Wool Weekend New Hampshire

By Kitty Lapin Agile on September 24, 2012 • ( 4 )

It’s almost time for WOOL WEEKEND! The official name is the “Wool Arts Tour” but for the past 5 years I’ve just called it “wool weekend.” Locations in the general area of my lake cabin host vendors of wool, and all things related to knitting and crochet, over the Columbus holiday weekend.

This weekend is very important to New Hampshire, as it is when many of the Fall leaves are at peak color. The best part of wool weekend is stocking up on yarn for winter projects. The second best thing is driving around seeing the beautiful Fall foliage. The scenery, often you drive back roads and even over stone arch bridges to get to the locations on the tour, is breathtaking.

My good friend Natalie, always comes up bringing with her some wonderful Polish treats such as bobka and what we call “stinky meat.” Natalie is a big favorite with my dog Dingo. Natalie drives up from Long Island where she lives. She’s a big help, in fact she’s the official hostess of any event I hold at the cabin. My back has made it difficult for me to physically do as much as I could in the past. Natalie holds a special place in the heart of our family, as she happily drive up to take charge of things. This allows me the luxury of having my friends, and even holding parties, and being able to sit back knowing I can take a rest whenever needed as Natalie will handle things. Friends that drive for hours, and are as kind, generous and all around organized as Natalie are rare. (I admit to being unorganized even when my back isn’t acting up!)

Natalie and the Fall leaves, two things that help
make Wool Weekend memorable.

The interesting thing is that Natalie had never knit even a scarf before coming to her first wool weekend. She went from place to place, just looking. Finally, a really over the top combination of purple and blue wool caught her eye. She bought the wool, and a “how to knit” book. Now, she knits beautiful hats, steampunk style hand warmers, you name it, she knits it. Her color palette is BRIGHT and HAPPY colors. I often will point out an especially bright bit of wool for her, and she knows I like softer browns and greens and will help me find “just the right wool.”

Natalie colors!!

Other friends will also come up for the long weekend. We car pool from place to place, often stopping to take photographs. At night, we have long “Doctor Who” sessions. Natalie is a “Doctor Who” expert. I am able to impress even the most die hard fan with comments about rare and rarely seen “Doctor Who”. None of the new stuff for us, not with Natalie’s collection in her suitcase!

I’ve knit hats from the wool from these sheep!

Then we all line up like logs on the floor with inflatable beds or on the sofa. I bought the sofa for the cabin for sleeping, it’s extra long so even my extra tall handsome son in law fits. (No pull out sofas for us). Braver souls climb the sleep loft, and the newly completed downstairs (the cabin was raised and a first floor put in) has inflatabeds and one good bedroom (usually going to a married couple). We have fit quite a few people in a very small space for wool weekend!

Alpaca come in all sorts of color combinations.
I

It’s the last hurrah for the cabin, as we know we have to “winterize” it and wave goodbye until Spring. I leave knowing I have lots of yarn, made by people in New Hampshire with sheep, alpaca, rabbits and who know what else, to see me through the winter.