Post-Rhinebeck post

Are you ready for the gajillionth Rhinebeck roundup? Want to see more sheep, goats, bloggers, and yarn? If not, I completely understand. But if so, read on.

I had such a great time, and the weekend passed waaaay too quickly. Véronik and I drove down on Friday afternoon and were home again by about 11 o'clock Sunday night -- it was about a six-hour drive each way, including coffee stops. The weather was just beautiful, and the fall colours blew my mind a little bit.

It was my first Rhinebeck, and it actually wasn't as frantic or crowded as I'd expected (although some buildings were pretty packed at times). I ended up spending more time looking at animals (including sheep-herding dogs and Frisbee-catching dogs) than at yarn, I think. And I came home with cash in my pocket. Maybe I'm some kind of freak.


It was great to see so many bloggers in person, some again and others for the first time. I finally got to meet some people whom I feel like I've "known" for years, like Adrian, Christy, Claudia, Joanna, darling Rachael, and Rachel M., as well as newer pal and alpaca-lover Veronique. And of course it was awesome to see a bunch of the NYC and TO knitters for the second or third time, like Jackie, Jenn, Laura, darling Michelle, Stephannie, and Stephanie. (I hesitated to start naming names, because of course I met and talked to lots of lovely people and can't possibly link to them all. You know who you are.)

I didn't take nearly enough photos, but if it's photos you want, I'd recommend Claudia's post and Stephanie's post in which Rachael and I look like a single two-headed creature. I will show you this one of Rachael and me, just to prove a couple of points: that we are in fact not a two-headed creature, that no clouds dared sully the sky over Rhinebeck, and that I did wear my new Woodland Shawl on Sunday.


Actually, I'll show you two more people pictures. First, I like this one of Maia and Véronik sharing a serious two-handed wool-fondling moment:


And second, this one of Brooke and Joanna was taken mere hours after Joanna said she didn't want to learn to spin:


Yep, that's the power of Rhinebeck. OK, so what did I buy? I spent $60, and I'm very happy with my purchases. At the Morehouse Merino party on Saturday night, I picked up six skeins of laceweight from the backroom bargain bin (numbers 1 & 2 below). I can certainly live with breaks in the yarn for $2 per skein. Number 3 is two skeins of worsted-weight merino from Greenwood Hill Farm in a colour I would never in a million years have chosen for myself if Véronik hadn't given a little push. These will probably become a hat or mittens. And number 4 is a 691-yard skein of chocolate-brown Peruvian alpaca from A Touch of Twist, which will become a scarf.


At the last minute on Sunday I bought a pretty Kromski niddy noddy (from ??) -- not because I'm going to spin, but because I unravel things from time to time.

Oh, and I also bought a sheep.


See you there next year? I think I'll have to go back.

(p.s., Ravelry has been in text-only format for me since I've been back. Is it just me?) Thanks, PICAdrienne!