Hold On to Your Horses

OK, if I don't blog now about Rhinebeck, I'll never catch up. This post will be picture-heavy and philosophical-thoughts-light, because after a week at SOAR, a weekend at Rhinebeck, and a Saturday at the Franklin County Fiber Twist, my brain is fried. It's a quiet Sunday here at home, but my body is still in crisis mode - you know, "shouldn't I be somewhere right now?" I do know that while a quiet Sunday is lovely, I am missing all my fiber friends. insert sad face here I'm not going to the Gathering - more sad face - but I will have to get in gear to go to SPA in February. Anybody I know need a roommate for SPA?

When last we left our intrepid fiber fiend, I was home from SOAR. The next Friday, Sue and I zoomed off to Rhinebeck after work, bringing Sue's pets with her: meet Sparky and Shadow, hatchling Painted (the bigger one) and Musk (the tiny one) turtles that Sue is head-starting inside this winter.

They need their water changed every day and they need to be fed every day, so of course they had to come with us. Since we were staying in unheated (but quite nice) cabins at the Mills-Norrie State Park south of town, the turtles came with us to the fair (parking lot, no further) every day, too, and basked in the sun-warmed greenhouse of my car while we were shopping and eating and shopping.

My friends Pat and her two daughters Isabel and Olivia were at Rhinebeck, too, showing two of their Shetland ewe lambs and a Cheviot ram lamb in the sheep show. They tented on the fairgrounds Friday night, but since the fair officials werre concerned someone would run over their tent at night (apparently, all 'real' farmers have RVs), they came and stayed with us Saturday night. Here they are showing the Shetlands on Sunday.

We saw Deanna's prize-winning (second place) hand-washed (a Romney fleece), hand-dyed, hand-flick-carded, hand-spun, and hand-knit St. Brigid sweater - gorgeous! Really, really, really lovely!

I ran into lots of people I know, but not into lots of other people I know who were there. I suppose I will have to break down, join the modern world, and get a cell phone, if only to find my friends at fiber fairs.

Despite my best intentions, I bought fleeces. Um, three fleeces, to be exact. The blue-ribbon (colored fleece) fleece - a dark, dark brown Corriedale cross from Homestead Farm, in the upper left. A fawn-colored Corriedale cross, also from Homestead Farm. A dark brown 'Natural Color Long' (meaning a mutt, I think) from Marilamb Farm. Yes, I am nuts (but I just yesterday finished spinning up one of last year's Rhinebeck fleeces!).

I bought Alvin Ramer combs in cherry. Wicked implements!

Apparently, I was on a gray kick - I bought two kinds of gray yarn and three pounds of gray Romney cross roving.

Not everything was gray, though; this is Cloverleaf Farms BFL in the Cranberry Bog colorway, swearing nicely the turquoise background.

I bought buttons at the Briar Rose booth.

We had a ball. And then we came home. Going back to work the day after Rhinebeck is so hard!

Luckily, there was the Fiber Twist to look forward to. I helped set up and take down, so 'twas an all-day event for me, which also meant I took more photos that usual. There were great vendors, there were demonstrations, and the local rug-hooking chapter was there in force as well. Here, have a few photos...

The real highlight of the Fiber Twist for me (well, yes, I did buy a Leslie Wind shawl pin and some ruby red cormo/silk Foxfire Fiber sliver and 3 skeins of beautiful Jager Farm Icelandic yarn that I've already cast on, but nevermind...at least I resisted the fleeces) as Marcy Moffet's (aka Habetrot) talk and demonstration of some of her historic spindles, whorls, and distaves. Wow! I have no words; to have it made concrete for me just how much work went into clothing, bedding, sails, rugs, bags, curtains, everything before spinning wheels and commercial spinning jennys, really rather blew me away. That's not very articulate, but my head's still reeling. Take a gander...

If you ever get a chance to see Marcy show off and talk about her spindle collection, do it!

And with that, you'll have to excuse me - I have just a little spinning and knitting and even weaving to do!