Mad Hair Day

So I never finished blogging about Rhinebeck, did I? Sunday was much like Saturday for me, more frenzied yarn purchases, more batt fondling, more shawl stalking. Also a touch of the gushing groupie when I finally met the Yarn Harlot herself and she kindly signed her latest book for me and admired my shawl. Jet lag and a slight fever were making me a little unhinged by this point but she remained calm and held the sock, probably thinking it wise that she had control of the pointy sticks instead of me. Look:

I left her in peace and tottered off to score some more roving. And a spindle. Or two…

All in all, a good haul was had. I even photographed it all back at the hotel before falling unconscious onto my pillows with some suitably heavy duty medication.

I made some wonderful friends who kindly took care of me and had a great time. I even went to the Ravelry party but my camera battery died and I didn’t get any live action shots of the knitterati who were thick underfoot at this wild shindig. This weekend was fantastic and it wouldn’t have been a fraction of the fabulous without the Ravelers. Thanks guys!

I’ve been having trouble logging into my blog for the last few days which is why this blog post is a little late. Sorry about that folks!

Picking up from where I left off, I got up bright and early on Saturday morning and made my way to Rhinenbeck Sheep and Wool fairgrounds ready for the gates to open. The trees continued to be gorgeous, the weather was bright and sunny and I had a shopping list as long as my arm.

Once through the gates I resisted the temptation to trample on slower visitors and made my way to the barns. I wanted to fondle the spindles at the Golding booth and see what all the Socks That Rock fuss was about. Despite being an early arriver, there was a bit of a queue!

I decided to take my chances on there being some left later and the queues maybe subsiding later in the day. Happily, there was no shortage of yarn booths and I started finding yarn that I just couldn’t leave behind. The fairgrounds were starting to fill up and the food stalls were opening for business.

I wandered around the sheds picking up some divine fibre and yarns and then almost stumbled across the Creatively Dyed booth, run by Dianne with whom I’d had dinner the night before. I can only assume all those people stuck in the STR queue hadn’t made it this far or they wouldn’t have been wasting valuable shopping time when there was yarn like Dianne’s to be had. I bought a load of roving and sock yarn, in the most fabulous colours, and then went in search of spindles with which to spin them. I wish I’d remembered to take a photo of Dianne’s booth, it was like all the colours were having a party in one place!

I made it to the Ravelry meetup and found Francee and Ann who had also been at dinner on Friday night. I met Jess and Casey and Mary Heather there and kinneared the crowd, stalking the knits and showing off my fibre.

Inside the sheds I found the spindles I’d been searching for: a pretty ceramic supported spindle

  

along with a Jenkin’s 2.5oz turkish spindle. The sheds were wonderful, packd with small booths each filled with more and more wonderful things to tempt. I treated myself to three skeins of Decadent Fibres Creme Brulee with the intention of knitting myself a jumper. I’ll have to draft the pattern myself, I think. I know exactly what I want but haven’t been able to find it in my size.

By mid afternoon I was utterly knackered. The fairgrounds were even more busy than they had been at lunch time and I decided to head back to the hotel . My boot (that’s trunk to the non-brits!) was full although not as full as the car in front:

And don’t think I wasn’t tempted to get one myself. But I’d have trouble fitting it in the handluggage.

I went to the Ravelry party on Saturday night and wild with excitement, was about to kinnear all the knitterati but my camera battery crapped out on me and I had to satisfy myself with beer, snacks and good company.

More later once my photos have uploaded!

Last year I sat at my computer, pea-green with envy at all those lucky sods at Rhinebeck. And I remember being particularly annoyed because they didn’t take a moment from their wild fibre-bingeing and partying to blog and tell the rest of us all about what a wonderful time they were having.

Well, this year I’m going to put that right. With excruciating detail, here is Rhinebeck 2008. I can’t promise that I won’t get all James Joyce on you, the jet lag is still pretty bad, but I’ll try and give you reasonably coherent and comprehensive account of what it is like to be at Rhinebeck, on your own, having travelled 8800-odd miles a couple of days beforehand.

I picked up the hire car from the Hoboken depot where they were amazingly blase about letting a foreigner with duffle-bags under her eyes drive off with one of their cars. I’d pre-booked a GPS with the car which was comfortingly called NeverLost. This turned out to be somewhat optimistic. I drove around New Jersey, swearing at the GPS and wondering why the hell the road is called by two different names when one would do. Motorways are called I-something and also have names like Garden State Parkway. Only the signs show one name and the GPS calls out another. And gives helpful hints like “Keep left in 0.5 miles” – miles? How far is a mile? And why am I keeping left? There’s nothing on the right. What does the GPS know that I don’t? Landslide ahead? Collapsed mineshaft?

