Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Watermelon Tourmaline

I've been away to the coast of Maine and brought back pictures! We went to Bar Harbor, and had a marvellous view from our room's balcony:

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You can see one of the five Procupine Islands. Doesn't it look just like a porcupine?

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We climbed on cliffs:

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and I ate Lobster Ice Cream (actual chunks of cooked, frozen lobster encased in frozen melted butter folded into vanilla ice cream. It was awful!):

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Right in downtown Bar Harbor there is a little "Yarn and Candy Store" that is quaint and cute. It has a selection of yarns and supplies that will tide you over if you forget something or need a quick project, but it didn't have quite what I was looking for in terms of a 'remembrance' of our trip.

During one of our drives around the coastline, we stopped at The Lilac Lily yarn store in Southwest Harbor. This store looks tiny from the outside, and you might almost miss it as you drive into town - it's a little white house on the right. But inside, it expands like the house in Alice in Wonderland and you will find room after room filled with wonderful things!

The woman who owns the store was so incredibly nice and friendly. She carries a wide selection of yarns created right in Maine, so there were many souveniers to choose from.

I bought Watermelon Tourmaline-coloured yarn. I seriously wanted some real tourmaline jewelry, but the prices were huge... This yarn is a Silk & Merino blend from Done Roving, and is brilliant as the gemstone and lushly soft!

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The kind owner let me have anything I wanted from the vintage and antique booklets stacked in her basement. These had been given her over the years by various customers who were cleaning out their cupboards:

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I chose a rather large assortment ranging from 1901 through the 1950's. The ones in the photo are the earliest. I love the Beehive Men's booklet from the 1930's and hope to get a chance to show you the patterns inside.

Yes, I ate too much lobster and generally had a wonderful, peaceful, gentle time on the coast of Maine.

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I wish you all could go to Maine in the pre-season. It is truely a beautiful place.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, what photos! I haven't been to Maine in...13 years or so! And I remember my trips to Maine and New Hampshire fondly. Thank you for the reminder of the beautiful coast. That ice cream sounds disgusting, but the watermelon tourmaline yarn is divine! And how kind of the shop owner to let you choose some vintage pattern books!! :)

Unraveling Sophia said...

Oh yes! She was sooooo nice! She didn't want them and just gave them to me! She was a super shop owner and her store was so great.

Briley said...

Sounds like a greqat time [except for the lobster ice cream-blech!] I love the yarn, and the vintage pattern booklets. I went flea marketing this past weekend, and got some old craft booklets, but not nearly as nice as these.

Unraveling Sophia said...

You must tell what you found - Please! I love vicarious flea marketting when I'm not going myself :)

Phlel said...

Great pictures. Agreed, the ice cream sounds nasty- lobster in ice cream? What were they thinking? Blech! That yarn is just gorgeous, but your best deal had to be the pattern books. What a deal. You must have been just so totally thrilled to find them. I am completely jealous.

Unraveling Sophia said...

When I saw the ice cream on the list, I *had* to try it. How could I go to Maine and not try Lobster Ice Cream? Everyone advised against it, but I'm an experiementor, especially with food. Yeah. Me and Anthony Bourdain - hee hee (He does the food adventures on the Food Netword on tv).