Saturday, November 17, 2007

Knitting and Exploring Staunton Va

I spent last weekend in beautiful foggy, cold Staunton Virginia attending a two day knitting workshop with the my knitting idol Annie Modesitt. Even though I live less than two hours south of Staunton and attended college "just across the mountain" I never explored the town. Grand, old churches are scattered around the perimeter of the charming downtown area...

During my walk to the yarn shop I spotted this local diner and just had to snap a photo...
On the Lamb occupies the downstairs of a wonderfully rustic home - Joe, the owner, lives upstairs....oh, to be so close to all that beautiful yarn....

Continuing on my walk .....Autumn leaves sprinkled with dew ....

Close up of tile work depicting a....

Coca-Cola bottle....

Chicken statuary.....

Oh, yeah, I learned how to work with mitered squares.....


And a challenging backyard leaves scarf....



Another grand brick home....


More autumn leaves....


Love the striped awning at the American Red Cross office....


Local caterer that did a great job of putting together box lunched for the group both days..... I had free time in the evening to explore dinner options. Friday night I had dinner at L'Italia - situated in a multistory house I walked up and up and up to a lovely dining room complete with a fireplace and pepper mills on the table (I love fresh coarsely ground pepper). I dined on a salad of baby greens, gorgonzola,pears, walnuts and grape tomatoes with a tangy raspberry vinaigrette. The eggplant parmigiana was thinly sliced with a fresh, simple tomato sauce. Tasty but not spectacular......Oh, my Saturday night - Staunton Grocery was recommended to me by one of the local knitters at the shop, my, oh my! After a challenging day of knitting I was ready for a good leisurely meal. Completely accommodating to my vegetarian style, I feasted on a baby beet salad and house made fettuccine with wild mushrooms, broccoli rabe and meyer lemon comfit. Portions were tiny and exquisitely presented....certainly one of the absolute best and most expensive vegetarian meals I've ever had! Yum - I will return........yes, I walked a lot while in Staunton to and from the yarn shop both days and to the dinner restaurants both nights....