M'am, I love the Tin Smith's Wife!

Well, I'm just back from a weekend of teaching at one of the loveliest shops I have ever been to.  The Tin Smith's Wife in Comfort, Texas creates an atmosphere that is inspiring, inviting and stash enhancing!  (yes, I came back with yarn...) I met Wendy and Susan two years ago when they started their store and began to carry Schaefer Yarn.  It felt like Susan was calling every week to get more as her customers were just "eating" it up!  We always talked about me coming down there to see the store, and lead some classes, and luckily for me, we made it happen! 

The space I taught in, a refurbished  building nestled between an old saloon and a bed and breakfast was the PERFECT teaching space.  With high ceilings and tons of light flooding in from the street side windows we all were thrilled.  The best part of this building was the super sweet "outhouse", definitely the nicest outhouse I've ever had the pleasure to use.

My students were brilliant, wonderful learners who bore with me as I made them buckle down to work.  Saturday am I taught Eventide to a full house, and in the afternoon Aile.  On Sunday I taught Winterlude all day.  Some students took every class with me, a huge honor, and by the end of the weekend I learned as much from them as they did from me.    I wish I had more pics of the classes in progress (and any at all of my Winterlude group on Sunday)... but I was busy teaching and getting to know all of my new friends! 

The Eventide Group


The Aile Group

An Aile in progress (sorry I forget whose hands these are!)

Wendy was the perfect hostess, who thought of everything to make my stay delightful... she even took me on a drive Sunday night to try to find a Texas longhorn and/or an armadillo.  We didn't find either of those BUT we did have a HUGE (to me) scorpion try to hitchhike a ride home with us one night.... EEK!  

The Tin's Smith's Wife already posted a great synopsis of the weekend, stop over and take a peek, Bill took a pic of me being "crazy knitting lady" during the Schaefer Yarn Yarn Tasting and Trunk show of my designs.  It was seriously hysterical : )!

 

The town of Comfort, Texas is too insanely cute for words.  If you ever make it to San Antonio or Austin, you must take a trip up to Hill Country.  The food is amazing, the buildings are architecturally stunning, the antique stores had piles of rusty metal that made me swoon, AND there is an amazing yarn store, how can you go wrong?  There are additional pics on flickr if you'd like to see more of Comfort and my classes.

Oh, and I have to tell you about the food... so when you get down to The Tin Smith's Wife you know what not to miss!  First off Wendy treated me to THE BEST breakfast taco Sat am at the Flagstop Cafe (read truck stop).  This is the kind of place you would never stop unless you knew about it.  I love going out to eat with a local!  On Sat lunch, on the advice of Ithaca knitter/friend Kathy, I had my first ever Jalapeno Pimento Cheese sandwich at High's Cafe right in Comfort.   Saturday night Wendy treated me to something extra special, with a dinner at The Terrace Grill at Riven Rock Ranch.  We were just driving along, turned onto a back road, drove a while more (I think I thought we were going to some local bar...)and all of a sudden up a long fenced driveway to a heavenly brick oven outdoor dining wonderland.  YUMMM!!  Sunday night we all went out together to Bill's favorite restaurant, PoPo's.  The fried chicken, baby beets and biscuits were just right. And they had their plate collection displayed all, and I mean ALL, over the restaurant which set the perfect ambiance.  Hungry yet?

Finally, a HUGE thankyou to all of my new Texas knitter friends, you really helped this New Yorker fall deeply in love with the Hill Country. Yes m'am, I'll be back!