Posted by Stitchy McYarnpants On October - 19 - 2005   ShareThis

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OK, first off, I just have to say that I had a blast last night! I love impromptu fun and when you get a bunch of knit-bloggers together, you are guaranteed a good time. Which perhaps makes it not so impromptu. Implied impromptu fun, maybe? Anyway, we rocked the house at Willow Books in Acton. So much so that I think we made them really nervous. I was lucky enough to get a seat right up front because I was alone and there were some single spots available. While sitting there waiting for the reading to start, the bookstore owner was talking to one of his employees about the number of people that were in attendance. Apparently he hadn’t expected such a huge turnout and was more than a little gobsmacked. He reminded me of every uptight shopkeeper in every Three Stooges episode. And the woman he was speaking with said “Never underestimate women and what they’ll do!” My head did a quick series of 360 degree spins and came to rest pointing in their direction. My eyes narrowed and turned a strange luminescent green and sparked with small licks of flame. And from a place deep in my belly emanated a low, menacing growl. “Knitters.” I said. “Never underestimate Knitters.” They backed away, stuttering and sputtering and falling over piles of useless, non-knitting-related books.

Ok, that only happened in my head.

Anyhoo, the reading was fantastic and the stories were great. A group of us lingered afterwards and ended up going out for a drink at a nearby restaurant. They seemed as perplexed as the shopkeeper. Must be something in the water. Or a lack of wool in their diets. Something. It’s as though they all possessed knitting needles, but kept them firmly lodged up their posteriors for safe-keeping. In attendance at the after party were CarolesKnitting Carole, BookishGirl Wendy, ObsessionDuJour Kellee, SandysKnitting Sandy, EtherKnitter Laurie, Knitigator Kathy, Stoneview Julie, WoolyBuns Chris, Woolyheaded Ruth (I wish Chris and Ruth were a couple so each could introduce the other as their better half) , MedStudentWhoKnits Kristen, Yarn Harlot Stephanie and a few ladies who’s names I have woefully forgotten. I believe two were Linga Roghaar and Molly Wolf, the creators of the KnitLit books. And there was someone wearing the most fantastic pair of blue socks with purple cables. I failed to introduce myself properly and didn’t get her name. She is now and forever will be in my mind “the woman with those fantastic socks.” And also, there was Non-Blogging Sharon who NEEDS to get a blog. What a great lady! Hop to it, Lady Jane. Now the pressure is on her to either make us happy by joining our fold or disappointing us by not sharing stories of knitting and bees and baby cows in the living room.

So now that I’ve recapped Rhinebeck Redux, let me get to other one. The one with acres of fiber.

Well, I’ll echo what everyone else has been saying. It. Was. Wicked. Fun. Cara’s Blogger Meetup was a thing of beauty. I wish I weren’t so lousy with names because I met loads of great people. I do know that my Bloglines list has gotten quite a bit longer since that fateful day, and it was already honking huge. There were so many people that I started feeling a little overwhelmed. I’m actually a really shy person. I was always the kid hiding her face, sitting alone on the corner, and never saying a word in class. One day I just decided to pretend not to be shy and it usually works pretty well. But man, there were just so many people. I fear if my mother had been there, I may have been clinging to her leg for security. But I think I managed not to say anything stupid, and I did manage to remember most of the people I met, if not by their real names, then by their blog names. I was shocked that so many people knew who I was, even though I didn’t know who they were. There are a lot more knit bloggers than I ever imagined! YAY! So, to everyone I met, it was my extreme pleasure. To everyone I saw who I had already known, it was great to see you. To those I haven’t met yet, look behind you! Boo! Just kidding. Or am I?

