Kat with a K

Say hello to Kismet.

So, umm, something followed me home from Vermont:

Meet Kismet. Isn't she pretty? She's an Ashford Traditional in a lovely shade of cherry. Her last place of residence was a consignment shop in Brattleboro, Vermont called Twice Upon a Time. I was alerted to her presence there by my friend Judy (who should really have a blog). I'd simply asked for wheel-selection advice, but she just happened to have seen this wheel in this shop and just happened to know I was going to Vermont this weekend. The shop was barely out of our way. I was terrified that the wheel would sell before we get there. It didn't. I am now a spinner. See why her name is Kismet?

But let's start at the beginning. This weekend my boyfriend and I headed to SolarFest in Tinmouth, VT. Last year we'd gone for the day; this year we decided to go for the weekend and camp.

On the way, we stopped at our now-traditional going-to-SolarFest breakfast place:

That's The Works Cafe in Keene, NH. Yummy bagels and coffee.

At SolarFest, my boyfriend's gas-electric hybrid Prius, James, was reunited with several of his brothers and sisters. (Lots of hybrids at a renewable energy festival: shocking, no?) Here he is hanging out with two of them. He's the blue one in the back.

Saturday afternoon, we went to a few somewhat-interesting lectures, saw some really interesting displays and vendors, and ate yummy natural food. Then it started raining. The keynote speaker was moved to a tent, but halfway through it started raining so hard that we couldn't hear him at all. But since it was pouring, we were pretty much stuck. When the rain stopped, we put up our tent:

It was hot and wet and gross, and the land was uneven and buggy and it was a generally icky experience. We wandered the fair a bit more, but were both kind of grump and a little "eh, whatever" about the whole thing. Instead of staying there trying to convince ourselves to be interested and probably annoying ourselves and each other in the process, we decided to leave for a while. We got in the (blessedly air conditioned) car and drove to Rutland, the nearest sizable town. When we saw this sign, I knew things would be okay:

No, not the Comfort Inn, although that was the contingency plan... I mean the one showing that Annie's Book Stop and Ben and Jerry's were together, in one building. We bought books and ate ice cream and headed back to SolarFest feeling much better. We decided to skip the nighttime music and bonfire (we could hear the music from the tent anyway) and holed up in our tent to read and sleep. In the morning, we headed back to Rutland for breakfast, and then, refreshed, got back into the SolarFest mood. jaQ did an interview ('cause he's a reporter now!) and we bought stuff. I now have a solar battery charger, a market basket from Kenya, handmade Vermont soap, a "Peace" bumper sticker, and a batik kerchief.

Broadripple was my companion for the weekend:

Not bad for a few days of off-and-on knitting while in the car, listening to lectures, etc. I saw one other knitter but didn't really talk to her. (It was during a lecture.)

This afternoon we headed home. Here's Kismet in the car, lounging against my pillow:

I'm sure I'll have lots of exciting spinning photos for you soon. But for now, I'm really rather busy: