A Knitter's Weekend
Rhinebeck 2018: Joy Out the Wazoo
Dear friends,
We heard more than one person say this was their favorite Rhinebeck of all. For a couple of chilly October days, thousands of knitters and shepherds and yarnmakers came together and let it all hang out.
We don’t recall more perfect sweater weather. It was incredible, the plenitude of gorgeous, wacky, elegant and—in a trend that seems to be growing—matching sweaters.
It was great. It was a feeling we hope you can see in this pile of photos that we snapped along the way. Be sure to click through the gallery up top as well as below.
Thank you to everybody who stopped to say hi, who let us take their pictures, who let us peek into their purchases.
We’re trying to think of the moment that best captures the heart and love of this weekend. It had to be the moment that our friend Jenn Reimels opened the back of her SUV to introduce us to Mac, the Santa Cruz lamb that she was bringing home to join her other three sheep down in Pennsylvania.
Needless to say, this was the ultimate in stash enhancement.
Jenn’s friend Amanda Barcenas (the proprietor of Prado de Lana Sheep Farm) gently brought Mac out from the car. (Her own flock is more than 40 sheep, so she had an easy hand with him.) Cristina and Nell and Maura and Ana and we just went all woogly.
Mac is magnificent, six months old and maybe 20 pounds. He is serene. He is glad to be here. He is one of the rarest sheep breeds on earth (maybe 150 in existence at the moment), so we hope he will live long and prosper.
That’s Mac up top, beaming at Jenn.
Love,
Ann and Kay
Many hands do Kay’s work: @Nellknits and @Dianeknits sewing in ends on the Kaffe Fassett Big Flower Jacket.
Diane was awfully cheerful about it. Git ‘r’ done!
Trophy room.
Our fancy sign at Indie Untangled. Thank you Lisa!
@KathleenDames pitching in at the Backyard Fiber Works booth at Indie Untangled on Friday.
Ann yapping with Alice O’Reilly of @backyardfiberworks at Indie Untangled.
Look who’s wearing what she made? Sonya Philip pairs sheepy trousers with a fresh-off-the-needles Carbeth Cardigan. (Everybody wished they had a bulky weight sweater, especially on Sunday.)
The Humuli Club was ever-present. The one on the left was in yellow Cascade 220 with a gorgeous hand-spun yoke; its wearer is colleen, sewdelighted on Ravelry.
Savage Heart Cardigan meet-up: Kay and @Vicki.knitorious.
Sheila, proud in the crowd in her Humulus.
Michale with her amazing felted log cabin bag. (We shrieked!) On the one hand, it’s her own pattern. On the other hand, you can count the log cabin patches (16) and see how she arranged them in bag formation.
Such a lovely autumnal version of The Throwback! (lynn is also rocking a GGmadeit tee, which pairs well with any handknit.)
@indigonightowl Laura in a symphony of woolens that includes a Leif Cowl. The cardigan is a Freyja Lopapeysa and I believe it was a first-time steek for Laura.
The Moebiuses: Christine (@minimoebius) and Colin. Mr. Moebius has a sad because he had to wear last year’s Rhinebeck sweater, but he put on a brave face. christine is wearing marilyn’s cowl by Carolyn Bloom and wolf river pullover.
Our ladies of the Papa pullover by Junko Okamoto; their Instagram handles are @cherylcosta_price @seaofstring and @sophievf.lewing.
A Joji Locatelli and Kate Davies sandwich. The bread is Maggy Wolf and Carol Timmers in Mint Leaves pullovers and the filling is Marti Lindstrom in Strathendrick.
A wooly bear neighbor at our Air Bnb. we’ve got conflicting theories as to whether the width of his stripe portends a long or short winter.
The best Rhinebeck so far!
Lovely photos, it looks like everyone had a ball.
There is a photo of three lovely ladies wearing the same sweater, but in different colours, The sweater is a solid colour with outlines of flowers. Very simple, but very effective.
Does anyone know where I can get that pattern? Its singing to me. 🙂
Thank you! It was so much fun International KALing with my besties. We had no idea what a hit we would be. Thank you Junko Okamoto and A Verb For Keeping Warm for inspiring us.
Me too! Glad you asked.
hi jill
here you go: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/papa
Thank You.
Another one in the queue!
All the pics are great, and it looks like such fun….but, y’all, that little lamb’s face is so perfect and sweet that I just want to wrap my hands around it and kiss its nose!
Agreed. Mac’s adorable schnoz made me get over being cranky about my inability to go to Rhinebeck. Sheep are magical, aren’t they?
Agree!! He’s got the sweetest little kissable face Wonder what rare breed?
I think they said Santa Cruz.
Looks like he’s a Santa Cruz sheep. Here’s what Google had to say: https://livestockconservancy.org/index.php/heritage/internal/santa-cruz
So good to see y’all every year. I was able once again to refrain from purchasing any livestock, but that lamb sure is cute….
