Rather Predictably, a Post about Rhinebeck

NYS Sheep and Wool festival was a Magical Shopping Experience this year, as always. The weather was beautiful, the trees were ablaze with color, the company was excellent.

The fleece sale had some rather impressive selections:



Not all mine, of course. More on those later. It was refreshing to see other people fleece-crazed spinners haul off much more than that.



Also, anytime I think of telling regular everyday people that I go off on the weekends to paw through fleece, I'm pretty sure they get a mental image of this:


Therefore, it's best that I just stick with the story that I was "Upstate for the weekend with friends".

Perverse as it might be, lamb dishes abound and are delicious. The lamb chili is just what you need to take the chill off.



Afterward, the sheep give you disapproving stares, but I assure you, the guilt is totally worth it.


This was an Oxford sheep, which, incidentally, I find unspinnable, or at the very least, not a lot of fun to spin. Therefore, it's a meat breed. Guilt absolved.

This Lincoln Ewe was sweet as can be, and super-soft to boot:








I don't think I had ever seen karakul sheep in the flesh before, but as soon as I touched one, I was like, "Oh, it's a karakul".






Angora goats, reluctantly being shown. They were all like, "Don't judge me."







The yarns were beautiful-





These are gorgeous skeins of natural-dyed yarn from Hope Spinnery in Maine.

Best of all, it was great to catch up with friends.



They were good to have around- we talked each other out of several purchases, and yet somehow facilitated several more.


photo from KnithoudBrooklyn.

We all left a few dollars poorer, but richer in fiber. We are like bran in that way. It's really what makes the weekend great.

Oh, also: Uma Thurman was there, and she rear-ended someone coming out of the parking lot in her giant black SUV.


She was tall and willowy and very elegant looking, and not really handling the situation as I would have expected The Bride to (which is a good thing).

Rhinebeck, part trios: Sunday recap

A bunch of us crazies got up early Sunday morning to take the Down Fibers Spinning class.



Cashmere and other tricky [read: expensive] fibers were something I had been wanting to learn, but I was too afraid to waste good fiber on learning. The class booted my ass into getting that cashmere and qiviut and buffalo and angora bunny fiber that has been in my stash out of my stash and onto a bobbin.

Here's KnitHoundBrooklyn and her fabulous yellow socks with a bobbin full of baby camel and cashmere and cashmere silk blend:


Stellina took the whole "high fiber diet" thing literally:


I'm sure Shansays has a picture of me taking a picture of her


After class, I decided to make myself feel like a total slouch and I went to watch the Sheep to Shawl excitement:




Then I had a pretty good internal argument with the philosophy behind my vegetarianism:


Of course, there were more sheep and goats to pet. This Romney from Anchorage Farm in Saugerties was just begging to be shorn. I had to bargain with him: I would take his fleece, but he would have to stay on the farm. No deal.


This blue-eyed cashmere kid wanted a home as well:

He was unhappy living at Black Locust Farm in Maine (!) and wanted to try city life. Adventurous, isn't he?

I had no idea how big in size Rambouillets were. They all seemed really docile, but that's a lot of wool! The rams looked so regal with their curly-q horns.




I encountered a rather friendly Romedale/CVM:




He kept nosing my camera and fogging up my lens!




More pretty Leicester Longwools:


Have I failed to mention that there was shopping to be done? All I have to say is THANK YOU to KnitHound for having the foresight to buy a Volvo!


We were all pretty pleased with ourselves, but I feel as though I missed enough of the vendors so that I'll have to go back next year in order to feel like I've had the full-on Rhinebeck experience.



Back to the big bad city to wash a mountain of wool.

Aeolian- still chugging along

I just need to say that I love this pattern. Much less intimidating than I thought it would be, mostly because it is so well-written. It flows along nicely, but it keeps me interested because each row is different.

I've got about 5 rows left. Lace looks like ramen noodles until it's blocked, so this doesn't do it justice. Still. It's all I've got:



Hooray, my official knitwear photographer is back in town!

This weekend we went to Governor's Island for a faux country getaway. You can totally fool yourself that you are someplace far away from NYC, but you are actually in the middle of New York harbor.



The views are really amazing- it takes a second to take in what you are actually seeing. It's such an interesting vantage point of the city.



Most of the island is closed off to the public- it was a former Coast Guard base that was abandoned and a lot of it will be demolished. Some of the old houses are being utilized as art galleries.



That's downtown Manhattan in the background. Crazy, right? It's so close, but you have a big green lawn to nap out on. Nary a siren or car alarm to be heard.



There is a lot of art on this island. I found a dragon, made entirely out of chairs and scrap wood:


They have a free ferry leaving from downtown Manhattan and from Brooklyn on Friday, Saturday and Sunday until mid-October. There are food and drink vendors (we found quality homemade ice cream) but it's an ideal place to pack a picnic and chill.

I got a new postal scale (whoohoo!) so I'll be weighing the new spindles tonight and posting them on the Etsy store tomorrow.