Rhinebeck 2015 ...and a lovely time was had by all
The New York Sheep and Wool Festival (aka Rhinebeck) is always held the third full weekend in October. I've been going for over 10 years, starting with day trips and lately for the whole weekend. This year we participated in the Indie Untangled Rhinebeck Trunk that took place Friday night.
Here is the booth being setup up (with much help from Lexie). I sewed project bags of various sizes and I even pulled an all nighter to get them done. It was a successful show for us and we hope to do it again next year. Over the weekend I'll replenish the Chiagu website and the Chiagu Etsy store with the remaining bags.
Eight of us rented a house for the weekend and we got off to a slow start Saturday morning. My inner giddiness surface when the first thing I saw was the nun walking two baby cashmere goats. I'm pretty sure I squealed. And every year there is a nun walking goats. I took an adorable picture of my friend Margaret and one of the goats:
It was a cool and crisp Saturday - those who knitted Rhinebeck sweaters wore them comfortably. As we walked the Dutchess County fairgrounds we saw spectacular color:
and in the vendor barns you saw cool business banners like this one:
I can say confidently that this was the most popular knit project:
Here's a close up of the Shetland Baa-ble Hat knitted by my friend Pamela:
That sheep hat was everywhere! It's a free pattern from the Shetland Wool Week website.
And who doesn't like running into a llama taking a walk?
By the end of Saturday we were all tired. Some of my housemates bought goodies in the Food Barn so we had a delicious dinner of appetizers and alcohol:
There's bread, several different types of cheese, olives, pickles, chorizo and sweet Italian sausages. Dessert was the same idea (and we forgot to take a picture of it).
As for Sunday I have to admit I was a sheep stalker. A Herdwick sheep stalker.
I've been a Twitter follower of James Rebanks aka @herdyshepherd1 for a couple of years now. His Twitter feed is full of gorgeous pictures of the Lake District, his herding dogs, and his Herdwick sheep. So when I saw this Herdwick ewe I had to see what she was up to. Her name is Haylie - she and a baby Herdwick were part of a sheep talk. When it was over they were walked to a pen in the next barn. I watched them eat and then Haylie walked over to her owner, Erin Bradt from Helder-Herdwyck Farm, for some petting.
ADORABLE.
And then I got to pet Haylie. She was SO SWEET.
And yes I ended up buying two aran weight skeins of Herdwick yarn. And that's another year for Rhinebeck.
So thank you to my fabulous housemates (yes, we had a selfie stick that we used at the house. Remarkably there were no selfie stick sightings on the fairground).
Already making plans for next year and I can't wait to see Haylie the Herdwick again!
Updates and Food Meme
So we found an apartment!!! It's at the absolute upper end of our price range but we're getting SUCH a dramatic upgrade compared to our current apartment that I am really looking forward to buying less yarn so I can afford the rent. No, really!
Our current place is a 3rd floor walkup in a building that's barely maintained, with a surly super who never smiles, laundry facilities that require you to go down three flights of stairs AND outside in order to reach them, and our apartment gets absolutely no light (we have to turn on the lights no matter what time of day it is). Not to mention that we have no kitchen, just appliances in one corner of the living room . . . and yes, this is representative of how many, if not MOST, New Yorkers live!
The new place? Full-service doorman building, elevator (actually there are 2, the real one and a service one, how fancy!), huge laundry room that's reachable by elevator, tenant garden behind the building, and our unit has a real kitchen, gets tons of light and a good breeze, and it is literally 2 times as much space as we now have. I'm ecstatic!
We're working out the details of the move but it'll be happening sometime during Labor Day weekend . . . which has turned out to be a bad day to ask friends to help us move, because everyone's got plans for the holiday! Looks like we'll be hiring movers for the first time ever . . .
In preparation I've already started to weed out and organize the knitting stashes. I am probably going to put a few things on her to destash, at the very least I want to get rid of some old magazines I never use and maybe some books. Looking through the majority of my yarn yesterday I realized that there's very little in there that I don't LOVE . . . looks like I finally learned how to be descriminating in my yarn purchases! If you remember 2 years ago when I moved here I got rid of TONS of yarn. It's nice to know I'm doing better, even if I spent just as much (if not more) money over the last 2 years than I did before that. At least now my stash is full of yarn I want to keep!
I also have 2 projects to show you but haven't gotten my act together to photograph them. To tide you over until I have knitting content to show, here's a food meme I found through Not an Artist:
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The Omnivore's Hundred is a list of foods the gastronomic Andrew Wheeler thinks everyone should try at least once in their lives.
The rules of the meme: bold those you have tried, strikethrough those you wouldn't eat on a bet.
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho (I hate anise)
13. PB&J sandwich (I hate peanut butter!)
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (Ditto! I've had cognac and I've had a fat cigar, just never at the same time)
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly (most of us call this a Jelly Shot!)
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian (I saw that episode of No Reservations!)
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (hah, I've eaten all of these! some of my favorite things!!)
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill (wouldn't eat it raw . . .)
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake
Wow, I did even better than I expected!! It's funny that I crossed out so few things and one of them is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches . . . ;o)
