rhinebeck 2011

It was a great festival. Got there safely, took some classes, bought some yarn, did the breed display, have some pictures.

Not detailed enough?

After blog posts in 2008, 2009 and 2010, I worry that maybe there isn't much new, except that I enjoyed myself tremendously this year despite many misgivings about leaving my family. (However, almost every previous entry about Rhinebeck mentions my having a great time in spite of abandonment guilt issues, so I guess this is yet another a recurrent theme.)

So here's how this year went down:

Left on Thursday night again and met up with my parents in a hotel halfway to the fairgrounds, because we had a 9 am class the next morning. I didn't think I was going to make it out of my house that night, but my LSH literally booted me out. Thank goodness, because it made the next morning so much more bearable! The trailer was parked in its spot and up before we needed to get to class; my dad finished getting it ready while we were busy learning. (No need to sleep in the van this year; thanks to my dad, we even enjoyed delicious trailer-cooked meals each night.)

Our Friday morning class on freeform knitting and crochet was with the wonderful Margaret Hubert. If you ever have a chance to take a class with her, jump on it! Just the chance to see her beautiful garments up close was well worth it. I wasn't sure the method was going to appeal me but I walked out so inspired and motivated that I ended up buying some crazy art yarns and a book with patterns for different motifs. Here's my start on a purse (at least that what I think it will be):

Right now it needs a little squinting and imagination.

We tried to have a late lunch at the Culinary Institute of America, but the line was just too long for starving us.  The campus was beautiful, however, and we will have to plan ahead to make reservations next year (and finally add a different experience to my blog entry).

The rotunda in front of the main building; 

it was a little rainy and grey, so hard to appreciate

the fall colors on trees by the Hudson River.

The breed display came together really easily this year, thanks again to Mel Dean from Fiddlehead Farm in Rhinebeck who provided the sheep AND the awesome furniture, and my ever-patient mom who helped with laying it out.

No judging this year (the ribbon you see was for participation) which took quite a bit of the pressure off the weekend.

Sunday morning was yet another great class, this time with Andrea Wong, who taught us an entirely different way of knitting. Portuguese knitting is done by running the yarn through a special pin on your shoulder to tension the yarn and then just using your thumb to move the yarn over the needle -- allow my lovely mother to demonstrate:

It definitely has potential, especially for two color knitting, and just needs a bit more practice and experimentation on my part.

I arrived home in good time, this year with 500 pounds of sheep grain, a mineral feeder, and a nasty cough. Despite a fair bit of exhaustion, I still feel quite inspired and invigorated, craft-wise, which is always the point of the weekend. As an added bonus, I had not one but two (!!) new sweaters to wear this year and get kind comments from other knitters. One of these days I will get pictures up of those as well.

ETA: My mom reminded me -- how could I forget? -- about our nighttime neighbors! We were about 10 feet from a tent full of angora bucks. They spent all night banging their pen panels and making the most god-awful noises at each other. I kept waking up through the night, thinking, surely these things have to sleep at some point? Nope. As the campers in that vicinity emerged the next morning, we were all joking about forming a lynch mob the next night, complete with pitchforks and torches. The goats must have heard the threats because they were significantly quieter!