Friday, October 28, 2011

New York State Sheep and Wool 2011

The NYS Sheep and Wool festival was everything I’d hoped it would be and more!  Two days of fiber and festival food free for all.  The first day of Rhinebeck involved targeted strikes in areas of particular interest.  These included fudge and cheese booths for the ladies.  While waiting for them to finish up at the cheese place I wandered over to the woolen items competition area and saw this.

Pic 1- Pretty Maids wool competition entry

A knitter had knit Pretty Maids in handspun yarn and entered in into the contest. (She won sixth place.Yay!)  It was really pretty yarn.  I wanted to leave a note for her, but the volunteer wouldn’t let me.  Happily, I found her on Ravelry when I got home and was able to tell her congratulations.

After leaving the food barn (really more of a very large shed) we moved on to Sanguine Gryphon.  I’d gone in hopes of finding some more of the delicious Gaia lace that I got last year (silk and cashmere, sssoooooooooooo fantastic!!!!!), but sadly, there was none to be found.  So I had to get a skein of Codex in Questing Beast to sooth my disappointment (see picture 5 below).  Or maybe it was because it was so beautiful that I couldn’t resist it.  Hmmm, it is really beautiful.  I also got a skein of Eidos for GiGi in Charybdis (see picture 3 below).  Then the ladies and I stood in the line for over an hour. 

Pic 2- Sanguine Gryphon line

It wasn’t all bad though; a very nice lady came by and brought everyone key lime cupcakes.


Pic 3- GiGi Yarns-Red: Eidos from Sanguine Gryphon;
Brown: Periwinkle Sheep Sport weight

After we paid for our purchases, we headed over to my favorite booth at Rhinebeck and the one I look forward to all year long.  Oasis Farm Fiber.  They sell angora yarn.  I’m in extreme love with their Glamour Bunny!  It’s a sport weight angora, merino, and silk yarn.  It is soft and shimmery and makes beautiful scarves.  Like the one I immediately cast on for Hubbie and finished in a few days because the fiber is just so yummy on the fingers.

Pic 4- Hubbie scarf

The rest of the first day is a blur of beautiful yarn, wonderfully smelly lotion, maple sugar cotton candy, and deep fried garlic and pickles.

Pic 5- Miscellaneous yarns (for me, weeee!)- Orange: Codex from Sanguine Gryphon;
Silk/merino worsted weight wool from Hudson Valley Sheep and Wool Company;
Green: Cashmere/merino/nylon from Oasis Farm Fiber.

The second day was spent much like the first, wandering around the fairgrounds looking at yarn with T.K., K.T., and Brandy.  I don’t believe you’ve met Brandy.  She is one of the members of our knitting group and occasional shawl model for me.  Here she is wearing the gold version of Semi-Precious and showing me just how huge that particular hank of yarn was. 

Pic 5- Brandy: “This yarn hank is bigger than I am!”

During the course of the day I acquired some lovely yarn from Periwinkle Sheep.  The orange skein (see picture 6) has sparklies!  The other two skeins are from Jill Draper Makes Stuff.  One is merino/silk, the other is angora/silk.  Yum! You may have noticed I bought a lot of orange yarn this year (and really every other year too).  What can I say, I have a well-documented love of the color.

Pic 6-Orange yarns- All lace: Periwinkle Sheep in Tangerine;
Jill Draper in Paprika (wool/silk) and Orange Crush (angora/silk).

I also bought Athie’s Christmas and Birthday presents while I was there. 

Pic 7- Athie’s presents

The hank of roving is from Joan Berner. The buttons, however, are from Moving Mud (the two in front) and Jenny the Potter (the multiple pack in back). 

One of the last places we stopped was at a jewelry booth called On The Bend.  K.T. wanted to go there because she really likes their work.  While there I fell in love with a sheep pendant so it had to come home with me too.

Pic 8- Sheep pendant

Finally, it was time to go home, but this year ranks as one of the best Rhinebeck’s ever!  And not just because T.K. and Brandy got free yarn from the people at Socks that Rock and I saw the Yarn Harlot (but it didn’t hurt!).

I can’t wait for next year,
Joyce

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