No Longer a Rhinebeck Virgin

Boy am I scared to see what kind of hits I get with that post title!

Yup this was my first year of fiber festivals - first MD and now Rhinebeck...and now I'm hooked and am looking forward to next year already. Of course, the main reason it was so much fun was the company I went up with. The lovely Carrie graciously drove me, Jess and Virginia, along the way we met up with the other convoy of Spiders Steph, Jess, Abbie, Veronique, and Lisa. When we got there we ran into some of the other spiders - Nancy (blogless), Amanda, Katie, Iraida, Julsey...ALMOST everyone - our little group is not so little...lol.

Along the way we ran into so many people I am not going to attempt to remember so don't take offense - but I was in fiber euphoria and I mostly remember sheep. It was great meeting everyone although I didn't get to meet a number of bloggers I really wanted to - next year I am going to be more organized and make plans beforehand.

Now you've probably seen pics of the fairgrounds on all the other blogs - so I'll move on to the haul. Amazingly most of the day my money was in my pocket and my bags were empty...but...then I came to the Little Barn tent. Nancy and I broke away from the spiders for a bit and made our way into the tent and I could feel the money melting in my pocket and my bags grow heavy even before I picked up my first item. Needless to say I bought a LOT of fiber.



It's not the best pic so I'll give you a run down of what is there:

- 2 lbs of Commercial Grade Cashmere - super soft, It says it's 60% cashmere, I have no idea what the other 40% is but I really don't care (one lb is for my friend Steph in AZ)
- 1 lb of commercial grade Angora - 80% angora
- 1/2 lb silk/merino
- 1/2 lb angora/merino
- 1 lb of black premium alpaca
- 1/2 lb of purple alpaca to be carded with purple wool for mittens I think
- 1 lb of Mulberry silk

Can we say luxury! You'll also notice a couple of skeins of yarn in the pic here is a close up:



2 skeins of Handmaiden Sea Silk...it is amazing. Michelle brought them for me all the way from Canada! Mama-e and I got 2 hanks each - I wasn't expecting it to be so soft and delish. Now I have to figure out what to do with them.

From 8:30 in the morning on Sat. to 1 am when I got home it was a non-stop blast! I was so tired when I got on the train for my last leg home but not sleepy enough to stop me from using my brand new Golding spindle with some cashmere!



Here's the group pic...some were missing but you get the idea.