It was just so much fun. We were so happy to stop by the MDK table in book alley to say hello. Missed seeing Kay’s Savage Heart in person. I’ve been wearing mine on the weekends at home, super cozy. Ann, didn’t get a chance to tell you that your Humulus is stunning. One day I hope to see Sonya Philip and not be too starstruck and nervous to say hello.
So great to see you and Mr. Moebius! You are the most adorable pair.
I am trying to get him to come to VKL NYC this year. So far not successful.
Dear Ann and Kay,
I had a wonderful time meeting you at Rhinebeck thank you for signing my Field Guide and for speaking to me. Last night I made your sausage sheet pan supper it was delicious! I enjoy reading your posts everyday. Hope to see you again next year!
Lisa N.
Thank you for all these beautiful pictures, especially Mac and for your year-round inspiration to all of us!
The sweater-weather-palooza watching on the internets (and here today) was fantastic! Thanks, from those of us who were elsewhere . Xox
thank you for posting the pics.. I have gone to Rhinebeck in the past but was unable to go this year. these pics bring back memories and now I want to knit one of everything in the pics. would love to have a lamb too, lol thanks again, it was almost like being there…..almost
Thanks for the photos! What fun! Love the tile bag- what design is that? Please? I had the opportunity to attend the Lochness Yarn Festival with my daughter in Inverness the same weekend. Smaller scale but fun and inspiring.
It’s Michale’s own invention, but we’ve studied the picture rather carefully and we think it’s just a whole bunch of log cabin squares/cloths, sewn together and felted with straps on. We saw it from across a crowded room and time stood still….
It is a stunning bag. Would love to know what gauge yarn she used. Would be fun to make up our own.
We’ve done felted bags often with Lamb’s Pride Bulky. It felts like a dream, makes a dense, chewy fabric, and wears like iron.
Oh please, more pictures tomorrow!
It was a lovely Rhinebeck! I swear they come in and spray paint that row of big maple trees – that is the only fall color I’ve seen this year – our leaves in PA all just fell off without changing. But does anyone know what happened to the Peruvian musicians? I missed their music, which is the sound of Rhinebeck to me ( along with the sheep bleats).
I missed them too
!!
I know! We had a first-timer in tow and it was just not the same to tell her “and this is where the Pan Flute band is supposed to be!”
Maybe they had a wedding to play? I hope they’re back next year.
Although I was unable to attend, your photo gallery captured the excitement and spirit and made me feel a part of it all, vicariously.
I enjoyed that so much. Sonya Phil looks amazing as usual. Is there a pattern for her yellow cardigan?
That’s the Carbeth Cardigan by Kate Davies! Go bang out one!
I’m so jealous!!!!!!
Stuck at home !
Such joy. Mac’s pose is just vintage Lamb Chop.
There is a possiblity that Mac is a 20-pound Lamb Chop puppet. I did start speaking to him in Shari Lewis’s voice.
Red and blue bobble sweater pattern name, please, as well as the last brown sweater with the multi-stitch yoke.
After a restorative cup of coffee, we’ve gone in and put names and links for any patterns that we knew, so check them out!
Nice that you had weather that was cool enough for the hand knit sweaters and hats. I live in California and will probably never get to Rhinebeck. There are enough festivals near by with Black Sheep and Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. However, I can enjoy vicariously with all of the photos. I used to show sheep at the latter two and really enjoy the sheep photos.
It WAS the most perfect weekend. Why on earth didn’t we do pictures together??
Inside my head I have a lovely, perfect selfie of us, where all the jawbones are crisp and our hair is on point!
We are terrible at this!
So where is the west coast/southwest version of Rhinebeck?
Oregon has the Black Sheep Gathering in June, and Oregon Flock and Fiber in September. For other fiber festivals, you may want to check this site. http://fiberevents.com/
Thank you for the great pictures!
Kay, you look a teeny bit cold! I hope you can sew all those ends in before next year’s fair! I wish I’d gone this year!
That was Saturday so I was ok but on Sunday I bundled up in my Roger cardigan and a big ol’ scarf.
I am sitting here at work, silently guffawing as I read the caption you have added. I did not know until that morning that Mr. Moebius would agree to wear his Rhinebeck sweater (2017 edition). He had threatened to wear a store bought one.
So much to say here. Love, love the lamb story, the fit of Ann’s green sweater, the picture of Kay and Vicki with their matching warm smiles and so, so much else. Am also dying to know about the linen-colored lacy scarf shown with Nellknits (?). Thank you so much from a sad not-able-to-go-to-Rhineback-er.
Missed Rhinebeck but had a great time at Indie Untangled – thank you for sponsoring the lovely lounge! The event was kind of overwhelming and it was great to be able to retreat to a quiet yarny spot midway through, to regroup and consult my Fiber Festival Cheat Sheet … and my bank balance …
About the Big Flower Jacket – will there be a reveal soon? Also, don’t worry about weaving in the ends: for an authentic Kaffe Fassett look, you should just knot the new & old yarns together when you start a new color and, if you feel ambitious, trim the long ends when you are finished. At a book signing years ago Kaffe took off his sweater and hung it on a chair, where we all could see that the inside was just a mass of knots and hanging ends!
