Letters
This Weekend in Rhinebeck
Dear Ann,
Rhinebeck (the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival, on the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck, New York) happens on the same weekend every year, but its approach always takes me by surprise: so soon? How does this happen?
This year I am watching the weather app on my phone, hoping against hope that temperatures won’t be as high as predicted. Currently my app is not budging from its forecast for mid-70s highs on both days. Whomp whomp.
Meteorologists: please be wrong. Think of the knitters! (Ann, pack some lightweight layers in your suitcase for Thursday, but keep hope alive and also bring all three of your crazy Easel Sweaters.)
(earliest photo documentation of Me at Rhinebeck, circa 2005. That is Carrie, who is now 20, in her precious oversized Whitby in black Rowan Denim. Photo by Cara Davis-conomos aka January one.)
Despite its fame, which has a lot to do with being in the right place at the right time (the East Coast at Peak Leaf Peep), Rhinebeck is not the only fiber festival.
(This is from the second year Gale Zucker had a photo booth. 2011? It was super fun. We are cheesing it up with my personal version of the fussy cuts blanket.)
(fact: The Dutchess County Fairgrounds really do look like this.)
The season is loaded with fiber festivals all over North America, and elsewhere. Knitter’s Review has a helpful listing (scroll down to October and November), and there are other small festivals and yarn crawls that you can find by putting your ear to the ground (or googling). The weekend before last, I had a lovely wander through a small festival in Brooklyn. The King’s County Fiber Festival wasn’t Rhinebeck, but it didn’t need to be. Smaller festivals have their own local flavor, and give you the chance to see more, touch more, chat more with the people who make beautiful things.
(Speaking of Brooklyn, the woman on the left, wearing handknits 1-4, is Lisa Knithound. On the right, wearing handknits 5-8, is Shannon.)
One of Kay’s Rules for LivingTM: you will never regret going to a fiber festival.
Here’s what’s on our calendar for Rhinebeck 2017.
Friday Night: Indie Untangled Trunk Show
Friday evening, from 5-8, we’ll be at the 4th annual Indie Untangled Trunk Show at the Best Western in Kingston.
Just look at the amazing vendor list. We had an amazing time there last year, seeing so many independent yarns that were new to us, and meeting so many fascinating makers, that this year we are proud to be among the sponsors of the event. It’s a great way to kick off Rhinebeck weekend, get acclimated to the adrenalin rush and wool fumes, and say hi to folks you are probably following on Instagram. (Look! They interviewed us on the Indie Untangled blog. Thank you, kind Indies.)
Saturday 11-2 and Sunday 11-2
We’ll be in Building B, aka Merritt Books, aka the Book Barn.
(Mary Jane Mucklestone, wearing the original Stopover! I can date THIS PHOTO to 2016 by the STOPOVER, AND THE stacks of Field Guide No. 1.)
We are in fantastic company in the book barn, thanks to Merritt Books, which organizes it all. We’d love to see people, show off our four precious baby Field Guides (four! last year we only had one), sign books ’n’ things, and inspect everyone’s handknits and/or Rhinebeck haul-in-progress.
Saturday Night
(Pie Not Pictured, but here are Maureen and Tammy (IN another stopover!).
From 5-8 we’ll be hosting a Rhinebeck Pie Party. If you signed up via Eventbrite, the address (on the same side of the river as the fairgrounds, in the town of Rhinebeck) and details are in your confirmation email. (Unfortunately we’ve reached capacity for this event.)
(Jill Draper’s Studio is a Glorious blur of beautiful yarns and faces.)
With tummies full of pie, we will then head over to Jill Draper Makes Stuff’s Open Studio in Kingston, which runs from 6-9. Last year was incredible, so we have every confidence in our ability to find some great yarns in the last hour at Jill’s.
Tips and Tricks
If you’re prepping for your first Rhinebeck [insert your rural fiber festival here], and want some pointers, here’s What I Know About Rhinebeck, as told to Fringe Association. (Karen Templer and her coveted Fringe Supply Co. wares will be in the Harrisville Fibers booth at Rhinebeck, if you want to see her website come to life, with a soundtrack of sheep bleating softly in the background.)
(That Time Ann Bought All that mohair. photo Dated via Ann’s glasses: 2008.)
For the full audio-visual experience, we never get tired of Knitter’s Review’s 2010 video roundup (at the top of this post).
I guarantee we will see some of the same sweaters in 2017. Rhinebeck is timeless.
Love,
Kay
P.S. Late-breaking addition: MDK contributor and all-round smartyboots Kirsten Kapur has come up with a great way of dealing with the warm temperatures forecast for this weekend in Rhinebeck: a virtual Rhinebeck Sweater parade! Open to all, whether Rhinebeck-bound or not. Post a snap of your Rhinebeck sweater(s) using the hashtags #virtualrhinebecksweaterparade and #VRSP, and check out those hashtags for a growing array of knitterly eye candy. (Kirsten is wearing her September House sweater, which will be released as a pattern download in January.)
Ya killing me, ya killing me…..someday, I’ll be in that number. It’s on my bucket list.
