A Day at Rhinebeck

Saturday I headed up north (Google took me through NJ after it got confused near the GW bridge, but it was scenic that way, too) to meet one of my BFFs and her family for a day of yarny goodness at the NYS Sheep & Wool Festival, known to the knitting cognoscenti as Rhinebeck. The drive was gorgeous, but I was alone in the car and couldn't safely photograph my passing. Suffice it to say that the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and the leaves were putting on a show.

But before I left, I had to decide which sweater to wear. Lots of knitter attendees create a new sweater to debut at Rhinebeck, but I didn't want to do that, since almost any new sweater of mine will also be a new design, and to have it ready to publish around Rhinebeck, I would have had to start in the spring. Maybe next year...

Rhinebeck sweater choices
Top (l to r): Sailor's Valentine, Wavelette, Mermaid's Cardigan
Bottom (l to r): An Aran for Anne, An Aran for Frederick, Bloc

Here I am getting ready to get in the car. Nick stayed back with the girls, so I could really focus on the wool fumes. Maybe next year the whole gang will be able to come up.

Almost ready (with Isobel and Penelope)

The drive was smooth and uneventful, once I got over what Google Maps had done to my original plan (I have realized that reliance on technology is not helping me get used to driving around NYC; I just don't have a firm grasp on all the parkways and whatnot and how they connect). The only hitch was the last two miles to the fairgrounds, which took me half an hour to traverse. But I did get to snap a pic of the billboard as a result of the traffic.

Billboard that I got to stare at for quite a while during the last half hour/two miles to the fairgrounds

I'm working on my selfies. Here is Upon the Spanish Main, which is being tested by some lovely Ravellers even as I type. Mine is in Jill Draper Makes Stuff's Splendour Sock Yarn in Glacier, which I bought at my first Rhinebeck two years ago.

Happy to be here in my Upon the Spanish Main shawl

And the Rhinebeck sweater winner: Sailor's Valentine! I heard from friends all over with their choices, and what I loved was that there was no concensus. Maybe I should have done a fashion show throughout the day :)

Sailor's Valentine was the winner!

Walking to the Meetup

Foliage

Rav meetup 1

Rav meetup 2

Rav meetup 3

Angora (Mohair-producing) goat

Annie bananarota in her Custom Fit Jackaroo

Everybody wants some lamb for lunch,
but the best was the sheep's milk ricotta filled cannoli - yum!

Annie and I went the whole day without buying yarn! Some booths were just crazy, and Annie was looking for some yarn specifically for a work-appropriate cardigan, whereas I had decided to just let the whole thing wash over me and see what inspiration came. Right near the end, we headed back to Harrisville's booth, which was full of woolly goodness, though nothing quite gelled for me yet. Then we went on to Cephalopod Yarns, which had been a madhouse when we'd passed through earlier. All was quieter. Quiet enough to discover this ombre set in grey. Love! Annie found her cardi yarn here, too.

Grey ombre Traveller set from Cephalopod -
this stuff isn't even going into the stash; I'm swatching immediately!

On our way to the car we walked through Building 39, and this undyed merino glowed at me. The half-sweater sized hanks sealed the deal, and two of them came home with me. I think these are going to end up as a unicorn-inspired pullover.

Luscious undyed merino from the Spinning Mill
If that yarn doesn't look unicorn-y, I don't know what does.

Then we headed back to the house-without-tv with Max's BBQ in hand and listened to the Red Sox win on the radio (actually, we were so tired that we went to bed in the 6th, but they won all the same). Sunday's drive back along the Taconic was even more spectacular than the drive up.

See you again next year, Dutchess County!