OK, on to the fair. Well, how about I just show you what I bought? I’m actually in a bit of a rush and Kellee has taken responsibility for documenting our drive, which required a hand-written map from a guy in a wine store. You see, we were headed to my darling cousin’s house in New Paltz on Friday night to spend the evening. They live past a bridge. The bridge was apparently ok, but the road past it was now a good old fashioned swimming hole. Kellee’s rocket car cannot, apparently, defy gravity. Some rocket car. pffft. So a nice man drew up a map. Kellee has it posted at her place. He went so far as to draw little lines around the streetlights to give the appearance of radiant light. He also made cute sound effects as he drew the blinking light. He got us to Elaine’s without a hitch. We should send that guy a thank you card. I think the store name is on the back of the map. Hang on to that thing, Kellee!

OK, so I didn’t go too nuts because I had already spent a bunch of my money at Webs, but here goes, in order of purchase, even.

Maple Creek Merino/Silk, colorway Crocus. I’m a sucker for green and purple. I can’t help myself. This is ridiculously soft and for all you yarn sniffers out there it smells really good, too. Not too detergenty, just . . . nice. It does a nostril good. This will become some sort of shawly/scarfy thing. Maybe a Clapotis? It might be too fine. I’ll have to do some research. Mike offered to provide a nice, fluffy background for the photo. Any spinners want to take a try at him?

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~sigh~ Here is some Jamie Harmon wool/angora. It’s a 50/50 split and is just gorgeous. I only got one skein for myself and am making a skinny little scarf to wear in the office. I want it near my neck and facial region at all times. It’s soooo soft. I was knitting it at the book reading last night and one of the authors said he kept looking at it while he was reading because he wanted to see what color would come out next. It is a much fondled yarn, deservedly so. I also got a skein in beige/reds/blues/greens for my sister-in-law. I was going to get that one for myself because I wanted to get away from the purple and green thing, but I just couldn’t. Love the purple and green.

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Here is a little salt pot from Bell Pottery, who had a booth in the 2-story barn, I think. My cousin in New Paltz has a lot of their pieces, She even has a whole shower tiled with this pattern. It slowly works from day to night as it moves across the shower. Amazing. (Someday, these will‚ be in my bathroom or kitchen. Oh yes. They will be mine.)

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Here is some Potpourri Yarn for my mom. It’s fiber content is “A Little Bit of Everything”. This is a lousy picture, but it’s a very delicate rose and yellow. I hope she likes it. It’ll make a pretty scarf.

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Wow, that’s it from the festival, I think. But we did stop at the Morehouse Merino store on the way home and I had to get something for the babies. I got this little sheepskin for the kitties to sleep on (and fight over, I’m sure). Here are Dot and Chi-Chi examining it. Look at how her paws sink right in. Plush, baby!
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And here is Dot digging in. I’m curious so see if she sucks on it or not. It still smells sheepy, but in a nice, clean way. And there’s still lanolin in there. Maybe this will curb her need for fiber . . . Time will tell.

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24 Responses

  1. Kristy says:

    The West Coast needs a Rhinebeck. I have spent the last three days reading all of the lovely posts and it makes me want to back up my handsome prince, the puppies and all my yarn and head east!

    Glad to see you are feeling better!

  2. Kristy says:

    pack up, not back up. So much for proofreading!

  3. Katy says:

    I also felt shy at Rhinebeck but managed to introduce myself to a few people. I wish I could have gone to the book-signing last night, though! Sigh.

  4. Norma says:

    Hey, old shy lady! There I was, standing there like a wallflower (well, I was having a blood sugar crisis and trying to do the polite thing of waiting for Teresa) when you came up to me and I said…you know…that stupid thing I said.

    I cracked up at your description of the proprietors of the bookstore. They were quite flustered, I understand! What is UP with those people? (actually, I think the reaction was quite similar way back in the day -ha!- at Lord & Taylor. Those people gotta get a clue!

  5. Leisel says:

    Oh, I’m a sucker for purple and green, too. My entryway and guest bathroom are done up in those colors (well, usually… I broke out some fall decorations, so now it’s more rusty and peachy).

    As long as you’ve got enough yardage, I’m sure the yarn you bought would make a lovely Clapotis. I used fingering weight alpaca for mine. It turned out 15″ wide (along the bias end), and I had to add a few repeats to get enough length, and I used every last bit of it (I had 600 yards). If I’d had more, I might have opted to do another repeat or two of the increase (and decrease) rows in order to get a little more width… maybe. But the fact that it was a finer gauge yarn did not keep it from working.