P.S. On Michale’s fabulous bag, is it really 16 squares or maybe is it 14? I definitely am doing this but want to make sure I understand the layout!
I think you’re right: I see 4 squares on each side, then 2 on the bottom and 2 on each of the “gussets.” So: 14! Plus straps, but I’d try to use leather straps if I were making one, as I’ve never been satisfied with stretchy knitted ones, even when felted.
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!! for the terrific Rhinebeck photos. There are times that I feel I’m the only **sweater** knitter in the world, even though there is proof otherwise on Ravelry. But most of my F2F knitting buddies are “scared” to attempt sweaters, and it’s delightful to see so many drop-dead gorgeous sweaters being worn by their makers. My queue runneth over.
Have them start with a baby sweater.
I have to get my hands on the pattern for the “resist” mittens!! So many gorgeous sweaters too.
It’s a Bristol Ivy design – google “Peace de Resistance Mittens” and you can get the pattern several different places, including on Ravelry. All proceeds donated to charity, in recent months to RAICES.
Shades of Marlin Perkins! How many tranquilizer darts did it take to keep the Big Floral Damask Thing from laying waste to Rhinebeck?
Thanks, Ann and Kay. Your pictures evoke the joy, spirit and just plain fun of Rhinebeck. Great pictures of so many sweaters! And Sam the lamb looks like an angel. If I hadn’t been stricken with the flu, I would have been there too. Hopefully next year.
Oh how I wish that I didn’t live in Denver !
In The New Yorker magazine last week, there was an advertisement for a needlepoint pillow with the image of the most darling sheep that I’ve ever seen. I haven’t done any needlepoint in years but I removed the page from the magazine and may have to buy it because the face of this guy is wonderful.
I’m getting crazy about sheep
I caught you crawling under a fleece table to get into your signin’ booth. Funny moment.
LOL I went right under the Grand Champion Something Or Other Fleece—$190!—so it was pretty special.
You gotta do what you gotta do!
Mac had already melted my heart…and then I read his story! Can a melting heart burst? Live long and prosper, Mac!
Rhinebeck looks amazing! It’s on my bucket list.
Wowza! so many gorgeous knits. especially love the resistance mittens, and the cardigan in the very next image in your banner…buttoned up with little buttons, interesting sleeves, and a pattern that looks to me like bees?! That one made me say “ooooo” out loud 🙂
So glad everyone had a great time!
That’s the Astrid Cardigan by Junko Okamoto, worn by Sunne Meyer! Link: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/astrid-24
Thanks!
I was able to make Rhinebeck this year – my first!! I brought along a non-knitting friend, who was astounded by the things people can make with sticks and string. She loved seeing everybody ‘peacocking’ about in their handmade goodies. 🙂 We stopped by the sheep auction for awhile and were sorely tempted to give up our office lives and move off the grid with a flock of sheep (it’s that easy, right?).. And of course, finding fabulous yarn and meeting some of my knitting heroes were top moments! I wore my parallax double knitted scarf for a bit, then the designer – Alasdair Post-Quinn – sat down at the next picnic table with his latest most fabulous version, and I practically fell off my picnic bench with excitement.
My bucket list festival!
We met Mac and were charmed so much by him ❤️ Glad he found a fleecever home with good peeps.
Oh, that was fun!!!!!
The pictures have inspired me to attend next year! And DH agreed. I better get to making some lodging reservations!
Agreed about this being one of the best Rhinebecks, as it somehow felt more relaxed than other years. Not sure why, but it was a welcome vibe. Loved the dramatic clouds in the afternoon – can’t go wrong with grey, eh? Popped on here to say, thank you, for such a comfortable (and dare I say, classy) lounge at Indie Untangled. IU too was super fun and mellow.
You log cabin goddesses need to persuade Michale to write up instructions for that bag! It is perfect, we all need one!
Next year I VOW to attend! I will find the knitters of Montreal. We will make it the best autumn road trip ever. Thanks for sharing the photos and stories.
Forgot to add: those “resistance is not futile” mitts are amazing!
What amazing photos! It was a wonderful weekend and so fun to meet you both! I’m glad I came back on Sunday and wasn’t deterred by the huge Saturday line, and I’m thrilled I was able to get you to sign two books for me. I also appreciate your commenting on my budless Branches and Buds, Lol.
Loved the pictures. Wish I was there. Short little story having nothing to do with Rhinebeck, but everything to do with sweaters. I banged our a Carbeth back in April and I wore it to our Wegman’s food store the first day warm enough to wear a sweater. I was weighing vegetables in the produce department and another shopper approaches me and asks if I am wearing a Carbeth. She knew all about the Carbeth and had been afraid to start one. I assured her that if I could complete one, anyone can. :):) True story.