This is NOT what I bought at Rhinebeck, but since my GFF was in charge of the camera it is a very representative example of the kind of photos we have to remember the weekend. (This is a good thing though! Her photography skills far surpass my own.)
Rhinebeck was great. Our cabin had a fire roaring, food cooking, and friends knitting all weekend long. I taught or helped four of my friends to knit, and at one point I walked into the living room and saw half of the people on this trip all sitting around on futons and benches together, talking and knitting away. My friend C knit for the very first time during Rhinebeck, and finished a square of scraps of Soy Wool Stripes leftover from when the Yarn Harlot came to FIT on her last tour. On Sunday, she and I went back into the festival for about 45 minutes and she bought two skeins of BMFA Luscious Silk Singles for her co-worker, then two skeins of Louet Gems and two skeins of some other beautiful something in quick succession for herself. Within the week she’d finished a scarf for herself from the Gems! She’s on ravelry now, too. Folks, I do believe I created myself a twin knitting fiend. Which I’ve only been trying to do for about two years now.
I did finish knitting the tweed striped vest, which GFF wore but was hidden under another layer on Saturday. I also finished knitting my swallowtail shawl, but didn’t block it in time. I’ve always read on other blogs about the unseasonably warm temps at Rhinebeck, so I guess I thought there was some sort of magical heat-creating somethin’-somethin’ about S&W. Turns out that either a) that’s not true or b) something went wrong this year, because it was dang. cold. all weekend long. GFF had to bundle up and the only knit wear I was able to show off was my two years old Clapotis.
I felt a little behind the times at first, but there were a lot of other knitters wearing Clapotis this weekend.
This picture reminds me that I should definitely get to the good part here. I saved up money for a couple of months pre-Rhinebeck in preparation for a big stash enhancement to include multiple sweaters, shawls, and sock amounts of yarn, plus one of those awesome baskets, plus whatever else fell into my path. Well, things happened (like our economy fell apart over and over again for weeks on end) and I decided that I would feel better about everything if I moderated my spending decisions at Rhinebeck. I still spent more money on yarn than I’ve spent on anything, including work clothes, since I’ve been a grown-up (Ok, I halfway take that back because I obviously spent more money than that on my computer, and other things like that, but whatever). I ended up with two Socks That Rock mill end skeins, one Lightweight in what HAS to be pond scum (I was confirmed in this belief when TWO. SEPARATE. KNITTERS. asked me “is that pond scum?” while I was waiting in line to pay on Saturday) (oh yeah, you can see the corner of the skein in the pic above) and one Heavyweight in what I suspect/hope is Red Clover Honey. No real plans for this stuff yet, but I so enjoyed the lovely skein of Lightweight Jade that GFF gave me for Christmas this year, and I’ve never seen the stuff in large amounts in person before. Had to get it. The other thing I got was a sweater’s worth of Brooks Farm Fourplay in a beautiful gray/blue color. And that’s it! Still a significant increase in yarn for my little stash, but not enough to make me feel crazy.
Besides initiating a new crop of knitters, my favorite parts of Rhinebeck Weekend (known to my friends as Sheep Wool 08 or alternately Sheep and Gay 08) barely involved knitting, yarn, or fiber arts. All of my friends wanted to go to the festival both days, despite hesitations in our early planning stages, and we spent a lot of time talking about what we will do when we go back next year. I love the feeling of starting a new tradition, and I can’t wait until I show up at Rhinebeck with old friend in fabulous hand knit sweaters, looking somethin’ like these two lovely ladies:
Oh and how could I forget about this?! We totally saw Jim Jarmusch and I tried to kinnear him, but that wasn’t working out so we did the age-old stalker-y trick of pretending to take pictures of each other, but getting him in the background:
Hey look! You can see the striped vest after all.
Jarmusch is the one with the stroller. And the white hair.
knitwhere 