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.

Rhinebeck

Well I do believe that ways the most fun I've had at a festival ever. Traffic was awful this year, due to the normal parking area being grass and extremely wet. 2/3 of the parking was unusable and we could tell. I now know how lucky I was to be able to park on the fairgrounds.

I can say that every line I was in was filled with pleasant chatty people. I hope people could say that about me. I really worked hard on chatting people up! I asked questions and was able to give directions a few times.

I did not come away with a lot of pictures but I did try to capture things that made me laugh a few times. Such as.

I now have two signed knitterly books in my possession. One by the Yarn Harlot and the other by the wooly wonder that is Clara Parkes. I was debating about the book signing but was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was. A bit time consuming but easy. I brought my favorite Harlot book with me but bought Clara's new sock book there. So once again (till the next book comes out) I have a full set of Knitters Book of ...... by CP. As with all things useful my camera crapped out when I needed it most, it just means I can smile over the books more, right. Did I mention those books were touched directly by the authors. Yippie!

After the first round of yarn purchases it was time for the Ravelry meet up on the hill. As we were standing there I recognized a new Rhinebeck sweater I had seen on someone's blog just this week. You see that lovely lady in the blue sweater? If you go here you will see it when it was just pieces. I still can not believe I noticed the sweater then the wearer. Beautiful job I wish I had the courage to say hi but I was a chicken.

I acquired my mandatory NY Sheep and Wool sweatshirt and bought yarn for a sweater then I was off to the car for a mini break. Along the way I saw this.

The left sticker says "Must knit faster" and the right one says "Aww, let Pluto be a planet." You guessed it they put a smile on my face.

I stashed my lovelies in the trunk and sat down for a cup of tea or two and my new book. Thanks D for making my thermos of goodness. He is a good hubby.

Now this picture does not give the magnitude of people that are all around. I should have taken one in the barns but I get all claustrophobic and just want out, unless my brain went OOO wool, maybe just a little longer.

Even the sheep needed a break in the action. She didn't even flinch with all the noise going on around us.

Hubby is lucky that I did not come home with this guy. We were bonding quite nicely. You could tell when I hit a good scratching spot he stopped chewing and got a dreamy look in his eye. My fingers may be short but they know how to scratch all the itchy places. Just ask Gus

See what I mean about the parking? We're looking directly at the 4H gate there under the trees. Normally all the grass would be where the cars would be parked. Isn't my blue car pretty? Now she needs to go to the car wash and have some mud removed.

Next time I will show you what I bought. It's too overcast to take pictures today. Right now they're lined up on the couch arm so I can pet them anytime I want. It is good to be the Yarn Queen in this house.

Sheep Junk

We will start this post off with more lovely sheep ladies. These two were cool because it was like they were twins, they keep moving their heads in unison. Maybe their training to be synchronized swimmers?

D was oh so happy to run across a banjo player. He loves banjo music, me not so much. This guy was good though not as choppy as banjo can be, more melodic. I told D if we were separated I would know where to find him, staring longingly at another man's banjo. D says you can not be sad while listening to banjo music.

No words for this one but that may be the moment I realized he was going to have a good day with me.

Lunch time! D's not really as unhappy as he looks, he's just eating a pickle.

We got lunch from the 4H booth. This of course started the conversation about whether or not I had been a member of 4H. I was not, but both my brother and sister were. By the time I was old enough to join, we had moved off the farm. We had a local group where we moved but to me it was the diet version of 4H, no animals. Sort of took the heart out of it for me. City kids playing country was not to my taste. You can take the girl off the farm but you can not take the farm out of this girl!

This is my warm steamy goodness shot of the day. Remember we went back to the car for some tea. The cup was set on the dash and it caused a steam blush on the windshield. Did I mention I love thermos tea? "Keeps hot things hot and cold things cold the only question is how do it knowed?" What movie is that line from?

I think this yarn may be today's favorite. Decadent Fibers Savory Sock Yarn. I must have really liked it, because this skein is what caused me to stop at the booth, and while there I pulled out another skein I thought about getting. It was the same color scheme. I think I was at the check out two seconds after that. It seems very Christmasy but those colors called to me. Plus I got a free sock pattern.

Here is another gratuitous shot of my stash enhancement, such pretty colors. The cream colored yarn in the center was my impulse value buy. Each skein is 217 yds of fingering weight Rambouillet yarn, for $5 a skein! It called out to me that it would make a fine pair of kilt hose. Now when yarn knows what it wants to be I try to listen. I stood there with a couple of skeins in my hands kicking myself because I did not look up how much I would need. I really expected to do more research before buying anything. So I stood there thinking crap what if 2 skeins is not enough? Then this brilliant little voice inside my head said "Get 4 that's like 20 bucks, KILT HOSE you ninny." My inner voice may be helpful but it's cranky sometimes.

