Rainy Rhinebeck

Another Rhinebeck has come and gone, and yet again it was a great day with friends, fiber, and fun. This year we went on Saturday, and our plan is always leave in the carpool around 6:30 am, get there just before the doors open, and then spend the morning there. This year we were done with our purchases around 12:15, so we grabbed our Buns Burgers and headed home. As usual, our matching sweaters were a hit, although with this more muted color and 3/4 if us having some sort of secondary color, it was a little less obvious we were a group then in previous years. This year we also ended up spending a little bit of time with one of our friends who most of us hadn’t seen in years, and ran into the newest member of our in person knitting club, who has just moved to CT and was there with her DC knitting friends.

Despite the title of this post, the rain didn’t bother us too much. It was never incredibly hard, and we all had rain coats or umbrellas. There’s also enough barns that we didn’t have to spend too long out there. That did make some of the barns VERY crowded though. It always can be a little tight, but it felt VERY claustrophobic at points. Oh well, we made it through and made it out and still had a good time. I felt like I didn’t buy too much, but as you see from the pile below I’m definitely wrong about that. 😂 But I do feel like I was a bit more intentional with my purchases this year.

The one thing I knew I wanted heading into the day was a Stitched By JessaLu project bag. I actually have several of these, but they’re also so well made and the patterns are really fun. I did spring for the XL wedge bag, I have two of the large ones and they’re perfect for shawls but get a little tight for sweaters, and this one should be perfect. I couldn’t say no to those cute little swear-y unicorns. The other big purchase was the green Neighborhood Fiber Co yarn. At one of the first booths we stopped at, I saw a gorgeous rendition of the Window to My Soul by Joji Locatelli. It was made as a pullover using mohair on the bottom and looked like a super light and airy top that would be fun to make and wear. You can see the Ravelry pattern page for that piece here. I feel bad because I didn’t 100% love any of the colors that were at that booth, but I took a picture of the pattern and kept an eye out for some coordinating fingering and mohair/suri to make it with. I found the perfect color at Neighborhood. I LOVE how the gold highlights really come out in the mohair, and the sage-y green will look beautiful on the top. