One might wonder why anyone would choose to go to Cape Cod in the middle of winter. Well for the past several years that is exactly what I have done. My dear friend Susan, with whom I have been friendly for the past thirty years, has a home there and she graciously invites me. She is also a fiber enthusiast. Though she only does limited needlepoint, she is more than adept at so many other needle arts. When we load the car, it looks as if we are moving. The suitcases take up very little room. The rest is all needle art related. There is lots of yarn for knitting, her paints, weaving and quilting and of corse my needlepoint paraphanalia, stand and all.

We arrived there this year on Super Bowl Sunday. As we were rushing to buy groceries before the store closed for the big game, we discovered that the anticipated precipitation for the next day had been upgraded to a blizzard. What fun for two people who wanted to pursue their passions. So we had a glorious time since we did not lose any power.

The next day we had enough cabin fever to want to go out. One of the things we did was go to a Cape Cod institution. This of course had to do with needlepoint. We went to Town Ho Needleworks in Brewster.. This is a very interesting place. One has to climb a fairly steep flight of steps to get inside the shop. If one can see past the “interesting” filing and set up in the shop, there are some real jewels. There are charts for counted work from designers who are no longer designing or no longer with us. The owner of the shop is a huge Maggie fan. I saw many canvases I had never seen “live”before. There is a nice selection of threads and good quality notions. The owner told us that he tried to retire five years ago, but his students wouldn’t let him. So his Cape Cod institution goes on. If you go to the Cape, his shop is worth a visit.

There is one other needlepoint shop on the Cape which I did not get to visit this time. It’s a bit out of the way from where we were staying. Osterville Needlepoint Shop is under new ownership, so I don’t wish to really comment on what I saw when I was there last year.

I drove home by myself since Susan’s husband was joining her at the Cape. Of course I had to detour to do needlepoint shop hopping. I decided to go to Larchmont to see Stitch by Stitch. This is a lovely shop full of beautiful canvases. At that time they had a Labors of Live trunk show. The owner was so accommodating and went out of her way to help me find a good small battery run light for my airplane travels. There is also a wall of notions.
I highly recommend a stop there as well

So, a mid winter visit to the Cape is not so strange after all.