NYS Sheep and Wool ’08, Baby!

If it’s late October, you know what that means? My birthday! Oh, wait… sorry, a couple more days until that 😉 Ahem. Well, if yo’ure a knitter, it means Rhinebeck (a.k.a. New York State Sheep & Wool Festival). Last year was the first time I went and it was so much fun. This year I went on Sunday instead of Saturday and Drew came to help with the boys. Honestly, there was so much stuff for the kids to do I think we ended up doing more of that than anything else! Last year I got there first thing and it was a madhouse. Some of the lines were so long you’d think they were rabid fans lined up for Celine Dion tickets, not sock yarn! Things seemed a little calmer this year, probably because it wasn’t the first day. That was nice on one hand, on the other some of the booths seemed picked over by the time I got to them. I’d been looking forward to revisited Briar Rose Fibers but nothing was really striking my fancy.

I came home with a tiny haul, as you can tell. Take a look at what I bought last year. Granted, some of that was for Secret Pal stuff, but still. I’m happy with my purchases though — a scarf kit to knit a scarf that appears to be woven (it came with three balls of Plymouth Alpaca Boucle), and two pairs of earrings from the Gem & Mineral Show that was also taking place at the fairgrounds. I didn’t get to see Yarn Harlot or any of the authors who were signing books. It was a little challenging with the boys, even with Drew’s help. I felt guilty everytime I went off to look at yarn and he was left watching the kids. He was actually bummed that I didn’t buy more stuff, if you can believe that! There’s always next year. I had wanted to get a needle felting kit but decided not to. I guess in a way it’s all for the best that I didn’t go too crazy. I really should work through some of my stash first.

But still it was a fun day. The kids’ stuff was awesome. Jake *loved* the Mad Science show, the bouncy pirate ship, the juggler, the animals, the Halloween maze… He also was really interested in all the rocks and gems at the Gem & Mineral show. Kids were able to “dig” out 6 rocks for free, so he did that and then we let him pick out a few at a booth. Some really pretty ones! I’m almost inspired to build a light box so I can try taking some photos of them. Noah was still too small to appreciate anything except for the animals, really, so that was hard. And of course you know how the day ended, so that kind of put a damper on things, but what are you going do?