This year 2 of my Knitting Group came with me to Rhinebeck - Marj & Gryffinitter. (For the record, I again tossed the no-pickups rules; Marj lives really close by & Gryffinitter gets special treatment.) We had a lively & entertaining ride up, and Gryffinitter navigated me up the Tacomic Parkway, which was very winding, beautiful, and quick. We were there at the opening of the gates - 10am - and we parked by the "Mulberry Gate" near the food court, which I hadn't even known existed! Hanging out with Gryffinitter is almost always an educational experience for me :)
Sticking to our plan, we hit Sanguine Grypon first & tag-teamed the line so it went quickly. Marj got a skein of the Mithril lace yarn and I got 2 skeins of Bugga! & a Skinny Bugga!. (Photo to come later, I forgot to take one)
Two of my LYSO's - Cheryl and Audrey - found us at the booth, and Cheryl bought 3 skeins of nice brown yarn (I think 1 Mithril and 2 Bugga - we have vague plans for a Bugga KAL). It was their first Rhinebeck, and I think their first time meeting Gryffinitter & Marj even.
The night before R'beck I found Needlesnswiffers (aka the Headmistress) on gchat and asked where I should make sure to hit. Among other things, she recommended the booth opposite SG so we went there next. Their fiber was really inexpensive (but really nice, and soft!) so Gryffinitter helped me pick out some fiber to practice spinning and also got some for herself :)
Next we wandered through 5 barns and fondled a *lot* of fiber. After barn #2 (I think) we lost Gryffinitter, but we had already made up where to meet at 12:45 if that happened. Relevant fiber news:
- We found a booth selling bumps (according to Gryffinitter that is what they call the basketballs) of fiber that had 2 colors blended together, and they'd spun & knit up little swatches, so I bought a bump to try after I figure out how to make useable yarn
- At the booth where I bought this last year, I still liked the sample seed stitch scarf so I bought another skeinof Artisania to make a scarf for myself (er until I find someone that needs a scarf for a gift, anyways) and a pretty skein of Del Rio that will probably be mitts.
- Marj & I spotted a beautiful, striking hot pink & orange shawl that reminds me of In The Pink. Marj bought the yarn & pattern, and we'll do a KAL of it when we both finish up some projects
- In that same booth, we met someone who'd made the Modern Garden Cardigan, which I'd been considering queueing. She had Tappan Zee in her queue, so we swapped sweaters:
Marj & I decided to postpone lunch and head straight to the Ravelry meetup. Luckily we ran into Gretchen from the Sunday knitting group, who is friends with a lovely Raveler named Zuzu-something who is known for bringing cupcakes to Ravelry meetups! The 3 of us made a new friend & enjoyed some yummy cupcakes :) We also met a nice woman from Brooklyn who had taken the train up.
Then KnitforBrains, a House Cup Hufflepuff, found me (by my sweater!) and I got to meet her kids and husband. We hadn't chatted on Rav before Saturday night but it felt like I knew her forever (go Housecup!) Lunathecat found us, and then 2 of her Pints & Purls people found her. We spotted Ysolda handing out Ravelry buttons and (clumsily) used acquiring a button for Luna's friend as an excuse to say hello to her.
Then we spotted Stephen West(!) and decided that our House Cup meetup photo ought to include Stephen West. (Why not?)
(Eat your hearts out, Tower Specialist Study ;)
After the meetup, Lunathecat & I went to the Letter Buildings and, under orders from NNS, went to find the MissBabs booth to say hi to Kate1138
She was great! Talked Luna & I into some more yarn (of course); Luna got two miniskeins of sockyarn and I got 2 skeins of Yowza What a Skein (for a Boneyard and a Trillian, which has since become Trillian and Other, but that's a later story). We also met MissBabs Herself, which was cool! She's really nice. We also ran into Nancy from the LYS at that booth, who already knows about the Cup, so she got to meet Luna, who then had to meet her P&P people.
More wandering around the Letter Buildings, this time solo. I saw the Tsock Tsarina's booth - and must remember to ask Rachel tonight what happened to Holiday Yarns. I ended up at The Fold for some Socks that Rock mediumweight mill ends (boring white spirit skeins, for the record). (Must remember to stalk the Royal Flush colorway though, that was gorgeous). Nancy found me again @ The Fold and then we both found Cheryl & Audrey. The had a successful day and found some of my favorite booths (I'd given them a list).
At 2pm I got a call from Sylvia asking if I was going to the Yarn Hoars meetup. I still had a lot of buildings left to browse, but then she reminded me that she had my Happiness (it's a Madtosh colorway that we ordered together from CA) so I headed over there. So many awesome Hoars: I saw Ninetoedwoman, Caliknitta, MyDogPetey, KangaNYC, Jaylaknitrix. I finally met my archnemesis Skeller in person! (See: the battle of Waterlily). I also got to meet Miss Gusa, Ymalcom, Sheree, and a couple of other people (I'm sorry, the yarn fumes pickled my brain). Most of the Hoars had cool tote bags with their Ravnames & Yarn Hoar printed on them, which earned a few comments/questions from passerby. Since we were standing still, I finally pulled out my lunch.
We decided "Skeins before Ho's," so I bid Sylvia & crew a safe trip home and Caliknitta, Sheree, Ymalcom & I hit Sanguine Gryphon again. They struck out but some Q.E.D. came home with me to become either a Botanic hat or a Cairn hat. On my way to meet up with Gryffinitter & Marj again, I ran into 2 Knitty City friends, Kimberly & Joyce, and Kimberly's sister. Kimberly & sister were wearing a prototype of Joyce's new shawl design, which I loved. (My Turquoise skein of Miss Babs' Yowza will be saved for that (when it comes out) instead of Boneyard). It's so awesome to have such talented designer friends, my queue never runs dry!
The rest of the day is kinda a blur. I found Marj who was with Rachel and met Rachel's friend Robin. Rachel was wearing her Spectra & it looked great! Then they left to take Robin to the Train, and Marj & I did 1/2 of building A. We got some more yarn from someone who might want some wollmeise - I told her about my destash & gave her my Ravname, lol.
Last but not least, Marj & I met Badamy!
Who is awesome & hilarious. I apologized for my NEWT failure, and as I should have expected Amy encouraged me to finish anyways. Clearly this woman doesn't give up easily; she traveled for like, 3 days in 15 different vehicles just to get to R'beck!
Since we were so close I dragged Amy & Marj to meet Kate, who by then was probably certain I was stalking her. Amy was then lured back to her charter bus by wine & what turned out to be string cheese, lol! I went back to MissBabs for some Botanic-worthy yarn and Marj & I made friends with a guy on a bench outside bldg B, where I showed him the MB yarns & asked if he thought it would work for dude-worthy hats. He did. We also found out that his exboyfriend hadn't died, he dyed, which is a joke that really, really, really never gets old.
At around 4:30 we found Gryffinitter for the last time & headed out. It was a very long, meetup- and fiber-filled day, and it was AWESOME. I still can't believe how many people I ran into or met for the first time yesterday. And so many people complimented me on my Tappan Zee sweater (and the Traveling Woman that I knit Gryffinitter). It was a successful shopping day too; I found what I needed to find - some fiber to learn to spin on - what I wanted to find - Sanguine Gryphon and some unusually-milled yarns - and then some.
I totally can't wait to do it again next year!
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