Doorways of Saratoga

Saratoga Springs, New York:  Home of the Embellished and Ornate Doorway.  Even though I felt like a stalking paparazzo, I couldn’t stop myself sidling up the front steps of every tax lawyer and cigar shop and synagogue and studying the furbelows on their doors.  Where I come from [The Midwest, U.S.A.] a door is a thing that keeps the snow from piling up in your kitchen and the neighbors’ dogs from coming in.  Nobody there (or here, either) would imagine a fanciful doorway like these late-19th century stunners anymore. Arches and marble pillars and richly detailed carvings cost extra, and what practical, fourth-generation farmer spends a nickel he doesn’t have to spend?  Who puts a stained-glass window in the lawnmower shed?  (Well, I would, and you might, too, but city planners would probably not sign off on it anymore for a public building).  So much to gawk at, just strolling around.  A city built for Victorian-age tourists.  We ate gyros in hidden side-street cafes, sipped sulfurous water from antique, spring-fed fountains, bought coffee that tasted hand-crafted.  Walked for miles.  We slept like logs. 

Of course I found a yarn shop.

That’s two huge skeins of Great Adirondack Merino, fingering weight, in [perfect, perfect] “clay”.  This is the color of my dreams.  There are over 2,000 yards here, ohmygoodness.  I don’t know what to make, but the search will be great fun.  I think I want a long, fine-gauge cardigan, maybe 3/4 sleeves, for fall.  What would you make with this?