rhinebeck, oh my..

Since I just magically erased my Rhinebeck post, and it was a good one, and I have to start over because I haven’t learned my lesson yet and this half caff coffee is frankly NOT doing the trick, this post will be late and maybe shorter than the original.  Too bad, Rhinebeck is not something to be short changed.  Luckily there are loads of posts, or will be, about the phenomena that is Rhinebeck.  Cassie and Kim have written beautiful posts that say what I want to say, so go read them.  Rhinebeck begins for me on Thursday afternoon; that’s when I pick my sister up at the airport.  This is one thing we do together, alone, no husbands and kids.  I order lobster rolls for Friday, as a launch lunch, the first stop on our way.  Perfect.  Then we drive.  Traveling weather, the past couple years has been sort of lousy, rain, wind, that sort of thing.  But Rhinebeck, of all the fairs, has the advantage of being the autumn festival, and the colors in the Hudson Valley are always wonderful.  From the moment I walked into the hotel and saw the gaggle of knitters, spinners, and bloggers gathered in the lobby, I felt at home.  It’s like that.  Even the newbees aren’t new anymore.  There have been so many gatherings, festivals, spin ins, knit outs and whatever, that most everyone feels a part of it.   Pretty amazing, actually.  I heard bits of the same conversation over and over.. it sort of went like this: "I was always the last one chosen when it came to teams, you know, I was the easy out, the kid with the braces, the one that couldn’t hit the ball, the shy one, the (fill in the blanks here).  But here, I am at home."  That kind of thing.  Can you feel it?  There are the stories, the sharing, the hugs.  Friends you haven’t seen for a year, a month, friends you’ve never seen, and friends you didn’t know you had.  That’s the Rhinebeck experience, the part that is apart from the festival.   

The fair…. this year it was so packed it felt like Maryland.  By 2pm on Saturday I realized that I hadn’t left the hill.  I had covered only one barn, two food vendors and the bloggers meetup.  Terrific meet up.  Kim has the same pic but with me, Margene and Ann. 

Rhinebeck and the US for that matter, finally have some Wensleyday sheep.  Most of the time I see Lincoln X and I haven’t been terribly pleased with the fleece.  These little guys are wonderfully soft.  I originally learned to spin so that I could knit with Wensleydale.  It holds a special place in my heart.  I love the drape and it is hard to find it in different weights and colors.  A fleece from one of these guys is on my future.

By the end of the day Sunday, I had sort of skimmed through all the barns.  Somewhere around 3:30 pm I ended up sitting on a curb outside Barn 31… it was all I could manage.  This was still all I could see, in every direction.  Amazing.

This post is about to fizzle out, I just finished work, dinner is not ready and I’m thinking I probably won’t make it to Tuesday night knitting in favor of putting my feet up.  Maybe more Rhinebeck on Thursday.  Tomorrow is Wednesday, walk with me, will you?