I spent this past weekend at an annual gathering in Edwardsville, Illinois, to commemorate my father’s maternal family’s emigration to this country and the farm that has been in it for 150 years now.

The farm, purchased with gold from the California Gold Rush, is located near the historic Route 66, and once a year, there is a gathering at the farm to do that sorts of things that are best done outdoors: like bonfire lighting, hot dog roasting, and potato gun firing.

I generally sit in the crafting area. This year, a cousin brought some of her silk screen art work along to share which included awesome commemorative bandanas like the one pictured here:

While I was in the area, I made sure to head to downtown Edwardsville:

to get a cup of coffee at my favorite downtown coffee shop (Sacred Grounds on Main Street) and visit one of my all time favorite local yarn shops: Knit One, Weave Too.

In addition to the fiber offerings that were available last year, Madalene is now offering hand-dyed yarns, and I was unable to pass up this “Marvel” (no doubt short for marvelous) colorway:

The details of which are clearly marked on the label:

The other goodie I was unable to resist was a package of these Hiya Hiya™ darning needles:

While they aren’t as familiar to my hand as my beloved Clover bent-tipped yarn needles, they are very satisfactory for weaving in ends, and I will, no doubt, be giving packages of these as gifts to people in need of a life-altering yarn tool, and now that Buchtafest 2013 is consigned to the annals of history, I need to get some rest before Buchtafest 2014 is here.