Rhinebeck & Back Again

Not surprisingly, the weekend flew by - even more so because of Rhinebeck! I drove up on Saturday morning to pick up my sister-in-law and off we went to the festival. We had some goals in mind, and she was way more specific that I was. One of my goals was that I was actually going to speak up and say "Hi" to knitters that I know online - in each previous year I have chickened out and been shy.

I am quite proud of myself - I said "Hi" to quite a lot of people, old friends and new friends - it does seem so strange to feel like you know all these people, but I only really identify them with their username! We were on our way to get a lamb sandwich when we walked by the Rhinebeck Style spot Gale Zucker set up - and I saw a group of gals wearing a hat, just like mine! It was the Thursday night SnB crew - Wife, Mom, Knitter, Anphoe, jennsquared, Costumechick, BackstageKnits, Hedwigbc, & Alaina-Jane! I joined them for the group photos and I really am excited to see how they came out!

I also managed to run into and actually say hey to several people I've knit for - Laura (Schaefer Yarn), Amallen (Lorna's Laces) & Knitgrrl - so that was really cool. On top of that, when I spotted Amallen, she was walking around with Ysolda - so I got to gush about her work and admire the new pieces for a bit. I also managed to find TammyG, Jesh, Librarysarie & baby, and The Painted Sheep!

After all that people watching and yarn fondling, what was my part of the haul? I surprised even myself.

One skein of Socks that Rock Silkie - Tlingit.
After carefully looking at all there was - I found that my favorite items were at vendors I bought from in the past, and still have not yet used that yarn. So I resisted. I was almost swayed by Sanguine Gryphon (OMG, that Bugga is amazing!) but I didn't want to wait in a 45 minute line. I was also almost swayed by a beautiful raspberry-merlot lace (1200+yds for $20!) but I'm not planning to knit lace anytime soon. I'm blessed to have a pretty decent yarn stash, and I've got yarn "payment" headed my way. So I decided on the STR - there wasn't a line really and it's not something I can just pick up at the LYS. Likely this will be a shawl or scarf - I have another skein of silkie from when I was in the Rockin Sock Club - so maybe they will work together for something or just by itself like a Clapotis, Simple Things, or Trinity Shawlette...

This is the start of a great several weeks of fiber that is somewhat local - Stitches East is next week (not sure if I'm going), the New England Fiber Festival is in a few weeks (very curious to check that out!) and then I'm going on the Knitter's Review Retreat!