Rhinebeck!!!

Last Saturday morning I got the chance to headed up to Rhinebeck, NY for the Sheep and Wool Festival with my yarn buddy Rachel. Driving up the weather was lousy due to the scheduled Nor'easter. When we hit exit 16 on the Jersey Turnpike it started to clear up a bit. The weather held out in Rhinebeck, so that alone was worth the drive. The scenery was beautiful.


I pretty much behaved myself when I got there. I needed to check out Brooks farms for some more Acero yarn. I needed one more hank of the green (Some lady told another lady that I knocked her down to get the green hank of yarn. That to me was pretty strange, as she was standing looking at the blue yarn next to it. I walked up, picked up the green yarn, and as I walked away she gave me a look. I didn't even touch her. I guess she decided she wanted the yarn when I picked it up. Too bad, I think I needed more than her.) for my Coraline sweater to be safe and I picked up 4 hanks in red to play with possibly for a future design.

I lucked out at Misty Mountain Farms. They are the folks that my then boyfriend, now husband purchased my spinning wheel from. I got 2 large hanks of black alpaca 665 yards a hank for $23.00 each. Sorry about the picture, because the color's off .


I'm saving it for either a skirt or a sweater. I'm not sure yet.

I found one new vendor(The Sheep Shed @ Mountain View Farm) I really like and I will be ordering from them in the future. I purchased 3 hanks of roving each 2 ozs for $6.00 a hank. It's wool and tencel. Ive never spun that combination before so I was eager to try it out. Which I did a little on Sunday. I LOVE IT. I'm hoping I have enough for a hat and either a mittens or hand warmers. We'll see.

At the festival they had wine and cheese tasting which I liked very much. I purchased goat cheese with a layer of burnt ash on the top and sheep cheese. They are both very tasty. Here's a picture of some of the sheep cheese which I had with some cranberry wine Sunday night. The wine was very good also.

One of the booths that caught my eye had 2 beautiful felted paintings in it by Leslie Samson of Brantford, Ontario. Each of these paintings took about 100 hours a piece to do. She told me that she felts her canvas first, washes it, then she needle felts on top of the canvas and washes it again. The second painting is of the Elora Gorge in Elora Ontario.

Overall I had a really nice day and great company. Rhinebeck is a beautiful place to visit. The festival is nice and it had a little bit of everything for everyone, even if you weren't a knitter/crocheter/weaver/spinner. The festival was more spread out than Maryland, and you could purchase more handmade items.

In knitting news I finished my project for Knit Picks. I only have to weave in the ends, so you know I'm happy. Yesterday I started on this blanket. Since it's a holiday gift and I'm afraid I won't finish it in time, I figure I'm going to crochet and knit this project. This is what I have so far.

On Sunday I spent the afternoon doing laundry and cleaning. I finally figured out how to transfer my downloaded audio books from my public library (they have a website with downloadable books) to my iPhone. Let's just say, I'm a very happy camper now. I'm reading the Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

I also started to FINALLY cut out my trenchcoat pattern. I'm clicking my heels 3 times. Hopefully by this weekend, I'll have a muslin cut out and worked up.