The funny thing is I just handed cash to a lady that said "Can I help you?" and left the booth without getting a receipt or anything. It was not until a couple of barns later that I realized there was no way for me to know she worked there. Maybe I just gave another fair goer $20 and took the yarn. Just cause you're helpful does not mean you work there. The yarn is not tagged but I remembered the store I bought it at, Mees and Ewes. I had forgotten what breed of yarn it was by the time I got home so I called them on Tuesday. I got the breed name and made sure I paid the right person. Load off my mind. I test knit with it yesterday and it is lovely yarn. I still can not believe the price. Maybe because I buy hand painted sock yarn, but the value makes me love it even more. I'm not cheap, I'm just greedy, no wait that does not sound right either. I'm not cheap, I'm economically sensible. Great now I sound like a politician.

OK now I will leave you with the dirty story of the day. Sorry Mom E but maybe you will get a chuckle out of this as well. As we were looking at the sheep D asked me if they were all ewes. Now having been a farm girl I'm not exactly shy about looking at animal genitalia. Don't judge me. So I start looking around to see if I really am still a farm girl, can I tell the difference between a ram and a ewe? I sight one, point it out to D and say nope not all girls here.

His comment was that hangs really low, oww, what happens if it hits a rock? You know being a girl, I did not have an answer for that. Now he wants me to change the name of the blog to Sheep Junk. I feel stupid saying this but if you did not know "junk" is slang for the male genital package. Yep that is my Hubby, he makes me laugh!

How would you feel if this was your sheep and you walked up when I was taking this picture? Excuse me do I know you? Getting a little too friendly with your camera aren't you? Security!!!

Rhinebeck 2009 The First Installment

This is D at his first sheep and wool festival. Notice the look of contented curiosity. We had been through one building and I had made one purchase at this point. I had forced him to make a purchase though, hot apple cider, very enjoyable on a cold day.

This is a morning shot of one of the vendor buildings. Oddly enough this is the only shot of booths I took. I think I was too excited to really think about pictures much. This was the second to last building we hit. By 1 p.m. we could hardly make it through, so many people!

D perked up quite a bit when we went to look at the animals. I turn back into Farm Girl and that seems to amuse him quite a bit. Mohair goats first then followed by a few sheep friends.

I think I had to sweet talk this one a bit before she would strike a pose. Turns out talking to sheep is not a "skill" that I give up easily. I talked to them all telling them they are beautiful. Horses rank at the top for me because they are so elegant and powerful, sheep rank really high for opposite reasons. They are comforting and cute.

I can not remember what breed of sheep we had on the farm, or even if it was a specific breed. I remember lambing season and shearing season. I remember crawling into the huge burlap bags to run around and pack the wool down in them. I wonder now why we did not keep some of the wool and spin it. I guess it was hard enough to eak out a living, and cloth was cheaper pre-made.

We found roving that reminded us of food. It was called peaches. Even when I know I don't want to learn how to spin yarn, fibers colored like this make me wonder what the finished product would look like. Looks tasty as is.

D caught me stashing a purchase away. Is it just me or does it look like I'm just a bit high on wool fumes? I remembered my shawl! I kept pretty toasty while poor D went wool less and was chilled. The power of wool, will not be denied. I received a compliment on my shawl/scarf while waiting for the ladies room. Only at a wooly event is that acceptable.

We stopped to watch an auction. I know it made my Daddy proud. The first ewe went for $600. D looked at me like WOW! Yeah, I don't think we had sheep that would sell for $600 a piece. To answer a question I heard many times while standing there, yes people go to school to learn how to do the auctioneer's chant. I had to explain to the lady standing next to me what was going on, what the current bid was and what bid they were looking for. I'm not sure I got it all right but I sounded good, if I do say so myself.

We were smart and stopped for lunch early. Then headed back to the car for a bit of a warm up with a thermos of hot tea. There are few things in this world as comforting to me as tea from a thermos. Portable heat what is not to love?

This is a shot of the afternoon Ravelry meet up. I finally have a pin! You'll see it at the end. I have wanted one for so long now. I think it means I am part of the group now, part of the yarnhood if you will. We saw a couple of ladies from Beauknits. One of my local yarn shops. I was chastised for not coming to knit night recently. Sometimes life moves too quickly, you don't get to see the people you want to. Good thing D and I live together!

The moment I've been waiting a year for, my new Rhinebeck 2009 yarn haul. Starting bottom left going counter clockwise.

