The Rhinebeck Experience – Part 1

Following the craft fair, theatreknitter and I dashed back to my house, emptied the car, quickly changed, then reloaded the car and began our trek up to Rhinebeck, NY for NY Sheep & Wool.

We drove directly to the Ravelry party – as we pulled up to the elks lodge we were both about to burst! And then the shock started to set in as we saw all the cars along the road! We drove down a bit, found space on the road and parked. We met fellow ravel-er Liz, who also has a Lorelai, so were were all excited about that! We walked down to the lodge area, and amazingly immediately spotted Knelley one of the local SnB’ers! We tried to take it all in, Betsy checked her crackberry.

Notice her lovely clapotis and new neckwarmer (It’s not one of Sonia’s – it’s a new plymouth pattern – made with debbie bliss alpaca silk that she got for a steal! It’s in my queue – I’ll be using Schaefer Esperanza. Anyway.)

There were so many people there, not entirely surprising, but still. The police were called and cars needed to be moved. After I had an encounter with a rather unfriendly lady (“I don’t have any other parking for you, you can go to the bus garage and carpool”) I was able to park right at the elk lodge lawn with the help of a very friendly guy who even helped me park the car so I could drive right out later.

We didn’t win anything at the raffle, but it was fun to scan the crowd and admire the handknits, count / identify the patterns, check out bags – like this one:

And then to find out, we KNOW the gal holding the bag! That’s how we met Librarysarie! We plurk! And we’re friends on Rav. Awesome – her tilted duster was fantastic too! (Why didn’t we photograph this encounter? I think we were so giddy that we just forgot!) (Oh, and Sarah – who was the gal you were with? I’m blanking on her name / username!)

So were still standing about and chatting and watching and all that, when we talk to another gal about her clapotis and it dawns on us “I know you!” – we met LiterateKnits (what’s up with me meeting all these “L” people?) Erin is adorable! And then she introduced me to Sam – who is also fantastic! The three of us “work” for LimeNViolet – Erin and Sam write for the chum and I write the the show notes. Photo proof of the minions:

I also met blog commenter Kate! So cool!

It was cold and late so we headed to the hotel with the other local SnB’ers and watched Sarah Palin on SNL. I give her credit for going on there and showing she has a sense of humor, but it doesn’t change my mind about her. I think Amy Pohler is amazing! Next post, the goodies from Rhinebeck!