato focaccia to share at our appetizer-y dinner that night.

It is a Martha recipe and she rarely disappoints me.  I will definitely make this again.

The next day was Shawl Design with Bristol Ivy at Harrisville Designs, just across the road from the boarding house.

That first day we made 8 tiny shawls, to demonstrate the various shawl shapes that you can make:

Yes there is only 7 there.  Somehow I didn’t get the pi shawl in there.

Homework was to choose the shawl shape we wanted to design the next day.  It is a hard decision!

The second day we spent starting the design of our shawls.  We spent the whole day on it and here is how much I got done:

It’s a lot of work!!

Others got a little further but most only had a little bit.

We had lunches at the Harrisville General Store,,,,

….where I had a cheddar sandwich with maple caramelized onions and apples. OMG.  I had it both days because it was so good.  I also had their famous kale salad which was so delicious.  Here is a link to their recipe:  Harrisville Kale Salad.  So good for you too! I’m making it this weekend.

At the end of the second day, Paul picked me up and we went on to spend the night in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  We stopped at the Portsmouth Brewery and I had my most favorite ever in the world sandwich, their fried eggplant sandwich. So. Good.

Then we had breakfast at our most favorite (aside from Jordan’s Pond House in Acadia) popover place, Popovers on the Square.

Before breakfast, as we were waking up in the hotel, Paul and I had this conversation…

Me: Did you lock the car last night? [good time to think of it, in the morning]

Paul: No, did you?

Me: I don’t think so.

Paul: What’s in there to steal?

Me: All my yarn.

Paul: Oh.

Me (after thinking for a minute): Actually, no one would steal it.  Non-knitters would look right past it to find something “more valuable” (as if).  Knitters are so great that they would see it and lock the car for us to make sure no one else would steal it. But really, no one else would  steal it. [see non-knitters comment]

We made our way back home via Vermont and saw some beautiful colors on the trees…

We made a stop at our former favorite ice cream place from when we lived in Vermont, Ice Cream Fore You (at a driving range)….

They had my favorite flavor:  Campfire S’mores!

And had to make a stop at King Arthur Flour (man, I love that place)…..

Then, on the way home I regretted not buying the Nordic Ware Harvest Bounty Loaf pan when we were there so I ordered one from Amazon in the car!

And made a pumpkin cream cheese swirl bread from the recipe on the pan label….

It was YUMMY!

And then I saw they have a mini version…. Nordic Ware Harvest Mini Loaf Pan, Bronze and I’m a little bit trying not to order that one too.

WHEW!  A great few days.