the blue blog archives: rhinebeck

I will never remember everyone I saw. First, there were Tara, Cara, and Sarah. Tara's just started a new blog, Cara wore her new Everyday Cardigan, and Sarah her Dreamweaver cardi and her amazing new blue asymmetrical cable pullover! I ran into Carrie, who is even cuter in person, Lauren, in her fabulous wave pullover and Chappy's Mom. Then the NYC gals, Jackie with her beautiful new Cashcotton cardigan, Nipper in her Weasley, Cassie in her skull and crossbones halter, and Em too. There were also a lot of familiar faces from Massachusetts like Melanie in her gorgeous Lavold sweater, Julia in her new cardigan, Amber, Claudia with her amazing Annie Modesitt corset, and Wendy. And those from further away: Leigh, Carolyn, Nathania, who was working on her Slytherin sweater, and even Amy, Steph, and mamacate and co., who all came all the way from Canada! There were so many more too with lots of new-to-me names and blogs, like SpiderWomanKnits, there's no way I could keep them all straight. (If you saw me there, say hi in the comments!)

I was so excited to see Jamie Harmon's yarns at the show. Some of her handspun yarn is in my handspun funky scarf. I picked up another skein of her fabulous yarn to make a matching hat.

can you tell how much interest I had in this spinning demonstration?
look at those socks!

This sweater was on display at the Shelridge Farms booth. We declared them to be "Best in Barn" (and they shared the barn with Morehouse Merino, so that's saying a lot!). What wonderful soft yarns and in the most gorgeous colors - love, love, love them! You can see some of the yarns I bought there in the pic next to the sweater.

These were the coolest things. They're knitting needles that are marked like a ruler, so you can measure as you knit. Brilliant!

While Johanna and I were shopping, Lisa would sometimes stand to the side and work on her Opal sock. Without fail, people would stop and ask her to explain the Magic Loop technique that she was using. She must have done at least four demos. Then, after we were done, she'd walk off with us and the spectators would be shocked to see that she wasn't working at that booth!

And finally, words of advice from a 80's era Knitters mag for those, like me, coming home to and knitting for little ones:

"An active 4-year old can't always take time to coordinate his apparel." So make 'em one of these... (look close - it's all one sweater!)

shudder!
(thanks to Stitchy McYarnpants for sharing this issue of Knitters with us!)

Oddly, this sweater sort of sums up my whole feeling about this weekend and the New York Sheep and Wool Festival: it was so funny staying with Johanna and driving with Lisa, and I couldn't stop grinning from the shopping and from meeting everyone, but still the whole thing was more than a little ridiculous with all that yarn, all that rain, and all of us from the internet together with all those farm animals. Face it, folks, we're pretty weird.

posted by alison at 11:14 am | in fantastic fiber voyage

Comments

Weirdest ones around. Thank goodness we have eachother!!!

Posted by: Bookish Wendy at October 17, 2005 11:29 AM

Hey - I'm in your picture from the Marriott! (That's me, sitting next to Melanie in the back, with Paula from woolarina.com sitting at my feet). Hi!

It is so funny how we congregate at these things - every so often, in the barns, I would see these groups of people huddled together and go - oh, knitbloggers!

Posted by: anne at October 17, 2005 11:39 AM

So are the ones who get to Rhinebeck *weirder*, or just *luckier*?

Sigh.

Posted by: Kathy at October 17, 2005 11:43 AM

Sorry I missed you at the festival. Looks like you definitely had some fun. It's still amazing to me that I keep seeing things in people's pics that I must have missed! So much stuff so little time. ;)

Posted by: Jessica at October 17, 2005 12:02 PM

What a great trip! That Lisa, she cracks me up :)

Posted by: Dani at October 17, 2005 12:11 PM

Oh I love the bunny slippers!

Oh and who can resist the "Wicked Nice Wool"? *laugh* Was it wicked nice?

Posted by: Lisa P at October 17, 2005 12:50 PM

So nice to see pictures and hear how Rhinebeck went -- for those of us who live too far away to attend, we can live vicariously through you. Thanks for the great post! Enjoy your new yarns -- I can't wait to see what you make from them!

Posted by: Mary at October 17, 2005 2:24 PM

I went to Rhinebeck, but alas did not meet up with any of the bloggers whom I read on a more frequent basis than I can believe! I thought the whole thing was a hoot....and all that yarn was fantastic. My friend and I kept saying that this is like giving crack to a drug addict!!

Wish that I had met you as I really love your blog...perhaps another time.

Elise H.

Posted by: Elise at October 17, 2005 2:26 PM

It is definitely a bit odd to drive 3+ hours to stay at an odd house and visit with "friends" that you've never met... oh yeah, and spend 7 hours walking around a fair ground looking at yarn and then leaving there to go to a yarn store, rinse and repeat the next day! We are an odd bunch, but in the same ways and that's why we all get along so well! Now get knitting!

