Rhinebeck!

After much ado about nothing regarding yesterday's weather, we set out on our trip to Rhinebeck. This year, we left later in the morning and arrived at 1:30. It would've been 1:30; however, DS got carsick. He has such horrible motion sickness and as soon as we got off the exit and went on 9 and 9G, the elevation changed and that did him in. Poor kid. I didn't want to miss Rhinebeck and I didn't want him to be sick but it stinks that it happened less than 3 miles from the fairgrounds. We didn't use Dramamine this time because I didn't want him to be a zombie all day. Now, we know better. Some Dramamine is better than none, I guess. I'll use a tiny dose next car trip and see what happens.

We saw pumpkins in their native habitat.

Anyway, it wasn't as crowded as last year and everyone seemed to be overdressed in coats as opposed to knitted sweaters. The weather was supposed to be rainy, raw and terrible which may've held down the crowds but instead it was about 48-50 all day. Cute sheep, nice leaves.

A Shepard in period attire. I asked him if I could take his picture because he was 'so cute'. He said, "couldn't you say handsome instead?" LOL!

Here's the kids at the end of a long day. Below, the one remaining roving hand dyed by Elizzabetty of Moose Manor Handpaints. You can't tell from the picture but it's called "Chameleon" because it changes color depending on the lighting. It reminds me of the inside of a dark red jellybean, not quite clear but highlights of red.

I saw this big basked of giant bobbins so I took an out of focus picture of it. It was the end of the day and the lighting was bad, sorry. Aren't they interesting? I also tried a Canadian Production Wheel at the The Merlin Tree and the double drive spoiled me. I'd love to have one of them.... Of course, hubby said, "When I spin and we start fighting over your wheel, you can buy that one". Sigh......maybe next year I will put it on my Christmas list and Santa can bring it. We'll see. They're expensive (although not as much as a Lendrum Saxony) and I have a wheel so....

As for the haul, I bought three STR Lightweight, one for each member of my immediate family. Meet Joe Brown, Goody Goody and Raven something. Interesting how even the names suit the person... I'm thinking of making DD Leyburn but I have so many UFOs strewn about. All I do is spin now and I haven't been knitting all that much!

I picked up some gorgeous merino/bamboo from Creatively Dyed, some solid merino (purple and a peachy pink) from a small booth that I forgot the name of. I remember she was in the Catskills though and only had solid roving...and I also got some merino/yak from her which made me very excited. The woman had her mom helping her who didn't really know all that much about this stuff but she was very adorable and helpful. She wrote "Moreno" on my receipt. As in Rita. Gotta love it. I got a bag of yarn from the yarn fairy from Holiday Yarns, too! It's gorgeous sock yarn that I haven't tried yet but has been on my list for quite sometime. (Still, nothing beats Cherry Tree Hill supersock, the ultimate favorite...)

Guess I'll be making socks this winter. When I'm going full tilt, I can knit a pair a week so we'll see how it goes. (On 1.5's or 2's, not on zeros). Half the problem is picking out the pattern and I have yet to make a toe up sock!!!

I did finish the baby blanket (no photo yet and no photo of the haul from Rhinebeck but they're coming) I was working on and I'm going to try and block it tonight or during the week. I also spun 8 oz and made a two ply yarn out of some truly beautiful fiber I got from Copper Moose.

I'm attempting my first shawl out of this stuff so we'll see what happens. I spun it very thinly. Maybe too thinly. (Oh yeah, can never be too thin or too rich applies to people and fiber, right?) It was the most beautiful stuff ever to spin...ahhhhh...Then, I switched to BFL and it felt like ...Brillo.

I'm now spinning my naturally dyed fiber from Dye Day. I finished the black walnut BFL and I'm moving onto the marigold merino. See how I'm all over the place? I think it's because I've been working on some harder patterns and spinning more. I spin when I'm tired because it can be mindless whereas working from a chart and knitting a shawl requires me to use the gray matter.

I have been working on a simple pair of black ribbed socks for DH for like .. months. I'm up to the gussett and I'm going to finish the gusset today because I'm making time for it. Then, I can spin or knit the feet tonight.

Life has just been crazy!

Hope you like my pictures and I will try and post again soon!