Crossville, TN

Bob and I packed up Monday morning and drove the motorhome about 75 miles west to a new campground, in Crossville, TN. We are slowly moving towards Nashville, where we will spend a week with our friends, Mike and Retha.

We were just settling in when a package arrived from my friend and Ashford deaer, Jill Sanders of Saori Santa Cruz. Jill had sent me an Ashford Inklette loom.

This is one cool little loom, "little" being the key word.  It is only 14 1/2" long and weighs about a pound. I assembled it within a few minutes and watched the clock until the glue dried about four hours later. I then put a narrow warp on it to give it a try. I was pleased to discover that it can be clamped to my loom bench when the seat is raised and set at an angle, which makes weaving on it so comfortable. If you are on Ravelry you can find details on my Bench/Loom Stand here.

The Inklette can also be used as a lap loom. I'll put a finish on it when this project is done.

Inklette on my Bench/Loom Stand. I'm weaving a narrow band to use as a lanyard.

But that's not all I received in the mail this week. Because of my spindle sales I was able to purchase this Ashford Joy 2 spinning wheel. She folds and fits into a bag when not being used, so this will be a perfect travel wheel. And she spins like "buttah!"

After I played with my new toy, Bob and I took a drive to a nearby outlet mall where I found some new jeans and Bob window shopped in the tool store. And from there, we hopped over to Stonehaus Winery for a tasting.

We enjoy doing tastings at small, local wineries, and I can say that the experience at this one was right at the top of our list. Our sommelier was knowledgeable and friendly, and just made it fun. I'm not sure why a winery would want a grumpy person passing out samples; maybe these people resent giving their wines away for free or little cost. No resentment at Stonehaus--we could try anything we wanted! We walked away with three bottles of wine and a nice memory.

When we returned home, I whipped up some homemade cheese crackers for snacking. Crackers are a bit of work but these were worth it. Yum!