The Rhinebeck stuff

This year at Rhinebeck I showed restraint.  I bought NO yarn, not one skein.  I bought silk.

Dyed silk roving and tussah to dye.  I bought some alpaca, silk, merino and angelina blends. 

  and 3.5 lbs of beautiful multicolored beige to brown roving.  I bought a pattern that I’ll start tomorrow, or the next day.  I had the yarn from a trip to Webs a year or so ago.  One vender made beautiful ceramic tiles with scenes of Belted cows and sheep.  My neighbors raise Belteds and sheep, I had to buy a few of those.   And of course I ate, all the chocolate scones I could stand.  They are the best scones ever.  I’m already wishing for more.  It’s good that I can’t pick them up whenever, they raise hell on a low carb diet.  Oh, then there were the french artichokes, with garlic and escarole and beans.  Rhinebeck has great food vendors.  Maryland should take note. 

As everyone has already noted, the best thing about this kind of festival is the people who visit them.  There’s always another story, another knitted item, another fantasitic animal.  And there are friends; friends you catch up with, friends you come with, and friends you never knew. 

And for Carol.. here’s the fleece washing recipe I use:

• I place my fleece into net bags.  Then I fill my washer with HOT water and a bit of detergent.  If you have Dawn, that’s great.   Otherwise, use what you’ve got.  Remeber NO AGITATION, this is just a soak.  Empty the water, repeat.  Spin out soapy dirty water. 

• Next: fill tub again with HOT water.  This time add vinegar.. as much as you think you need to clear the soap scum left.  Drain.

• Last step (hopefuly): Rinse in HOT water.  Rememeber!!!  This is a soak, drain, spin.  NO AGITATION.

The Ribby is STILL waiting for me to get a minute (well… time) to fix up the semi inserted zipper.  It’s IN straight, but the hand stitching isn’t.  Soon…