We took a drive through Virginia horse country a few weeks ago. It's always beautiful and green and a lot quieter than the DC suburbs.
We started our drive the best way possible - with a stop for breakfast at The Apple House. Their apple butter donuts are amazing and the sugar jolt gave us plenty of energy for the rest of the day.
What always amazes me about this area of Virginia is that you can be driving along through some little town in the middle of farm lands and come across some beautiful surprise.
Driving through some back highways we came across the Waddell Memorial Presbyterian Church. It looks like an old church from some English village, although as it was built in 1874 - it is an old church, just one nestled in the Virginia countryside.
We headed for downtown Culpepper for some lunch. The area is picturesque with cute shops and as with many areas of Virginia - lots of Civil War history.
We had a couple of great burgers at The Stable and then took a stroll through downtown where we found My Secret Stash - cute store with vintage and antique goods as well as an old school candy bar. The husband left with some lovely old maps and I left with a mix of pumpkin, gingerbread and chocolate mint malt balls.
Our last stop on our country drive was Charlottesville. A bigger town than the little spots where we'd spent most of the day, but we were in the neighborhood, they have a great downtown, and - I wanted to check out a yarn shop. (of course.)
The Needle Lady has a great collection of yarns and some very nice and helpful staff. I bought this yarn:
It is really soft and I thought it was going to be a bulky yarn. I planned to use it to crochet a cowl with this pattern from Handmade by Anne Potter. However it turns out this yarn is a thick/thin yarn and trying to crochet with it was really a mess. I made the cowl anyway using some basic Red Heart yarn I had around. It came out cute, and I'm sure I'll get some use out of it this winter, but it doesn't have that snuggly bulky quality:
For the thick/thin yarn I did a little research on patterns. Most suggested using really large knitting needles and a basic pattern - either straight knit or stockinette. I started a scarf using size 15 needles and just knit stitches. I've had to rip it out and restart a couple of times, as its a little tough to get used to the yarn and I want it to look symmetrical, but I think it's looking good now and I know it's going to be soft:
This is pretty amazing for me - to have two scarfs finished or almost finished before the cold weather really hits. I'm trying to get organized now to start on some Christmas crafts. It is early but it's the only way I'll get anything done in time.
Hope everyone is enjoying the start of Fall and all the warm knits we can start wearing now!
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