One skein Socks that Rock in Puck's mischief, one skein Decadent Fibers Savory Sock yarn, Creatively Dyed Calypso sock yarn in Street, one skein Luster Sox in Pine and one Comfy Sox in Red red wine, both from Dye Dreams, two skeins from Ellen's 1/2 Pint Farm, and four skeins of unmarked cream colored fingering yarn from Mees and Ewes.

The top one is my new Celtic shawl pin from Ram's Horn, and my super cool Ravelry name pin.

The funny stories will have to come in installment 2. With all my new lovely yarn I'm fighting startitis pretty bad. I finished my sweater the other day so now I have to wash it and get it ready for its inaugural wearing. Hmm that means I have to go to the yarn shop to get yarn for D's sweater. Poor me

Ahhh Sheep and Wool

Oh what a lovely weekend. We survived our first NY Sheep and Wool Festival. Not only survived but enjoyed it. D did not need any of the bored Hubby entertainment items we brought along, did not once complain, and even liked the sheep barns. He also learned to tell a ram from a ewe but that is a story for another day. His first thought was wow those hang low. It is up to you to figure out what those are, for another day or so.

Snow and rain were forecast but we had a beautiful cold clear day. It made the thermos of hot tea we brought with us taste much better. I did remember to bring my shawl that I said I would wear in a previous post and I was complimented on it while waiting for the restroom. I bought some beautiful yarns and pictures will follow soon.

The knees are a bit stiff from all the walking but I think I held up fine. D also discovered why you eat early at these events. The wait in the food lines was around and hour. That is valuable yarning time!

As the ultimate compliment D even agreed to go next year if the schedule works out.

I did it!

I talked D into going to NY Sheep and Wool festival with me in October! I am sad to say that I used the bike as bait. I told him he could bring her along and go for a ride if he got bored or did not want to look at anymore yarn. I know, strange thought who does not enjoy looking at yarn?

He did put the stipulation out there that I do not ask "Do you like this one or this one", "Which color do you like" or any other opinion related questions. Hmm I wonder why? You so know I am going to find a crazy yarn and ask "Does this make my butt look big?" Hey someone has to do it, it might as well be me.

I am looking for some specific things this year. Sock yarn, when am I not looking for sock yarn? This time I think I am going to try to find some lesser know brands, vendors or content mixes. I have been wanting to try bamboo yarn for a while, but I love wool so much that I can not resist its charms. Wait a minute did I just say that I want to try to find bamboo yarn at a wool festival? What is wrong with me?

I want to see some of the vendors that I always seem to miss. Can't think of them now but I hope to before we get there. I am buying a sweatshirt early this year and not waiting till they're all sold out. You can never have too many sweatshirts with sheep on the front. They make people notice you, and read writing on your bosom. Yeah that last part is uncomfortable. Not as uncomfortable as having someone point out (touch) light houses that they have been to on a shirt that your wearing! That conversation ended really quickly!

I have made a couple of sweaters now, so in theory I should feel comfortable buying for that now. I would like to get some yarn for the Hubby's sweater but I think I would cross over into the "questions not to be asked" zone. I will let you know how that all turns out. We know I'm going to screw up and ask at some point during the day. Think I worry too much?

Part of the fun going to these things is people watching, knit wear watching. You get to see stuff that other knitters have knit. The first year I went was sort of a bust for me. It was warmer than usual and I was a sock knitter only at that time, do you know how hard it is to show off knit socks walking around outside in October in upstate New York, I do it is very hard. The second year was cooler but I forgot my Fetching mitts at home and my first sweater was in the wash. So it occured to me that I need to find something to wear this year that will show my progression as a knitter. Yeah it is to late to knit something now. I started to think, well I can take one of my pairs of Fetching that I missed last year, Hmmm I could wear my grey cable sweater.

Not bad but I think it is rather plain. Does it look like I have a column of arrows pointing to my face? Oh it does, good *cough*I planned it that way, design element?

Then I remembered my first project that made me feel like I'm a good knitter. I give you The Christmas Party Shawl.

My first multi month project. I learned lessons making this. I learned how to knit when I don't want to. I learned how to plan out a project and make it work. I learned that I really like red and Alpaca is warm. I learned about project deadlines. I learned that deadlines take away joy from me. I learned that I can do something that I thought I could not do. I learned that I love the book Victorian Lace Today. I also learned that I want to make more shawls but I need to bask in the glory of the first one for a time. It has been almost a year now maybe I should pull that book back out.

So I guess you might be able to identify me at Rhinebeck if you're going this year. I know I am and I will have a date, unless the bike woos him away. Just make sure you leave the keys with me honey I will be loading yarn into the Escape throughout the day. NO really I need the keys....