Rhinebeck! - Or Where are Knitty D & Wendy?

As usual - I had another post, picture laden that I tried to upload all last week and Blogger kept crapping out on me. Since I can post those pictures any time I thought I'd let you all know about Rhinebeck and what a great time we had!

Pictures of the stash will be taken later, but I wanted to post a little while the event was still fresh in my mind.

Friday night I dreamt about wool and winding wool and I woke up every two hours wondering if it was time to get up yet. The alarm didn't even need to be snoozed once. I was up and dressed and ready to go. Jen and I met in Northern NJ, left my car because she has more trunk space and hit the road to the Catskill Mountains equipped with knitting pod casts, knitting books and loads to chat about.

The first surprise of the day was that we both had birthday presents for each other. I made Jen a row counter bracelet out of lampwork beads, dyed Jade, Rose Quartz and Onyx, and the stitch markers to match. She got me a beautiful knitting bag from Della Q. I just gave the home page link so I don't know if my bag is on the site. It's the perfect size for Maude and a pair of socks so I'll be loading it up later.

When we got there we went right in and started shopping. The first purchases weren't yarn tho. Jen bought some Eucalan and a sweater stone. I bought a felted ball kitty toy for Katie. The picture of me came out really bad (eyes closed, talking, my hair in front of my face and the kitty toy in motion) so - here is Jen's first purchase:

But the yarn beckoned. Jen bought first - some yarn made from Bufflao. It was so amazingly soft and took dye really well which surprised us both. Then we said hello to the sheep and the llamas and alpacas. Look at that sweet little alpaca face!

We rounded the corner and there was one of the vendors we wanted to spend some time with; Briar Rose Fibers. I only hope when I take a picture of what I bought there it will do justice to the beautiful colors and the amazing hand of the wool. It was way to yummy to pass up and so I bought a hank of 1550 yards of Merino wool sport weight and another of wool and tussah. Her prices were really good. Here is a pic of Jen and Chris (the brilliance behind Briar Rose):

Honest - there are pics of me. At least one anyway... See... We ran into Amy Singer! Actually we kept running into her all day. It was almost like we were shopping with her. Anyway, I gushed about how much I love Knitty and that I turned my Mom onto the site and we both love what she does and I got a knitty pin. It will be cherished!

I also met Jillian Moreno. Sorry there isn't a picture, but we chatted for a moment and I told her I was really looking forward to the second Big Girl Knits and she hugged me. Jillian Moreno hugged me!

Amy had told me that she bought some sock yarn at The Fold's booth and that the Socks that Rock was going fast. She pointed us in the right direction and we hustled over there. She wasn't kidding. The display was practically bare. I scored a few skeins and waited in the endless line to pay. While waiting I saw this beautiful shawl coming toward me and then looked at the wearer, and yes - it was our beloved Yarn Harlot. She was with Juno and I introduced myself and she did the same. Then she introduced me to another blogger who for the life of me I can't remember if it was the woman who writes Purls Before Swine or not. Pretty sure it was tho.

Anyway - purchases made there and we had a bite to eat and ran into the same people mentioned above while shopping through the rest of the buildings. I KNOW Knitty D and Wendy were going to Rhinebeck, but we didn't see them. Not once. How is it possible to run into Amy and Jillian and Stephanie and Stitchy McYarnpants and not see Knitty D and Wendy? We even ran into our Entralac teacher not once but TWICE.

Anyway - once we finished covering all the fairgrounds we hopped in the car and went to In Sheeps Clothing which was very close by. How could we pass that up? We couldn't. I bought lace weight yarn and 2 ply yarn for socks and the shop is warm and friendly with lots of places to sit and tons of yarn to play with. If you are ever in the area - go there! Not to mention the people working there were helpful and fun and didn't seem to be too overwhelmed with the people who kept pouring in the front door.

We left Rhinebeck NY when we were done buying our Morehouse Farms Merino. Stopped for dinner and then took our loot to our respective homes. I got home at 9PM and was in bed asleep by 9:45.

So I'm off to make another cuppa tea and play with all my new yarn.