the blue blog archives: rambling about rhinebeck

Wee one never needed to wear her pinwheel jacket and I certainly didn't miss my failed Rhinebeck sweater. Me and wee spent Saturday casually touring the barns and occasionally playing on the grass with the Knitsmith gals.

We drove up with Johanna and her baby and met up with Lisa, Dana, and Dani and a whole busload of Bostoners that Peta drove up on the Yarn Safari bus!

I didn't take many pictures at all (see why below) and absolutely none of yarn. It was funny to look back and see what I actually decided to snap a photo of.

The llama lovables at a stand that always has cute things (I took a pic of their bunny slippers two years ago).

And one of the lovely quilts that many of the vendors had in their booths. That's it. That's all my photos from Saturday. I did buy some yarn though.

Handspun, colorfully dyed angora/merino from my favorite vendor, Jamie Harmon. Looooove her yarns! This should someday become a little poncho-ish something for wee one.

And this fun hat from Morehouse (can you believe that they're closing the store - only online after this year - so sad). I bought this for me, but I have a feeling that the boys will want one when I'm done with mine.

On Sunday, there was the big author book signing sponsored by Merritt books. What fun! So many cool authors. I really hope they do this again every year. I got my book signed by Ann & Kay and saw all the amazing samples from their incredible book. I saw Clara, who had the loveliest booth ever (everything she does is lovely!). I had to visit Stitchy's booth, which was intentionally a bit less attractive with all of her hilarious kitschy stitches finds like beer can crochet hats. Wee one was strangely drawn to one of those ridiculous and slightly creepy yarn clown things on her table. Yikes! At my booth, I sat next to Sharon Turner of Monkeysuits (still one of my favorite kids' knitting books ever - and have you checked out her latest monkeysuits patterns? so cute!!) and Teach Yourself Visually Knitting and Teach Yourself Visually Knitting Design. She was so cool!

I had all my samples out and wee one wore one of the elf hats and yelled for folks to stop by. My favorite thing was when kids would wander into the tent with mom or dad and glance disinterestedly at the tables until they saw mine - 'oooh, I love Harry Potter!'. The samples and books were repeatedly mobbed and mauled by little gangs of preteens. It was funny. I enjoyed getting to meet all of you who stopped by. I'm glad to hear that so many of your are enjoying the book.

PS - Wee one found and broke the camera the day before we left for Rhinebeck, so I had only the cell phone, which had no reception up on the fairgrounds and kept telling me that its picture memory was full (too many pictures of wee one on there, I guess) and the old camera, which takes crappy pictures (thereby necessitating the purchase of the now-broken new camera). So please excuse the minimal quantity and quality of the pictures here in this post and in the near future. Thank you!

posted by alison at 11:11 am | in ready for rhinebeck

Comments

I saw you and that adorable little girl of yours on Saturday but didn't get a chance to say hello. Wasn't it a lovely weekend??

Posted by: --Deb at October 23, 2007 11:22 AM

Alison I saw you on Saturday at the blogger meet up and wanted to say hi, but it looked like Wee was enjoying lunch and I didn't want to interrupt.
I was hoping to be able to attend on Sunday to see you in the authors tent, but we had to go home Saturday night :(

Posted by: Carla at October 23, 2007 11:38 AM

Hi Alison,
I have been meaning to stop by and tell you that recently someone gave a copy of your book to my 11 year old son. He was THRILLED. He does some basic knitting, but has not been interested in taking it any further (ie: not even to learn to purl), but now? uh-huh. Now he's going to make everything in the book, he says. lol
Billi-Jean

Posted by: Billi-Jean at October 23, 2007 11:43 AM

I bought your book on Sunday. I LOVE IT! Thanks so much for signing it! My unsuspecting co-workers are getting house scarves this year!! My fiancee may be getting a Quiddich sweater, but I'll keep it to myself that it's Potter-related.

Posted by: Lindsey at October 23, 2007 11:55 AM

It was so good finally to meet you!

Posted by: Ina at October 23, 2007 12:26 PM

It was nice to see you again, and wee one is even more adorable in person than she is on the blog!

Posted by: Sarah at October 23, 2007 12:48 PM

I was the crazy lady who accosted you when you had just gotten into the festival. I realized later that I was so busy fawning over the wee one in person that I didn't even introduce myself. So rude.

Anyway, the wee one is even cuter in person, if that's even possible.

Posted by: Christy at October 23, 2007 1:40 PM

Seems like you guys have lot's of wonderful craft related things happening over your way. I haven't found much here but I am going to my first knit meeting on Thursday and I'm very excited.

I stop by often but I think this is my first comment (Correct me if I'm wrong).

I just wanted to say your pinwheel jacket was adorable and I'm attempting my own version but I am stuck :(. It says "Repeat this pattern until the desired size. The sample sweater has 70 rounds and 7 colours, and ends with 28 stitches in each section, 224 stitches total." But didn't we stop the pattern at 24? and if I am increasing on every stitch every every 6 rows there would be far more than 28 each repeat.

Thanks if you can help!

Posted by: Starry at October 23, 2007 3:45 PM

I keep telling myself that I need to sign up for a Yarn Safaris trip. As a non-driver, it would be such a treat to get down to one of the larger events like Rhinebeck.

Posted by: Seanna Lea at October 23, 2007 5:37 PM

Freaky. My camera broke when I was there last year. Conspiracy?

Posted by: Dava at October 23, 2007 6:56 PM

Oh, Wee One has had her eye on that camera for quite a while -- as photographically documented not long ago! She was just awaiting her moment to pounce!

I'm a second child and there are no pictures of me after my first year because my older brother broke the camera, at a time when a camera was rather a luxury. (He took it apart, because he wanted to know how it worked.)

Sounds like you had fun despite the busy-ness and author-ity part. Someday I'll make it from the Midwest to Rhinebeck!

Posted by: Cathy-Cate at October 23, 2007 7:13 PM

LOL - I took a picture of the walrus too! Sorry I didn't get a chance to swing into the signing booth - would have loved to have said hello at least!

Posted by: Eklectika at October 23, 2007 9:01 PM

did you say PETA...are they PRO or Anti Rhinebeck? I know who they are.
[though I can't think why they would anti...the farm animals are treated well, right?]
I'm so glad the weather smiled at you.
I can't belive you would loose your knitting mojo...me, yes, you NEVER. Glad it was found.

Posted by: Orli at October 24, 2007 3:12 AM

Sounds like a ton of fun!!! I'd love to be able to get there, but it being on the wrong continent surely makes it a wee bit difficult!!!
(wee one looks cute in her hat!) ;-)

Posted by: Karen S at October 24, 2007 3:19 AM

Orli, Peta is a woman in our knitting group (she runs the Yarn Safaris). No relation or connection to the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals! ;0)

Posted by: ALISON at October 24, 2007 10:19 AM

Sorry to miss you and Wee at Rhinebeck!

Posted by: claudia at October 27, 2007 7:46 PM