Rhinebeck Trip: Saturday

Saturday morning, my mom and I were up VERY early. We were dressed and out the door before 8 a.m. (We definitely saved a lot of time and money by bringing bagels and cream cheese with us for breakfast.)

Billboard shot, because everyone else will have one.

We pulled into the parking lot at about quarter after 8 and were parked right in between the Main and 4H Gates, against the fence that enclosed the sheep dog trials. We were able to enter the fairgrounds right away with our workshop e-tickets. This gave us a bit of time to acquaint ourselves with the buildings and, most importantly, find the Cephalopod Yarns booth.

Although other vendors were setting up at the time (and in fact, I even managed to buy a batt from the Ulster County Fiber Guild), the Cephalopod people were no where to be found. They did finally show up a few minutes before 9 and I picked out some yarn to knit myself a sweater. Unfortunately, they only had 4 skeins. 4 skeins might have been enough, but I thought some insurance would be good. The vendor assured me they had more, but they were in the van. No problem! I could buy the 4 skeins now and they would hold the 5th skein for me to get after lunch. Except, they didn't have their cash box. The vendor graciously agreed to hold all the yarn for me, but as I walked along I started to second guess the price. I knew what it would cost to knit the sweater from the called-for yarn (Madelintosh) and this would cost almost double that. I decided not to do it. So, I'm kind of glad that I'm not suffering from buyer's remorse. It was great to see their yarn in person and I won't hesitate now to order from them online. I am probably the only person who would find themselves first in line at one of the most sought-after vendors and wind up buying nothing.

My mom and I spent a little bit of time walking through the barns. At Wild Apple Farms I found some pretty tweedy red worsted weight yarn on clearance for $3.50 a skein. I bought 10, more than enough to knit myself a Lynden sweater. I also bought an acorn support spindle. It's too cute!

After the barns my mom decided to take a break in the car to rest her feet, so I hightailed it to the buildings. I went right to Miss Babs' to check out the Color Affection kits. Sadly, she didn't have the colorway I wanted in the base that I wanted, but I did pick up 3 Yowza! skeins to knit up a Dark and Stormy. I will order the CA kit I want when it becomes available. Again, I'm glad to see her stuff in person and won't hesitate to order it online. I know a lot of people complained about the line, but I only waited about 20 minutes and that was the only real line I waited in all day.

I also hit the Golding booth and got myself a REALLY pretty little spindle. Next up was Bijou Basin. With the coupon from the workshops and the discount I received from my Scratch-a-Yak card at the register, I got 2 skeins of yarn - one is 100% yak down and the other a 50/50 wool/yak blend. I paid less than $30 altogether, so I feel like I got a really good deal!

After that I joined my mom back at the car where we sat and watched the sheepdog trials for a bit. I was much calmer by then, because I had hit all of my "must-haves" booths and was very pleased with my purchases. We grabbed some lunch (lamb ravioli for me and a lamb burger for her; both very yummy! ) and wandered around looking at whatever. The Fold was done being swamped by this point and I picked up one skein of Socks that Rock in the Saving Grace colorway. This is another thing I was excited to see in person. I also bought the "Knitting all the Time" CD.

We really enjoyed seeing all the beautiful handknits walking around. I had entered in the drop-spindling contest, so we headed over to Barn E next. There, I was VERY pleasantly surprised to find out that my entry in the featured breed, small item competition had won 3rd place! I had no expectation whatsoever of winning a ribbon, so I was really excited!

The attendant let us pose for a picture

I did not place in the drop spindling contest, but I feel like I did okay. By then, both mom and I were really tired. We opted not to stick around for the chopstick knitting contest but headed back to the hotel for a rest instead.

Of course, first, I had to admire and cuddle with all my new goodies:

Here's a shot of the haul up to this point:

I'll have to get a close up of the spindles another time to show you. Also, I think I forgot mention in the previous post that I was able to purchase Andrea Wong's Portuguese knitting DVD and 2 knitting pins on Friday at the workshops. I was really pleased with all of my purchases. Every single one of them fit my shopping list. Honestly, I would have been perfectly content even if I didn't go back to the show on Sunday.

After a nap and a shower, we headed back to Rhinebeck for the Cooperative Press party. Um, that was a big fat waste of gas. The party was in super hot, super small art gallery and there was nowhere to sit. We stayed for all of 5 minutes, which was long enough for me to meet Knitsinpublic Theresa in person.

She is super sweet in person and I was sad that I couldn't stay a little longer to talk with her, but did I mention, it was really hot, really crowded, and there was nowhere to sit down? We did admire her friend's (Gingy on Rav) gorgeous shawl, knit with her own handspun:

So gorgeous!

If you haven't yet, check out Theresa's podcast. I love to see what she's knitting and long to have her stash problems.

We left (ran out of) the party and hit Pete's Famous Diner for dinner. I had a really great triple-decker turkey club. YUM! We were back at the Holidome by 9 and enjoyed another lovely evening with our new friends, until the management turned out the lights.

I was asleep within seconds of my head hitting the pillow.