Out of Hibernation

This past Thursday I decided I MUST join the outside world again.  I came slithering out from under the rock and was met with a wonderful warm day in the high 60's,  How delightful!

Zip has music lessons on Thursday in Hagerstown and occasionally I ride along and he drops me off at my friend Marian's.  Her house is conveniently located en route.  We had been working on a rug design together and wanted to do a little more tweaking before committing it to backing.

But just for fun we also visited the Asian Market in Halfway, MD. 

I had noticed the sign while Zip and I were traveling through and have wanted to see what they had to offer.  It is a small market, but had all the ingredients I had been looking for to make a batch of spring rolls plus the wonderful sweet hot chili sauce for dipping.  In their freezer section I found not only the spring roll wrappers but a package of about two dozen spring rolls already made up.  If only I had taken a cooler. 

Check out all those noodles!

They had some bright golden yellow mangoes that were about half the size of those in the regular grocery.  I bought one of them and that little darling was yummy!  The Japanese eggplants looked nice and fresh, but I didn't get any this time. 

This pastry is made of a delicious soft Phillipine sweet roll dough and contained long strips of sugar-soaked coconut called 'coconut strings'.  Zip and I both loved it.

Then on the way back to Marian's we stopped at the Dutch Market, which features Amish vendors selling their produce, baked, goods, meat, cheese and candies.  I was so thrilled with the variety and clean, beautiful arrangements that I forgot to take pictures.  Please believe me, it was an excellent market.  Another 'bring-the-cooler' venue!  Everything looked so temptingly good that you just wanted to BUY!

Good thing I didn't indulge too heavily because later we were invited by Willa to join her at the Lions Club spaghetti dinner in Shippensburg. 

Her husband, Chuck is a generous supporter of local charitable and civic organizations and he kindly bought our tickets.  Thank You, Chuck!  unfortunately he had to work so could not join us.

On Saturday Zip and I traveled to Ligonier PA which is about a two and a quarter hour drive to the west.  I wish I could show pictures of lovely countryside along the way, but the weather was atrocious.  Gray clouds, fog and periods of rain prevailed.

 
Ligonier is a pretty little town.  As we arrived they were having a wedding in the gazebo on the square. 

Fort Ligonier was built in the time of the French and Indian war (mid 1700's) as a staging point for driving the French out of the western part of PA.  It opened the area for further exploration, making it possible for the settling of Pittsburg.  Amazing that they had chain-link fence at that time.  LOL!

But you may ask, why did we go there??? 

Because I joined an on-line knitting group through the Knitting at Large blog by Julie Matthews.  I've shown pictures of my sweater in progress and now the participants who lived within a reasonable distance were getting together for a meet and greet day for showing sweaters and generally having fun.

Sweater parts for show and tell.  Kathy, who came from Brookville PA brought the delicious Easter eggs made by a candy company in her town.  To die for!!!

 

We met at Kathy's Kreations, a lovely knitting shop owned by Kathy Zimmerman, the designer of the Waltham sweater we are all working on.  I had not met Julie, Dottie and Kathy until now but had commented back and forth on her blog and Ravelry.  Kathy Z. was kind enough to sit down with us and have a discussion about what plus-sized women wanted and needed in knitwear patterns.  So many designers and pattern publishers only offer their patterns in S-M-L and are missing a huge (pun intended!) market by not offering plus sizes.

I was so busy talking and shopping and eating that I didn't take time to get out the camera.  I only got a few shots of the shop.  I will be returning and will do better the next time! 

And since I mentioned food, there is a delightful little deli next door where we had lunch.  The panini sandwiches were excellent.  They were so satisfying that we didn't even sample the gelatti!  For once, no pictures of the food!

All in all, it was a fun day.  I hope when we finish our sweaters we can get together again and model the sweaters.  By that time I will have decided which of my new patterns I would like to try next and will be ready to buy YARN!

The new patterns and books.  I'm doing my part to support the plus-size pattern industry by voting with my dollars!

Monday I spent most of the day sewing with Brad and Kami.  When I arrived home it was in the high 70's outside and Zip had opened several windows in the house.  The kitties were in HEAVEN!  Aaaah, smell that air!!!  I didn't get any pictures, but Penny's eyes were even bigger than usual and she had her little pink nose pressed right against the window screen. 

Deiter wasn't really impressed with the great outdoors.  He would rather lay on my shawl and sniff where I had been lately.

One of the signs of warmer days.  FLIES!!!  Izzy will protect us!

Today it's back to cool and dreary with rain.  The winter was dominated by cold.  Now spring seems to be dominated by rain!  But last week when I posted, the buds on the maple trees were only showing green tips.  Now they are blooming!

I'm going to try really hard to stay out from under the rock.