Rhinebeck!

How quickly a wonderful weekend with dear friends flies by! I got back from our annual trek to Rhinebeck last evening, and although I was looking forward to sleeping in my own bed again, I already missed my fibery friends dreadfully. Here's the recap, so if you weren't able to make it, you can experience it vicariously.

The first year we went to Rhinebeck, faithful companion Jim and I

got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday and went for the day. We quickly realized that (a) we are too old to get up at 4 a.m. every year and (b) we needed to spend more time there because it was so fun, so the next year we got a hotel room and stayed over Saturday night. A year or two after that, lovely & uber-talented Laura Grutzeck had been coming with us and we all decided one night at Rhinebeck wasn't enough. So we added Friday night to our hotel reservation and made it a weekend.

We left midday Friday, and the weather was kind of misty and overcast, with the sun peeking through from time to time. Our drive went pretty quickly, and we arrived before 5 p.m. We met up with my girl-crush Veve and her wonderful friends Tara and Kate, and ended up at the Olympic Diner for a quick dinner. We hit the hay early so we would be able to get to the show nice and early.

We woke up Saturday to beautiful sunny skies...(later on, there were short but drenching rain showers, though)

and before we even left the parking lot, we saw Tara and Kate.

Tara just finished her lovely sweater the night before so she modeled it for us (she has previous modeling experience, you know).

We were early enough that we didn't get caught in too much traffic (we heard that some friends were stuck in a gigantic line of cars a little later in the morning -- feh) and we were very pleased to be strolling the grounds while the sun shone and the leaves gently fell.

When I first get to Rhinebeck, it's such a giddy feeling: where to go first, looking for friends along the way, and simply soaking up the great feeling of being surrounded by fellow fiber freaks....So we wouldn't be completely overwhelmed, we adopted a somewhat systematic approach, starting at one end of the barns and working our way through them. It's always interesting to see what new vendors are there, to greet old friends from past years (we always make out way to Maggie's Soaps, because she is a lovely person and the soap is divine!)

and one of our first stops was, of course, to see the inimitable Dr. Mel

wearing his customary kilt and thereby gracing us all with a view of his sexeh legs.

Not to mention the great Icelandic sweater....

We also had the pleasure of running into Amy Detjen

and Rhichard from happy Koiguland (also showing off his great gams)

Of course we saw all sorts of adorable animals, from sheep

(I think this is a Teeswater) to goats

and bunnies

and we ran into several alpaca and llama parades

We made a special stop at the book tent, where I picked up a signed copy of Teva Durham's recent book (I'll do a review soon -- it's fabulous)

Ysolda was signing her new book and showing off her new 'do:

while Ms. Clara Parkes was selling out (SELLING OUT!) of her new book (one of the next books I'll be reviewing)

Lunch was my favorite Polish food from Janek's

(stuffed cabbage rolls and pierogi).

We didn't see a lot of folks from Philly on Saturday, and somehow I completely missed Marilyn and Joe (very unusual) but we still managed to have a most excellent day.

Jim didn't want to leave -- can you blame him?

(Tomorrow: Day 2 recap)

In which Carol ogles a kilted man, sees lots of furry cuteness and blubbers like a baby

Day 2 of Rhinebeck dawned much grayer, although by the time we checked out of our hotel and headed for the fairground, it still wasn't actually raining. We only had a few hours to spend before our drive home, so we got to work right away. I started out by paying my annual pilgrimage to Dr. Mel and his handsome husband David, at Red Maple Sportswear.


While there are many, many reasons to go visit them -- gorgeous sportswear made from alpaca and other natural fibers! a disco ball! --


the top reason for me has to be Mel in a kilt.


'Nuff said.



By the time the drizzle started, I had seen Jody (of Knotions fame), Kristy and Christy:


Barb (posing here with Mindy):

some BBF customers (hi, Connie!) and all the other folks whose photos I forgot to take. Of course, there were lots of adorable fiber animals, like this alpaca




the obligatory goat shot for Mindy:



and sheep!

Including a parade of sheep wearing jackets!


Even two ducks


and a kangaroo.


By the time we had to leave, I was so sad at having to say goodbye to my pals that I got all choked up. But at least I have this photo of Veve and I to keep under my pillow.


When I got home, I realized there were a bunch of people I didn't get to see -- Lars, Lorraine, Kristin N., Lymie Melissa, etc. -- but there's always next year, right?


P.S. Next week at BBF: border leicester/mohair/silk blend roving....

In which Carol sees lots of friends, buys lots of roving and eats at the diner again

Now that you know all about Swatchy's trip to Rhinebeck, let me tell you a bit about it from my perspective.

Every year, I think "Wow, Rhinebeck cannot possibly be better this year than it was last year because I had such a great time last year," and I try to temper my expectations so I won't be even a teeny bit disappointed. This year, my expectations were even more measured; all of the weather guessers forecasters were calling for cold weather, rain -- lots of it -- and even snow. I had visions of sodden blue jeans, cold toes and stringy wet hair, punctuated by the smell of lanolin and wet llama poop.

And yet? I had an amazing time, I met some wonderful new people and got to see some wonderful people I already knew, I made a few most excellent purchases (three fleeces to be processed for BBF and an incredible bag full of silk/border leicester/mohair that is in the dyepots right now.....), and it hardly rained at all. In fact, there was not a drop of precipitation at Saturday's show, and only drizzly rain on Sunday. My theory is that wherever VeVe goes, the sun shines -- a kind of polar opposite to Schleprock.

As always, I attended with my faithful traveling companions Jim and Laura. Here is Jim, wearing the scarf I designed for him (I am hoping to make the pattern available soon)


and here is Laura, modeling the gorgeous stranded sweater she designed for the current issue of Vogue Knitting (I am sorry for the mirror glare; I tried to crop it out):


Saturday morning, we were up early and ready to go. One of the first things I did was to scout out the fleece options. I found three beauties and dropped them off for processing, thinking I'd try to beat the rain. Well, lucky for us, it never rained, and after I got my fleeces out of the way (I'm always thinking about you, Fiber Clubs...) I had time to socialize.

So many of my favorite fiber people were there, including Hyphenated Carol (posing with Mindy, Laura and Thea):


friend of my oldest kid, Somebunnyslove:


Kristen Rengren, who was signing her fabulous book Vintage Baby Knits at the author's tent:

and of course my love, QueerJoe:


One of the best new friends I made was the inimitable Ali P, who I now dearly love and want to visit all the time:

and of course there was Rav-stalking (here is Jess):


But one of my most important tasks was to help hand out the cutest little mini-skeins of Nordique, VeVe's fabulous new yarn, to passers-by, like this crew from Philly:

(hi, Lisa! hi, Purlewe! hi, Purlewe's auntie!).

As a special reward for all my hard work, I got to share this kielbasi with Veve at lunch:


While we were noshing, the lovely Sarah came up to show off her cap-sleeve lace sweater, from the fall St-Denis Nordique magazine

(That's my favorite color of Nordique, by the way: Blue Eggshell.)

After lunch, it was more socializing, including some LSGers from Ravelry


and a woman with an incredible Norah Gaughan sweater (from a prior Vogue Knitting, I believe):


Either that, or she's flashing the apple crumble booth.

I saw awesome Knittinkitties (another Laura),

and then had dinner at the diner with some of the usual suspects, including Mark, John, Ted, Marilyn & Gerry, Laura, Jim and the guys whose names I am forgetting (I'm sorry; my children ate my brain), including the couple who didn't make it in the photo but were sitting on my right and were delightful dinner companions (NYU artistic guy and banking-guy-whose-cat-licks-his-head).


And all of that was just Day One...