Blogiversary Reflections and Contest

Anniversaries are a time to take a walk down memory lane; to re-trace the steps of your path. My path with knitting began 2 years ago when I innocently went into a yarn store and touched some blue Frog Tree Alpaca. That alpaca became part of my first scarf. That scarf became the beginning of an obsession that would lead to hours of fiber fondling and needle clicking until I learned to turn yarn into hats, sweaters, socks, etc. essentially using sticks to make a series of knots. A true miracle! I joined a knitting group. I am an extremely social person so I figured if I was going to spend hours upon hours doing this hobby, I better find some other people who liked to knit, too. I loved watching other knitters' projects develops, seeing their yarn and pattern choices, and generally having a couple of hours a week where my primary concern was whether or not I had dropped a stitch when I was laughing at a fellow knitters joke.
My knitting obsession grew and I learned that sometimes I wanted those knit night connections when there was no knit night. That's when I discovered knitters in blogland. Oh, the joy! At any hour of day, I could look at and read about the knitting and non-knitting escapades of my fellow fiber fiends. I think one of the first blogs I stumbled on was Pippikneesocks, who also happens to live about 10 miles from me in the real world. Pippi's blog quickly led me to Amy's (aka Spunky Eclectic) blog, and then the snowball just kept rolling, picking up the voices of talented and often hilarious blogging knitters along the way. Before I knew it, some of my blogging buddies became non-virtual buddies as we met up at fiber festivals and other common feeding grounds for our species. Pictured above are Pippikneesocks (aka Symeon North) and Amy (aka Spunky Eclectic) at the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival. That's Pippi watching over her booth and Amy doing the bunny fingers. I also met up with blogger Jessie Raymond (aka A Piece of Vermont), another Vermont fiber enthusiast and also a really great humor writer.
The list goes on and some of the other blogs I now read regularly include Pam's Flint Knits, Lolly's Lolly Knitting Around, Knit My Dog, Now Norma Knits, and Wool Girl. Of course, that is just the tip of the iceberg because knitters love putting links in their blogs that I can't resist. Knitting bloggers are also stash encouragers and sometimes enhancers. Finally, the work of others inspires me to try new things. I don't know if I would be learning to spin if I hadn't spent all that time reading about and looking at other knitters who expanded their horizons through spinning. The spindle to the left is some fiber given to me by known other than the lovely PippiKneesocks when she heard I acquired a wheel...a very generous and welcome enabler of my growing obsession with fiber in every state.
OK, now for the prizes. Let's see, first of all I am about to get the best prize I could wish for on or near by blogiversary. Yesterday, on my actual blogiversary, I received my RAVELRY INVITE! Yeehow! Woopee! More time to putz around in cyber fiber land.

And now, a contest and prizes for the readers. Rhinebeck, aka NYS Sheep and Wool Festival, is coming up in just a few weeks. I know many of you out there in blogland are getting exciting and making your list of booths to hit. So, in a shameless effort to promote Vermont's local artisans, here is how you can win 2 skeins of Green Mountain Spinnery Sylvan Spirit or 1 skein of beautiful Vermont handspun (don't worry, not mine yet).

List 2 Vermont vendors who will be at Rhinebeck, what they are selling, and why you like their "stuff." You can still join the contest even if you are not going to Rhinebeck. It's a good way to find out about some talented fiber artists from the Green Mountain State.

Rules: You must list the full name of the Vendor's business. You need to be specific about what they are selling. For example, a description such , "merino-alpaca hand-dyed roving and yarn" is preferable to "yarn and roving". It is obviously up to you why you like their "stuff"-color, texture, organic, etc. The deadline for entries is Thurday, October 4th at 11:59 P.M. EST

Oh yeah, you wanted pictures. Here is a picture of the 2 skeins of Green Mountain Spinnery Sylvan Spirit and the handspun.

That's it. I will enter all correct answers into a drawing and choose two. Oh yeah, and here's a picture of the prizes.