Rhinebeck 2012

I am still in a daze after a glorious weekend at Rhinebeck. I know that too much of a good thing diminishes its value, but I could live a life full of Rhinebeck weekends.

It started early for me. I took a breed study class from Beth Smith on Friday. She is a font of knowledge and extremely organized. The amount of information she managed to impart in 6 hours was phenomenal. I don't have pics of the class but I have results.

 We got samples of 12 different fibers. We flicked the fine wools, combed the long wools and carded the down breeds (or something like that). We then spun each one into samples that we put in folders. The folders were categorized by color. Beth gave us index cards for each folder with the name of the breed on it.

It all makes me look incredibly organized, doesn't it? I spun and plied most of my samples. There were a few that are still singles. Some were ply-back samples but many of them were actual 2 plies. I got very good at Andean plying!

 

Since we didn't have time to play with all the fiber we received, Beth provided bags and labels so we could put the rest of the sample aside and play at home. Here is my set of 12 breed samples. I spun all but two. I had to skip the two just to keep up with Beth's pace. For the first time in a long time, I felt brain dead at the end of the class.

I was one of the first 250 to enroll in class so I got a goodie bag. 

 

It had goodies in it.

 

A ball of sequined acrylic yarn from Lion Brand along with a tape measure. Another tape measure from Webs. One cannot have too many tape measures. A small sample of fiber and some coupons. I didn't use the coupons as I forgot the bag at home on Saturday and Sunday.

It matches my Rhinebeck bag from last year, which is a great size and very, very useful. I use it all the time to haul things around.

 

It poured on Friday. In the middle of class, we had to go and move our cars to avoid having them flood. As a result, my shoes, socks and pant hems were all wet for most of the afternoon. But it was better than having water get into the car's innards.

I went early on Saturday to help out at Jennie the Potter and Briar Rose's booths. It was hard work as both booths were mobbed as soon as the festival opened. It is a good thing that I'm an extrovert, isn't it?

I bought this lovely little bowl from Jennie. 

No, those are not cracks. Don't even think that!

 

It fits my supported trindle perfectly! And speaking of supported trindles, guess what I bought for mine?

Pretty disco ball jewelry! These are heavier arms that the red skulls above.

I also wandered over to the Fiber Optic booth and bought some gradients.

 This is Ebony-Gold-Crimson.

And this one is really hard to see but it is called Midnight and has some gorgeous blackish shades.

That was pretty much all I did on Saturday. I wandered around some with a visiting friend, but was tuckered out by 3 pm and left to go home and rest.

On Sunday, I had volunteered to help out with the workshops. I got there early to check people in and show them their class rooms. This is fun because I know some of the other volunteers but I always get to meet a few new ones. I also saw some familiar faces in the students.

Another friend was visiting Rhinebeck for the first time on Sunday so I spent the day with her. And in the process, a bunch of stuff came home with me.

 I  bought these carbon fiber double pointed needles from Sheila and Michael Ernst.

 Handspun by Stefania is one of my favorite vendors. I got two 8 oz bumps of roving from her. The one above is dyed with Indigo and Iron. The one below is Lac and Cochineal. Her fiber spins like a dream!

 Another favorite is Lisa Souza. This was my first time seeing her fiber in person. I got two 4 oz bumps from her. The one on the left is baby alpaca/silk. The one on the right is just marked wool but I think it is BFL. I fell in love with the colors.

 Lastly, Chris of Briar Rose Fibers gave me these two bumps of Cormo top as a reward for keeping her Sea Pearl yarn presentable all day Saturday. More color!

I also visited the Hansencrafts booth and came away with two cool pins.

I also bought some hand cream from Maggie's Farm, lotion bars from Heal my Hands, and soap from Bittersweet Ridge. I love hand-crafted soap and cream and they do wonders for my skin. So I stock up at Rhinebeck. I also talked (I hope) Maggie into making lip balm in tubes. My favorite lip balm vendor was missing this year and there was no one else making balm in tubes.

And now all I have are fabulous memories and gorgeous fiber. As I spin and knit these, I will remember the place and time that I bought them and the friends who were there with me. After all, it is all about the memories and the good times, isn't it?

Acquisitions

I'm past the neck band on the Wild Apple and have started the color work. I had forgotten how absorbing it is and how much fun. Here's a picture of the cast on. I am using 2 circs here as I didn't have a longer circ in the 2mm size I needed. I wanted to pass on a tip on how to avoid the dreaded twist while joining. This also helps with casting on large numbers of stitches. Place a coil-less pin (as I have) or a bobby pin or a paper-clip or something like that every so often. In this case I have put pins every 20 sts. You can easily count how many sts you have cast on. Also, when it comes time to join, you just have to make sure that all the pins or clips are oriented the same way with respect to the needle -either facing out or facing in. The weight of the pins also helps keep the cast on edge on the same side of the needle so it is less likely to twist.I now also have a 32" 2mm circular needle. I got my order of needles from KnitPicks. Here you can see the Harmony circular interchangeable set and the extra cords I bought. I bought the longer cords (40", 47" and 60") so that I can knit larger shawls with both this set and my Options set. I also got a few fixed circulars (you can see a couple below) as well as the ones I need for the Bohus sweaters - the 2mm, the 2.25 mm and the 2.5 mm. I have some of these but the length is shorter. I don't like using them because the joins are not nice, or I don't like them because I can't do magic loop as I get closer to the ends of the sleeves. I have realized I don't like doing color work with dpns and I want to put some color on the sleeves of the Wild Apple. So I need to either use 2 circs (also not a favorite for color work) or use 1 long circ. I didn't have the 1 long circ, hence the acquisition. I also went to NYC this weekend and acquired some very fine kenbo silk from Habu textiles. This cone represents 2 oz or about 1800 yds. It is a lovely eggplant color. True, traditional eggplant color. Here's some of the yarn stretched out next to a 2.25 mm needle. It is very much like sewing thread. I want to make a fine shawl out of a doily pattern. It should be interesting. The good news about something like this is that it is a relatively inexpensive experiment. It is also a good vacation project as one only needs this small cone to finish the entire project.
More pics of the Wild Apple later as the more interesting colors develop. Right now it is a blue that is not very photogenic.