That’s ME! In the pink Stopover! My first colorwork!!!! My friend, Maureen is in the picture with me! I’ll be at the get together on Saturday! (My name is Tammy, not Gracey…but I’m good with either)
I’m in the same photo in the brown Icelandic with the aqua snowflakes.
It’s beautiful! What pattern is that?
Yup!!! And that’s me in the colorwork cardigan – my improv sweater from the Fringe Improv KAL last year. I was going to go to the pie party with Tammy, but my daughter (a non-knitter) wanted to come with me this year, so we won’t be staying. I hope you guys have another pie party next year! But i’ll pop into Merrit books and see you there.
Maureen, that cardigan is fabulous! Did you talk about it on Ravelry or anywhere else?
i did! i called it the Captain Hastings Cardigan on my project page. I’m mojorao in Ravelry. I’ve never written up the colorwork chart – i just kind of winged it. You can contact me on Ravelry if you want to talk about it!! Thanks!!!
The hardest weekend in the world for most knitters-everyone else seems to be at Rhinebeck!
I’m guessing that oversized Whitby still fits Carrie at 20.
I’m stacking and re-stacking knitwear and projects for this coming weekend. What to wear, what to share?? A lovely dilemma.
And what did Ann do with all that mohair? Wasn’t it destined to be a coat? I’d love a mohair coat right about now. (actually, I would love to see it, but I don’t think I could wear it for an instant without sneezing myself into next week.)
It was madness, I tell you. I tended to my Pile Of Mohair for many a year, wishing it would knit itself into a mohair coat—you have an incredible memory, Mary. I think it ended up going to the Great Charitable Farm for Underused Mohair. There’s a moment where the dream becomes a burden, you know?
“There’s a moment where the dream becomes a burden..” This applies to so many things, not just yarn.
I am going to be totally cheesing it up all weekend! If I see someone I follow on Instagram, I’m putting all my shyness to the side and I’m asking to take a photo with her/him. My husband is the designated photographer.
Do this! I had someone do that to me at FFNE and it was so awesome
I can’t wait!! I have been waiting to buy the next Field Guide in person. I hope it’s cold enough to wear my Granito.
Great pix, Kay. You guys don’t change (well, Carrie has, obviously). I hope the weather will cooperate, but if not, remember the old saying, “We’ll weather the weather, whatever the weather, wheather we like it or not!”.
Wishing everyone a blast at Rhinebeck!
Now you’ve done it. How’m I supposed to get any work done this week? My daughter and I are going for our second annual Rhinebeck on Saturday. We will look for you.
This looks as if it is going to be so much fun. I’m one of those who also yearns to go to the Mother of All Fiber Festivals that is Rhinebeck, but I also agree with you: as great as this will be, “Rhinebeck is not the only fiber festival,” and much fun can be had closer to home, if you happen not to live Rhinebeck-adjacent,. Your where to find local-to-you fiber festival tips are excellent. Here in Oregon we have Black Sheep in the summer, but my favorite is Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in September. Friendly vendors! Adorable animals! Well-organized! Pretty setting!
Happy happy happy, all of it. Little Carrie! Me with dark hair! For anyone who wants to wallow, the video from the Rhinebeck Style photo booth is still full of wool induced smiles and so many beloved faces. : https://youtu.be/R78v6DyiuL8
So looking forward to seeing you both, and Clara Parkes. I may faint.
Liz, I would clearly faint if I came into contact with Laura Aylor. Just to stare at her because the words wouldn’t come out of my mouth as an intelligent, coherent person. So silly
Admiring it all from down here in the Southern Hemisphere where (apparently) we’re meant to be going into summer…..still a mite chilly tho, so hand knits are welcome! Rhinebeck looks like a real blast, must put it on my bucket list.
PS – I see that Lincoln in the Bardo has just won the Man Booker Prize in the UK, yay!
I love fiber festivals and have been attending The Black Sheep Gathering and Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival, just north of me in Oregon. I think that these are enough. I used to attend with sheep and sleep in my stock trailer. Now, I just go for a day or two and stay in a nearby motel. Fun for knitters, spinners, felters, and crocheters. Did I miss anyone?
Okay you gals – go on without me, but next year, I promise, I’ll be there – wearing as many hand knits as possible.
Pictured with Lisa (Knithound) is my friend Shannon!
Rhinebeck is the one fiber fair that always makes me a little wistful that I won’t be there again this year. I shall try to comfort myself with sock knitting in a chaise and sipping ginger beer and Jack Rudy Extra Bitter Tonic, while being visited by a herd of cashmere goats. It’ll do.
Have a blast, everyone who is going! I will raise a glass to you from a paddock in Massachusetts 🙂
OMG, I bought all that mohair from the same lady too. In fact I still have it. Please relay to Ann that she is #notalone. In fact in 2016 when I had to hire someone to help me organize my stash, she said seriously upon looking at all this mohair: LYNN: what is this?!?!?! I can’t remember now whether the mohair had to go to the Goodwill or whether I got to keep it….lolol
Really enjoyed all the pictures, thank you for sharing!
I loved meeting you both today. I thoroughly enjoyed my first Rhinebeck experience but, man, do my joints ache! I found some great yarn…all sorts…and you both signed my field guide. What a grand day out!
It was 78 degrees as I pulled out of the parking lot from Rhinebeck today.