Rhinebeck!!! Oct. 20, 2004

NY Sheep and Wool Festival, Rhinebeck NY
What a lovely time we had in Rhinebeck, NY this year! I am absolutely amazed at how much it has grown in the 5 years that I have been attending. I remember my very first year……I was going to just run in and pick up a rabbit that I had purchased. Was I ever mistaken…….there is no JUST running in. I was so completely overwhelmed at all of the fiber…..serious overload…LOL. Once over the shock of just how much lovely fiber and wonderful vendors are at this sheep and wool festival, it has now become one of the highlights of my year.

We start the day, early in the morning, with our hot coffee in our hands and dreams of fiber floating in our heads. I always get a bag of roving from Spinner’s Hill of NH so I went directly to her booth at 9:20 am. Oh No!!!! You are what???? You are sold out???? Oh my!!!!!! She tells me how sorry she is, she knows that I visit her every year, but a few ladies came really early and bought up almost all of her rovings. Hmmppfff!!!!
Being the kind hearted person that she is, she offered to make up anything I wanted, but given that I haven’t finished last year’s stash, I figured it was probably an omen and I would make sure to come back extra early next year.

Over the course of the day, I visited some of my favorite people. Gil Gonsalves of Robin Wheels, unveiled his new traveling wheel. Not quite complete, but fascinating. I will be trekking over to Porter, Me to give it a whirl soon. Next was a visit with Claudia of Countrywool. Claudia owned a very dear rabbit of mine. Lucky Claudia, her Norm Hall wheel was ready for pick-up. I am still on the waiting list, 4 years now, but it will be worth the wait. Norm had a few wheels that he made available for sale and I came close to purchasing a cherry production wheel, but when I sat down to the double treadle Norweigan wheel, I knew that I needed to wait. It spins like a dream! Only 2 more years to wait.

Next on my stops was a trip to Carol Leigh’s booth. Here is where I lost most of my savings. Into my basket was a lovely cherry stand for my 2 foot triangle loom, a really pretty shawl pin, some fiesta LaBoheme and a wonderful exotic wood tapestry beater. Whew………..the feet are gettin tired……time for lunch. Here is a view of the pathway from the food vendors to the festival. The afternoon was spent with more trekking around, but not much spending as the crowds made it almost difficult to concentrate. One of the treats of the day was to run into Norma and Kerstin. Now, I had never met either of these women previously, but I recognized Norma’s Vanilla sweater from her blog (check out her Vanilla Monologues from her Oct. 19th entry…LOL) and very quickly recoginized Kerstin from her blog as well. Kerstin was lugging and hugging, a lovely spinning wheel from my dear friend Gil. It was so fun to meet them and put some faces on the blogs that I so enjoy reading with my coffee in the morning. It is amazing the strength in the community of women that blog……my horizons have increased incredibly! Take a look at their blogs, you will see some great pictures of their experiences in Rhinebeck!

After a long day, we left the fairgrounds for our annual Saturday dinner with some dear friends who just happen to live right outside the gates of Rhinebeck. Great food, wine and conversation got us renewed for a new day of shopping. Hopefully Sunday will calm the crowds a bit.

Sunday was indeed calmer and low keyed. Better for strolling around the festival, not so great for the pocketbook…LOL. There were some more goodies added to the basket and
a good amount of time was dedicated to strolling thru the animal barns. As much as I love my rabbits (and there are many) and I love my dogs, I still long to add those sweet little alpacas to my family. As it is not feasable right now to have the four legged version in my barn, I settled for some lovely alpaca rovings and fleece……….but I keep telling my DH, to prepare……we WILL have those lovely, humming babies in our barn someday and hopefully sooner rather than later…grin.!

Here are some photos of the purchases that somehow managed to leap into my basket over the weekend.

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First the fiber…….A bundle of lucious Rose grey Alpaca from Hampden Hills Alpaca, and nice bagful of soft fawn Alpaca as well. Of course, the fiesta LaBoheme and some great rayon chenille. Enough for a scarf for me and a scarf to sell. 🙂 and finally a skein of hand dyed yarn from my fiend, Ken Abert of Dorchester Farm Angoras. Eeekkkkkk………there is that kitchen that is still in progress, but keeps threatening to be finished soon 🙂

The wood products: Next into the basket were theWood Products. As much as I love the feeling of soft fiber, I also love the patina of a nicely finished wood product as well. So….. into the basket went my Cherry triangle stand, a yarn counter from Serendipity Farm, the lovely tapestry beater from exotic woods, along with a great diz and threader made from Cardinal wood…..darned if I can remember the name of the vendor, but his work is some of the best that I have seen. I was a furniture refinisher in one of my past lives, so I can really appreciate a good wood craftsman. Along with these items is a rosewood circular needle from Susanne……….I have some double pointed needles from the same manufacturer and I LOVE them!! Lastly in the basket were 4 Schacht pirns for my end feed shuttle

and finally, The Glitz……the jewels that lept into my basket. First was a sweet bunny pin that was made by Rachel Badeau of Moosup Valley Designs,along with the great shawl pin from Ram’s head and some lovely beaded stichmarkers. Of course a few secret pal presents were tucked into that basket as well, but they are hiding…hehe.

I hope that everyone had as great of a time as I had and I look forward to seeing old and new faces next year!!!! For a great picture trail of Rhinebeck, please visit this website…….it is great! A must for anyone that was not able to attend the festival this year.

Have fun with all your goodies and as I end this post, I have to give another WOO HOO………the Red Sox have clinched the penant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG……maybe I will see them win the World Series in my lifetime. A girl can dream…….(and chew on those “choke” words that she mentioned to her son, from many years of experience…haha)