very very brief (ok, so I don't do brief very well...)

Wednesday - with a bang

Met up with Brooke and Maia and Rachael for coffee.
Taught class.
Sigga Sif arrived on a plane from Reykjavík and met me after class. Went home and talked into the wee hours of the night.

Thursday:

Had a slow start, drank lots of coffee, knit, talked and then wandered around Soho and the village for a while before heading to dinner at a friend's house. Once again, things went on into the wee hours of the night. Sigga and I spent a lot of time wondering if we were making any sense, due to exhaustion. Still, lots of fun.

Friday:

Began the pilgrimage to the vicinity of Rhinebeck, not so much fun with the drive in the rain, but not too bad either. Had a rather relaxing day all in all. Saw fall leaves, pumpkins (Sigga took pictures) and then met up with Ms. Habetrot and friend (a furry one), who were staying with us for the weekend. The conspiracy to teach Sigga to spin began with a bang, Ms. H being a consummate spindling teacher (I just stood on the sidelines absorbing the incredibly slick and expert teaching style that I was watching in action).

Sigga learns to spin on a borrowed Forrester spindle (she got her own the very next day).

Let's just say that she took to it like a fish to water. I honestly think this has little to do with Sigga being a physicist and can rather be credited to the expertise of her teacher and her own genetic memory for this skill. Not to mention the fact that she's a very very smart lady.

The best part? She couldn't stop.

Saturday:

I can't say we woke up bright and early, but we did drink lots of coffee before we hit the road for the fairgrounds. Sigga did a marvelous job with her first US driving experience.

Sigga bought: a Forrester spindle of her very own. Roving, roving and more roving. [She has very good taste - anyone who learned to spin less than 12 hours ago and can bee-line for some Chasing Rainbows roving from across a crowded building doesn't need any help, really.]

Sigga also kissed a sheep -

I bought: Well, lots. A new Forrester spindle, an akha spindle (which I have no idea how to use but I figured that can be worked out at a later date), and more wool than I could carry in my sizeable tote bag. Rhinebeck, Day One - a resounding success.

Sigga learned to ply on Saturday night, again with the help of Ms. Habetrot. Because I am an idiot (either that or there may have been some single malt involved, I ain't saying), I did not take any pictures of the look of absolute glee on Sigga's face when she plyed up her first yarn. Or the yarn for that matter. Just trust me, she was happy, the yarn was fantastic for her very first spinning, and all was well.

Sunday:

Brighter and earlier than Saturday, but still not arriving at the festival for the opening bell (so to speak), we arrived with A Mission (or several). I'm not sure that they were well-defined, but they did involve more shopping. Of course, Sunday was the day we ran into dozens and dozens of people, all day, in short succession, while trying to be good festival consumers. Can I please extend my apologies to anyone we ran into and then disapeared from on Sunday? I felt like I was being rude right and left but there was too much festival and too little time.

Still, I managed to buy another spindle - there was quite the convergeance of spindlers in the  Carolina Homespun booth, and I'm pretty sure we all bought Ledbetter (someone send me a link, please?) spindles, which are fabulous. [Score: three spindles total for the festival for me. Sigga bought two, adding a lightweight Woodchuck spindle to what we can now refer to as her collection.] I bought more wool - no one should be suprised - and we had a wonderful time. The weather was perfect, the festival was great, and the lanolin high was quite intense.

Arrived home at the stroke of midnight Sunday, and there I'll end (for now).

Comments

[DebbieB]

I'm glad you had fun. Especially glad you pulled Sigga into the fold. Pictures of your new spindles, please. :) Well, and the wool, of course.

[Carrie]

Wow, sounds wonderful. Sigh. Someday I'll get there!

[Sonja]

Great times. Wish I was there, but I still don't want to learn how to spin! he he

[Carole]

I'm glad we bumped into each other, even if it was only for a moment. The cardigan looked terrific.

[Kathy]

Great to see you, albeit briefly, in the Foxfire booth. I can't imagine a better place to meet!

[Kim]

Good to see you as always :-)

[Cheryl]

Can you believe we didn't bump into each other once?? How did that happen?

[Laurie]

Another enabled spindler. The beat goes on.

[claudia]

I was sad that I didn't see you.

[Lee Ann]

I was also very sad that I didn't see you.

I bought a Forrester too. Odd how we both did that last year AND this year...Which one did you get? I got the one with the eerie pine trees and birds. They're not supposed to be eerie, but they are. :-)

Also got a Tabachek plying spindle. I bought no fibre. See??? You should have found me and smacked me upside the head for that at the very least.

[Michelle]

The weather was perfect, wasn't it? Maybe a little on the warm side, but no complaints here. Hope to see you soon.

[Christy]

It was so good to see you. I didn't think you were rude. Not even a little bit.

[Linda]

Awesome! One of these years...

[Aubrey]

Dang. I want to live up there and go to Rhinebeck. (I've been vicariously visiting through all the blogs....) The show I was at this past weekend was it's own brand of Mecca, but I would have rather been in NY. HUGS

[Risa]

It was good to see you at the festival. I didn't notice the disappearing, but then again I had serious shopping to do myself. Nice work getting Sigga into the fold!

[elizabeth]

WHERE are the cardigan pictures? :o)

[Beth S.]

The Spindicate claims another victim! :-) Good work! :-)

It was so lovely to see you again, and meet Sigga, and just generally frolic among the fleeces. :-) But I still haven't entirely recovered... I have that hit-by-a-truck feeling. (Of course I did just travel halfway around the world, but I think I'd be having post-festival exhaustion anyway.)

[Rachel H]

My shopping this year was mainly directed by my 6 year old companion. So I came home with several rocks, and some needle felting kits to turn into a variety of critters for him. No yarn, no roving, no spindles. Ah well. It was still fun and I'm glad I got to see you, however briefly.

[Manise]

Great enabling! Though disappointed and sad that I never saw you. Oh well.....

[Sil]

I'm sad not have seen you guys this weekend! I even feared you'd had a change of plans and missed the show. Good you know you wreaked a bit of havoc.

[Cindy D]

Great to see you and meet Sigga Sif. Here are some links to spindle pictures:

http://cindyknits.blogspot.com/2007/10/more-rhinebeck.html

http://carolinahomespun.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=CH&Product_Code=KCL-SPIN&Category_Code=Hand-Spinning

[elisa]

I was just glad to see you for the brief snippets of time that I did!

And please to post a picture of said Ledbetter spindle...I bought one spindle this year, and it was from Dave. It makes me happy. :)