Mad Hair Day

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.