Rhinebeck 2009 - New York Sheep and Wool

We had a total blast on Saturday. We saw a lot of the festival, but didn't get to all of it.

Georgia and I watched some sheep herding, and got up close and personal with some sheep dogs. They were rather awesome. Very friendly and sweet. Of course, I don't have any photos of that.

Then we got stuck in a bunch of really enormous crowds pretty much everywhere. I didn't take any pictures of that, as I couldn't even get my hand to my pocket for my phone (forgot the actual camera, go me!)

In one of the rooms, Georgia and I saw some weavers, and they let Georgia do some weaving. My child was totally obsessed with both the weaving and the spinning. I told her I would be completely thrilled if she wants to start spinning yarn for me. :)

She wants a full on spinning wheel. I told her we'd start with a spindle.

Here's Georgia weaving (She did all the green areas):




I also really wanted to meet Ysolda Teague (who I think I've mentioned multiple times on this blog). However, she was in disguise as "Bob" the Ravelry mascot. Here are Georgia and I with Ysoda/Bob

Here is a picture of my favorite sheep. He was very cranky:


Georgia was entranced with the llamas (or alpaca? I don't know which one this is) and got to pet a few of the very friendly ones:


And I bought a whole LOT of beautiful yarn from Briar Rose. Of course, I had to stand in line for 40 minutes to get it, but I think it was worth it. I'm starting my first project (a mystery project) with it tonight. YAY! Their stuff is soooooooooooo beautiful, and inexpensive. The people who owned the place were supernice too. I am more than happy to give them as much of my business as I can. I'll post some pics of the yarn soon. (oh, and it was all SUPER soft. And it wasn't all merino. I bought some of my first blue-faced leicester wool. Sweet!)

All in all it was a great experience. It was very overwhelming and there were tons of people there. I don't really deal well with crowds, and neither did my friend Brady, who graciously drove us up there. But we had a good time, and I'm very glad we kept our time there short, because I would have either strangled somebody, or spent way too much money, or both.

HAPPY day. Now I wanna go home and roll around in all my new yarn.