Still a little emotional about the Piss Crusader this morning, but I’ll try to distract myself with memories of Rhinebeck.
Jordana and I left my house at about 9:30 Saturday morning. We figured this would put us in Rhinebeck well before 1 PM when the blogger meetup was happening outside of Building E, since Jordana had done a test run the week before. We hadn’t counted on this (click to see it):
Construction traffic on the Taconic. Slightly out of focus since I was more concerned with shooting the Jaywalker socks I had just finished. There’s a better picture of the Jaywalkers, but for right now it’s on my hard drive, since I apparently missed it in the upload to Flickr this morning. Take my word on it, they are lovely, knit from Cherry Tree Hill’s Supersock in the River Run colorway in honor of Socktoberfest. (And yes, Aimee, this is the “Thanks for the yarn!” yarn.) We hit construction three times, including one fifteen minute wait only to find they were removing the cones we passed. If that wasn’t enough to raise blood pressure, I don’t know what was. The worst part was knowing that none of the construction had been there the weekend before – it was a total roadblock to prevent me from getting wool! Bastards!!
We finally got to Rhinebeck at 1, then spent time parking in the mud (which factored in later), searching for Jordana’s missing hat, got partway to the gate and realized Jordana’s keychain was missing (she was just not having a good day), so backtracked down to the car and found it, then went back to the gate where I got in for the kids’ rate (apparently I looked under 12, hey, I wasn’t fighting it), and searched out a bathroom. After all of that, it was edging onto 1:45. I looked briefly outside of building E, saw nothing but a huge crowd (which I now know was the blogger gathering, but looked more like mass chaos since I didn’t see anyone I knew), and got twitchy. By wool, I was going to get some Socks That Rock yarn or die trying.
I did not die. Nor did I get the yarn. By the time that we got there, they were down to colorways I was less than crazy about; although they were very pretty, none of them screamed “Julie!”. We moved on, admiring wheels, roving, yarn. I saw several wheels I liked, but since I am so new to spinning and have very limited experience on a wheel, I was hesitant to ask to try them. Maybe I’ll have worked up the courage to try them by the time Jordana and I go to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival in the spring.
I did get to meet Cara (whom I recognized by her killer knee socks, as by that point in the day, my head was hanging low) and talked to her for a few minutes to get the hook up on how to order Socks That Rock from the Fold. We also ran into Stephanie and Cassie who had hit the Rhinebeck wall just as surely as we had by that point in the day. They had the game figured out, though and were coming back the next day. Next year Jordana and I will be doing that as well so we don’t feel so completely overwhelmed.
At the end of it all, we headed back to the swamp where we were parked, helped push another car out of the mud (see, told you it would come back to the swamp), and were pushed out in return. We made it into town for a bite of food before we drove back home, completely satisfied with the day. And now, more pictures.
This guy reminded us of Jordana’s husband Thabs.
Posing just for me.
This was my special friend. Two seconds later he came over and bowed his head down so I could scratch between his horns.
Hay at the top of the bin tastes better, I guess.
This sheep was a giant among sheep. It came up to Jordana’s chest, and she is not short. He sure did like to be scratched, too.
Moments after I took this, the subject spit on another girl. Watch out, camelids spit.
Rhinebeck swag for $60. Not bad. Click on the picture for details.
I took this when I realized I have a fiber stash. Click for details.
And there you have it, a Rhinebeck post. I love this festival and will go back every year. It’s that good.
That is one huge sheep next to Jordana!
Hahahaha! Fiber stash! Don’t smoke it all at once!
next year.
NEXT YEAR!!! I SWEAR BY ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY!!!!
Oh man–In my dreams, I will join you and ESC next year. How awesome! (Oh, and tell Jordana and Thabs I said hi
)
Nice socks, too. Does this mean “thanks for the yarn!” is now merely a memory? And are they as soft as they look?
Yarn and sheep. What, you going all redneck on us or something? There’s just something disturbing about the whole thing.
Love the socks, though. Most excellent job.
Vince~Nope, going all crafty on yo’ ass. I like country life. Just not the country life depicted in
Aimee~I will tell them. And yes, you will be with us next year and it will be awesome. I guess we can say “Thanks for the socks!” now…they are great, soft, warm, and the purl bumps were a little massage-y on my feet, too.
ESC~Well, you have a place to stay in Brooklyn, all you have to do are make the plan reservations.
Seamus~You boys and your notions of “stash”…
Very glad to meet you!! Saturday was insane! Sunday was much better. And when you go to order STR – order it directly from Blue Moon – not The Fold. (Or you can go to The Fold, but I don’t know what they’ll have left now. They get it directly from Blue Moon.)
I never knew that a wool fair could be so exciting.
Hi Julie – You’re very welcome about the spinning wheel info. And remember, missing exits was all MY doing; YOU didn’t ask for encountering road construction….Truly, I’m beyond apologizing for my bad navigating. Might as well just laugh about it…
Pretty Jaywalkers!
you are brave!! I can’t touch animals! Once these five little lambs started running toward me and I ran into the car.
I agree with Jay
I’m glad you had such a good time!
I read this yesterday and then last night I had a funny dream about a blogger gathering – and I’ve never been to one!
Geewits~I’ve got another one coming up next weekend with some people that I’ve met before and some I haven’t – can’t wait!
Lisa~It was awesome, even if I was dog tired when I talked to you that night.
Mrs. M~I love all the little animals. Even the not so little ones, like the giant sheep above.
Jenny~I’ll be asking you more about wheels as we go on, although I really like the look of the Lendrum, and there seem to be very good deals on it on the internet. I was bummed that I didn’t get to show you the Jaywalkers in person, since they’re the ones I was knitting when we met at Steph’s book signing in September! As you can see, I put the toes onto them.
Jay~Wildly exciting, really. Of course, I’m betting the average person wouldn’t be as excited about sock yarn as I am, but other thant that? Wildly exciting.
Cara~Thanks for the tip, I’ll go directly to Blue Moon. After seeing Rockstar in person (albeit on worsted weight yarn), I think I need some. It was great meeting you, too, after reading your blog for so long! I’ll have wheel questions for you as well as Jenny, if you don’t mind.