RHINEBECK!!

I went to Rhinebeck yesterday, and OMG it was amazing!

First, I met Kileigh7, in person.  She is exactly the same as online, and just as awesome.  Yes Amy, there are photos :-D  And I met Laura's mom, who is an extremely good sport for someone not as crazy into knitting, Ravelry, and the blogosphere as certain other people.  The three of us walked around the festival together.

First stop was the Author's area.  Laura & Laura's mom had gotten a Yarn Harlot autograph, but I just wanted to see her (and take a photo :).  Anyway, the line was HUGE.  We went over to the front of the line to try and take a photo (ok fine to Kinnear her), and befriended 3 fellow Ravelers. One of whom needs to join HSKS7 because she's a huge HP fan ::goes off to invite her::

Thank goodness I was with Laura, 'cuz after we got our photo of the Harlot I didn't know any of the other authors from a hole in the wall.  She was our guide, pointing out who the authors were and which of my favorite patterns they wrote.  Then we walked past Hannah Fettig's table.  I had to take a photo of her sweatshirt for CentyB.

Not only was she great to chat with, she let me juggle the samples of the Juggling Balls pattern from her book Closely Knit.  She autographed a copy for me.  After my chanukah knitting, I am so knitting my own set :D

Next it was almost noon so we hit the Ravelry meetup.  Since we got there exactly on time we snagged buttons and were able to talk to Jess and Casey before the masses descended in droves.  Well mostly Casey.  It was strange, here we are walking up to him and saying hi as if to an old friend, and yet to him we are all a bunch of strangers.  Being a celebrity must suck.  Also, I had no idea what to say to Casey. I knew that once I got started with a thank you I'd just babble, so I settled for thanking Casey for helping me find my first local knitting friend, Gryffinitter, through the hsks group.  He told us about someone that told him she met someone in her own apartment building through Ravlery!

Jess and Casey were super nice about taking photos with all their groupies
[I'll post the photo here when I find my camera cable]

We also saw Mary Heather, and I chatted with Erica, helpdesk emailer extraordinaire and sister-in-law to Jess.  She is awesome, and has a very, very cute puppy.

After the Ravelry meet, we grabbed lunch and got down to business.  Shopping.  I got:
- Green Lambs Pride that looks kettle dyed, for a hat for my Dad for Chanukah
- *something* for the Stitches Witches exchange
- Ceramic Buttons for the Calorimetries I made.  They are really cute, just a little funky, and very perfect.
- Handles for my Firefly bag
- 2 skeins of Socks That Rock in the Dreidel colorway.  Can you say Chanukah Socks??? :D
- Backup/extra yarn for my HSKS6 kit.

Laura has been trying to get her mom to sign up for Ravelry with no luck.  I hope she does sign up, because she bough some pretty brown yarn to make a scarf for Laura's dad, and I want to see photos of the finished product!  Laura got some STR to make socks and possibly a Sock Monkey, a starter kit for spinning, and some books.


At 3:30 we were festival-ed and shopped out so we went home.  It was a long day, but awesome!  And even the drive home wasn't so bad, the leaves were changing and gorgeous :)