What a wonderful vacation, but oh my! It is good to be back home. Luke and Cooper were very glad to see us. I took Cooper for a walk first thing, and now he just follows me around the house everywhere. It's sweet.
I promised some friends to show what I bought while on vacation. PEI is a great place for sovenirs, because there are so many wonderful shops selling so many beautiful things. Of course, I stuck to wool but I was also careful to only buy yarn that I can't get at home, that had some connection to the maritimes.
My biggest souvenir was a MacAusland's wool blanket for my bed. Practical and beautiful, it is made on the island with local wool and it has a label stating where it was made. I shall fall asleep petting it, and dreaming of the island. From MacAusland's I also bought enough yarn for two sweaters and a bit for socks. My sweater is already in progress. I'm making Argo.
I also visited Cricket Cove in Moncton which was a lovely and lively little LYS, and Northern Watters Knitwear, which sells sweaters they make in the shop as well as other sovenir items like slippers made of moose hide, handmade pottery and, happily, Fleece Artist. Between the two shops, I have this happy pile of colourful sock yarns. The darkest one is for man socks for Jim, the next is green for Luke, but the rest is all mine!
On the way home, we stopped in at Briggs and Little. It was an hour out of our way, but my guys knew how much it meant to me. I didn't get to tour the mill, as they were closing early, but I did have enough time to pick out yarn for a colorwork sweater which was a ridiculous amount of fun. I can hardly wait to start swatching for my version of Next year in Lerwick. Mine is going to be red, with blue accents. I have way more yarn than I need here, because I wanted to make sure that I could swap out colours if I needed too. At only $5.95 for a 4 oz skein, I felt free to throw in a couple extras.
Now I just need another round of vacation days, so I can knit it all.