Rhinebeck 2019: A Recap

It was a whirlwind of a weekend -- a fun whirlwind, but a whirlwind nonetheless. There was a lot of driving, a lot of time on my feet, and probably not enough sleep. But it was wonderful, and I can't wait to do it again next year (the Ross Farm folks have already asked me to come again, so I just have to put it on the calendar).

We left a little later on Thursday to drive up than we did last year, so we didn't unload and set up the booth until Friday morning, which left us less free time that day to wander around Rhinebeck. But we did make it to Needles Up (though not to Indie Untangled, as we didn't manage to get tickets) and made a brief stop at Jill Draper's open studio event on Saturday night. Those two stops were where I made my only purchases of the weekend, as the booth was so busy during the festival that I really only escaped to go to the bathroom. I think I was fairly restrained in my buying, especially given that before I left I reached the conclusion that the stash has gotten out of control and I should use up or give away a bunch of it before I start buying yarn again. In any case, here is the haul:

At Needles Up, I picked up one braid of fiber from the Classy Squid Fiber Co. This is Amanda's Opulence blend -- Rambouillet, cashmere, Tussah silk, and bamboo -- and I couldn't resist it. I also picked up the Fibernymph Dye Works special Rhinebeck colorway, called Rhinebeck ... Sweater Weather? (the stripes are meant to illustrate the potential temperatures for the festival weekend), and two lip balms from Tuft Woolens. At Jill Draper's, I picked up three skeins of yarn (we will ignore, for now, the fact that I have yet to knit up the skeins of JDMS yarn I bought at her open studio last year or the sweater quantity I bought at Maryland Sheep and Wool this year): two skeins of Mohonk for a shawl design and a skein of Mini Empire to make myself a hat. The colors in this photo aren't as accurate as they could be, given that I snapped this photo early this morning before the sun was really up, but I think you can get the idea.

While we were all very busy during the actual festival, the long drive to and from Rhinebeck make for good knitting time. On the way up, I cast on two new projects. First, I finally got started on my Floozy cardigan and managed to get through all the short rows before we got there.

I have since added the first rows of the second color, but I didn't get a chance to snap an updated photo.

I also started my Swing Left socks from my Little Skein in the Big Wool Sock the Vote kit and worked on them throughout the weekend. On the way home yesterday, I finished the first sock:

I added some additional stripes to the shawl as well, so lots of progress was made in general.

All in all, despite the lack of sleep and the cold weather on Sunday (so cold I had to steal some samples from the booth to put some more wool on me), it was a great weekend. I got to see old friends and meet new ones, eat some delicious meals, and spend several days in the company of "my people." I'll admit it was a bit hard to get up this morning and go to work, but Rhinebeck weekend can't last forever and it's back to the regular schedule this week.