So, clenched to the wheel, muttering “drive on the right, drive on the right, drive on the right” I finally made it out of the city and onto the highway to the Catskills (at least, I assume they are the Catskills. Whatever they are, they are pretty.) Look:

I managed to prise my fingers off the steering wheel for a split second to grab a shot of the trees. The hills are covered with autumnal forests which stretch off into the distance in a leafy bronze haze.

About an hour and a half after leaving the city, I reached Kingston and checked into the hotel. I had finished my Meandering Vines Shawl last night and needed to block it. I had pins at the ready and went to soak the shawl in the bathroom sink. Unfortunately it had one of those annoying plugs which don’t quite fit the plughole and the water kept draining away. Being amazingly resourceful (as well as clever, glamorous and staggeringly athletic and all-round wonderful) I used the wastepaper bin lined with a clean plastic bag which did the job rather well

After about an hour I squeezed it out, rolled it in a towel and trampled on it and then pinned it out on the hotel’s lovely white fluffy towels.

 

It’s over six feet long and 20″ wide! Those are two bath towels laid end to end! The colour is more raspberry than my photos show and the lace pattern shows up beautifully now that it is blocked. It is utterly gorgeous and I’m so pleased with it!

And now it is nearly 6pm and I’m going to have dinner with some Ravelers at the restaurant across the road. But first I have to trowel on some concealer and make-up or they’ll think I’m already dressed for Halloween. I have black rings under my eyes like Uncle Fester.

I am prostrate with jet lag. Seriously. Flat out on the sofa, groaning pitifully, bug-eyed with knackeredness.
 
I’ve done nothing of note today apart from knitting all night long, after it became painfully obvious that there was no sleep to be had. Then, when daylight finally came and just as I was getting ready to go out I was suddenly overcome with exhaustion and sat down on the comfy couch till my head stopped spinning.

And then I woke up three hours later.

I’m writing off today, devoting myself to knitting the Rhinebeck wrap which is is made from Posh Yarn’s Lei, a everlasting yarn whose skeins know no bounds. It’s bloody lucky that it is as luscious and wonderful as it is or I’d have buried it in a fit of pique by now. Especially as I’m a tad befuddled and spent as much time tinking as I did knitting this afternoon.

Come hell or high water, I’m casting off tonight. And I’ll be blocking it at the hotel. Hmmm… pink yarn, white hotel towels… anybody else experiencing an impending sense of doom?

Things people have said to me today:

“Paper or plastic?” (I thought she was talking about the carrier bags)

“Yo yo, what’s going ooooon” (I have no idea what is going on or, indeed, what to respond to this. I was briefly tempted to say “WhatsUuuuup” but am entirely aware that it sounds bloody silly with a british accent)

“You tryin’a get run over?” (I forgot which way the traffic was coming from. Reminder to self: look BOTH ways and remember that the “Walk” sign is a suggestion to the pedestrians and a joke to the drivers)

Have a nice day! (a man who sounded like he was in the Sopranos, standing outside a cafe with red and green awning and neon pizza signs flashing)

So so far I have made it to the shops and back, learnt to cross the road (follow someone with no visible tyre tracks across their body) and avoided being sold a puppy by a man who lived in a shopping trolley. New Jersey is fun!

You see, I left home at 4pm on Tuesday. I flew out of New Zealand at 8pm and it was a twelve hour flight. Then a four hour layover in San Francisco then another 5 hour flight. Somehow, in my mind, this meant that (as it was dark outside that window) it must be late Wednesday night and, as we landed in New York just after midnight, it must be the wee small hours of Thursday. Yes?

No, somehow we managed to travel back in time. Like when Superman spins the earth backwards to save Lois. We flew in to yesterday and arrived today, which should have been tomorrow.

What this all means is that instead of having just Thursday to finish my Rhinebeck knitting before hiring a car to drive to Kingston, NY on Friday (New Yorkers might want to stay off the roads that day, don’t say you weren’t warned!) I have an extra day! This is a great relief as even with the most barbaric blocking I don’t think my wrap is going to wrap me anytime soon.