Posted by: Johanna at October 17, 2005 2:40 PM

I was feeling all jealous of those who were able to go to Rhinebeck till I read that you thought Shelridge Farm was best in show. That place is a short drive up the road from me and I've purchased wayyyyy too much of their stuff over the past couple of years. Thanks for making me feel better ;)

Posted by: Renee at October 17, 2005 3:04 PM

I've got the same wicked good yarn picture - can I still post mine?

It was great fun hanging on the couch with you and Johanna - who knew we were fellow philosophers! So funny. Knitting is better than philosophy any day.

Great, great fun! (Oh and that's my sleeve next to the Poland Spring water bottle - the red one! ;-) )

Posted by: Cara at October 17, 2005 3:13 PM

You say that like its a bad thing.

;-)

Posted by: claudia at October 17, 2005 3:47 PM

It was nice meeting you, too, however briefly! And yes, those bunny slippers are adorable . . . I'd wonder how I missed them, but there was so MUCH to look at, even going through every building twice, there's no way I saw everything! I'm making a list for next year . . .

Posted by: Deb at October 17, 2005 3:48 PM

Weird, but in a nice way. It was nice to connect real names and faces to virtual blognames and pictures. Glad to have met you!

Posted by: Nathania at October 17, 2005 3:54 PM

Yeah, what Claudia said!

And...you're just realizing this now??

Hehehe.

Posted by: paula at October 17, 2005 4:19 PM

Great pictures. I saw almost none of those things. The wicked wool bag, the sheepdog chasing the sheep sweater, the gorgeous needle-felted scarf. The non-spinner agreement remains!

Posted by: Lauren at October 17, 2005 4:27 PM

I totally fell in love with those bunny slippers too! So cute :)

And it was totally wierd with all of us meeting up, but really neat, and the weather! Just wacky. I love those knitting needles! (helloooo random!)

Posted by: Amber at October 17, 2005 4:31 PM

Lovely site! I would love to have the URL or company name for the felted bunny slipper pattern! There are just tooo cute!

Thanks and keep up the good work, I enjoy your blog.
Alice

Posted by: Alice at October 17, 2005 4:32 PM

It's so fun to read about Rhinebeck - I'm glad you guys all had such a blast. Hopefully next year I'll make it there!

xox,

Posted by: Julia at October 17, 2005 5:16 PM

Yay for fellow weirdos! That's what's so fun about hanging out with other knitbloggers, right?
It was great to meet and knit with you and all of the other lovely ladies!

Posted by: Sarah at October 17, 2005 9:15 PM

Yes, we are weird, but I can handle it! Glad we had a chance to say hi, even though it was brief...

Posted by: Cassie at October 18, 2005 1:05 AM

At least this year you noticed the spinning (socks aside) and the roving. Brace yourself, girl. You may be more susceptible than you think!

Posted by: julia fc at October 18, 2005 3:15 PM

I don't think I ever really said, "Hi." ("Hi.") For most of the evening, I was in the chair behind Vibegirl in your lobby photo. I might say, "Wicked Nice Fun," too. Not enough time to visit with everyone, but it was nice rubbing shoulders. Glad you enjoyed hanging with the weirdos, too.

Posted by: Vicki at October 18, 2005 3:19 PM

I wasn't there, but I must say that having just moved to New England and seeing your picture of the bag labelled "Wicked Nice Wool" made me laugh.

Posted by: Pfirsch at October 18, 2005 7:48 PM

Julia, as my son likes to say, "nope."

Posted by: alison at October 19, 2005 1:53 AM

It was a pleasure to meet you at Rhinebeck! I spent all day there and I am still surprised at how much I apparently missed! That handspun looks beautiful! Oh well. There's always next year, eh? Happy Knitting!

~Abi

Posted by: SpiderWomanKnits at October 20, 2005 1:06 AM

Okay. Now I know I watch too much TV. I had 2 TV moments just reading your blog:
a)Double dipping - LOL!
b)Rhinebeck - As I was watching Law and Order - SVU, some of the plot took place in Rhinebeck and I got all excited..such a dork, I know.

I love your socks. Would really like to make felt slippers one day. The photos are AWESOME, so wish I could go to one of these fairs.KnitStix: I once acctualy marked my needle with a marker in order to know when I reached the desigerd length.

Posted by: Orli at October 20, 2005 6:29 AM

Hi Alison, it was with great disappointment that I missed you and the gals on Sunday:-( I was there.. but didn't realize that any of you would still be there! I do enjoy reading your blog so much so I've finally come out of lurkdom... and reading about the boys and being jealeous about your trips to Germany (i'm from Mannheim).. some day we will catch up maybe even next year when I think I might have to go on Saturday :-)
have a wonderful weekend,
Karola

Posted by: Karola at October 21, 2005 4:36 PM