Rhinebeck Loot!

Yes, it is that time of year again on the Yarnkettle blog, pictures of yarn in my grass and fallen leaves. For some reason I love the way my yarn looks on grass, wait that sounds like my yarn is getting high, not what I mean I assure you! The grass seems to be my perfect light box, I don't know why I think that.

Anyways on to the loot, I mean yarny goodness. Continuing with the trend I noticed at my last festival, I bought only new-to-me yarns or yarns that I really love to use already. Nothing that has a friend from previous years still sitting in my basket. 

So first up we have MissBabs Windsor sock yarn in the Maple Surrender colorway. This was Miss Babs first year at Rhinebeck so I've never seen the yarn before but hear that it is a favorite of many people. I must say that she does the best job of packaging it. You know how the skein will sometimes work its way loose and become a big untwisted loop of yarn that if left alone will form a tangled mess? Instead of tucking one end in the other end she puts the tag through the loops at both ends to make a perfect twirled yarn skein. It was one of those moments when you see it you're like "Wow that is brilliant." I know it is not like negotiating world peace but untangled yarn is pretty important in the knitting world.

I've never had a book signed at Rhinebeck before and was jazzed to see both the Yarn Harlot and Clara Parkes would be there at the same time. I took my favorite book of the Yarn Harlot's Knitting Rules and bought Clara's book because I kept waffling on pre-ordering it from Amazon. Do I really need another sock book? Hell yes I do, thank you very much.

Don't worry Clara, they always do. The cutest thing was the way she flipped through the book like she had not already seen it. Part of me was like, "Uhm, you wrote that, you already know what the pictures look like." The other part of me was screaming "Shut up she's touching our book and talking to us!" Why does the "sane" part of me sound like Smeagol? My Precious

Back to more pictures of the Precious. I wore my socks made from Fiber Optic's Kashmir down to the festival. When two ladies were talking about the yarn I asked if they wanted to feel what it feels like knit up, offering up my foot at the same time. Since this is Rhinebeck they were not offended or weirded out at all, they just touched the sock and oohed and awed and picked up another skein or two.

This one is called Blackbird, but I was sorely tested to buy the colorway "It's not rocket science" but color won the fight over clever naming that time.

So by now my thought is running along the lines of Oh crap I am doing it again, I wore a green shirt and here I am buying only green yarn again. Luckily I came across the Autumn House Farm booth at that time and this gem caught my eye.

It is a really lovely color with shades of brown and purple. It called out to me and after verifying that I could indeed use it for socks I bought it. When I got home I discovered this problem.

About 5 or 6 strands are severed. I don't know if it got too close to a box cutter during unpacking or if I accidentally caught it in my bag's zipper but I am will figure out a way to work around it. I am really hoping since it is on the outside that it will be near the end of the yarn and I can just discard it without guilt but either way I'm sure my socks will be lovely.

Now we come to the time when I made a somewhat frantic call to Kisknit. We both want to make Cookie A's German Stocking. Kisknit bought her yarn at last month's festival and I wanted to buy mine at Rhinebeck. Guess what I forgot? Yep I forgot to check the pattern and see how much I needed. Poor Kisknit was not around to give me the data but the lady in the booth was very helpful and said she thought it was 600 to 800 yards. I bought six skeins and was debating buying eight but held off. Thank goodness I did because six skeins is 1110 yards, I should have plenty. (Oh Crap I just doomed that project didn't I?)

Shelridge Farms Soft Touch Heather in leaf colorway. It was in this booth that I overheard a very intimate and uplifting conversation. The woman in the booth and a customer were both without much hair, fairly obviously from some sort of cancer treatment. They were discussing how odd it feels to have new hair growing in. The wind going through such new hair is quite thrilling and odd feeling apparently. It was very touching to see these two survivors connect joyfully. It is my favorite memory of the festival.

Then I was off to the Ravelry meet up and saw a couple of friends from my old Friday night knit night. They both do amazing work. And it was at the suggestion of one that I took that Kinneared shot of the blog sweater and knitter I recognized.

After that I was thinking about dropping things off in the car but thought I needed to pick up the big items first. My souvenir sweatshirt from the festival.

And a sweater's worth of yarn from Wild Apple Farm. Good thing I ran into my knitting friend wearing her purple shawl or I would have bought yarn for another green sweater. Seems like that is the only color sweater I want to knit. But no not this year, this sweater will be purple, or blackberry like the tag says. It is a nice crunchy crisp yarn so I looking forward to knitting it.

After my tea break in the car and dropping off all that yarn....insert huge smile here. I went back into the fray for more. Now when I started knitting I hated the colors orange and yellow. But since living through a few spectacular autumns here and finding some amazing yarn colors I am converted. The only problem is that I admire the colors but have not bought many. I'm trying to change that.

I went into the Fold's booth which usually is quite a mad house but turned out to be not so bad in the afternoon.  I found this rare gem colorway that reminded me of autumn here in the Northeast.

And how could I turn down a colorway named Raspberry Moose? If I am a Moose shouldn't I have Moose socks? I think Socks that Rock are my favorite socks in the winter time. They are always my first choice when it is cold out because the make a nice dense fabric.

I even got to explain to a couple of STR newbies what millend and rare gems mean in that context. I hope I helped. One lady even had the my same choice method, if you pick up the same colorway five times you may as well buy it. You really do like it.

...into the whirled had a booth at last month's fair but this one jumped on the fall colors band wagon that assaulted me. Sage green, mustard yellow, burnt orange and rust red all in one skein called Curry in a Hurry. Yes you can come home with me.

My final purchase is not as eye searing as the camera would make it. Honest I swear it is less acid colored and more fallish than the camera makes it. Now this one is a bit of a rule breaker but I did not realize I was following rules till I got home. I still have a skein of Bugga in my basket that I have not knit up yet. However this one is a different yarn base and in a completely different color. I even put back a skein of Bugga that I had in my hand when I thought of the other skein still sitting at home. I almost skipped the booth since I thought it would be cleaned out and/or have a horrendous line. Luckily it was not awful in the afternoon. Now I even have more autumn colored goodness.

Wow what a haul, I am blessed to have a good job, great husband and the yarn love to truly appreciate knitting all this in the coming year.