  6. Deb says:

    I love purple and green, too, and actually, that yarn looks kind of like the roving I got at that very site on Saturday–I wonder if it will look as pretty when I manage to get it spun together?? (grin) I’m sorry I didn’t get to meet you on Saturday, but I WAS there at Cara’s meetup, so we were close anyway!

  7. Cara says:

    So happy to meet you! And glad to facilitate the meet-up – I’m glad it was so successful for everyone.

    Shyness schmyness. You can’t be shy around knitbloggers – we’re all just a nutty, funny bunch!

  8. Fwx Sharon says:

    Mrs. Mcyarnpants,

    I found your blog yesterday…I may now have to join the knittin’ blogsters once I get in a blogging groove. Your yarn pictures made me want to get into my rubbermaid tubs and roll around in all my yarn (no I’mnot really a freak.)…instead I’ll do a few rows on each of my 17 projects laying around.

  9. Ruth says:

    It WAS a lot of fun last night, wasn’t it? I missed Cara’s gathering at Rhinebeck (I was there, but couldn’t remember where everyone was gathering), and had been really sad about that … but last night more than made up for it.

    The blue-socks-with-purple-cables lady is my friend, Lucia — also blogless, but hopefully she’ll take the plunge soon.

  10. Susan says:

    Oh… Pretty purple and greem, I’m a sucker for those colors also.

  11. Rabbitch says:

    Yum. Yum to all of it. I wanna go to Rhinebeck … waaa! We could stand there together by the wall, looking all tough and stuff and really being too shy to say boo.

    Are you thinking of plying the first skein of stuff as being too fine? I’d say send it to me but you’d never get it back because I’m a pig *g*

    Well no. I’m not that evil. Yet.

  12. Carole says:

    Great job describing Tuesday night – especially the fantasy with Mr. Crankypants and his staff.
    I’m working on Sharon about the blog. I think I’ve got her convinced that she needs to have a blogger’s part at her house to kick off her new block. Slick, eh?

  13. ErLeCa says:

    Looks like you had quite the time at Rhinebeck, sorry I missed you! Nice haul though…

  14. Juno says:

    Hee. Glad you found some stuff. Those black and white tiles are stunning.

    You really think giving a cat something new will distract her from whatever precious thing of yours she likes to attack? Let me know how that works out.
    She’s cute with the sheepskin, though.

  15. Kim says:

    Aw! Your cats are cute. I kind of want a fleece thing for myself.

    Rhinebeck looked so awesome, I’m jealous!

  16. Lucia says:

    Aw, Ruth, you do like to suck all the mystery out of life, don’t you? My socks and I were honored to meet you, Stitchy (see, I can’t remember your real name either), and all the other lovely bloggers there.

  17. Kristy says:

    I must have the recipe for that felted bear in your finished objects. I have never even tried needlefelting but I am in LOVE with that little guy!!

  18. Kristen says:

    I spied that beautiful scarf from across the way at Willows and couldn’t figure out if you were changing yarns each new color; it’s beautiful and I feel like I’ve been let in on a sort of secret knowing that it’s all one ball of yarn…

  19. Laurie says:

    We were so lucky to have that Tuesday evening extension. The turnout was over double compared to the first reading/signing. No wonder he started with the conniptions.

    Always good to see you. But weren’t you a little….restrained..at Rhinebeck in your stash enhancement?

  20. Tiggs says:

    You’re soooo lucky you got to go to the festival! I only live an hour away and I wasn’t able to get there. No money and lots of good yarn and fun stuff (plus hoards of rain) makes for a bad combination
    :( perhaps next year…

  21. Anonymous says:

    As Leisel says, it’s easy to change the width and/or length of the Clap. Just make sure your yarn unravels easily – mine didn’t and it was a royal PITA.
    /Monika

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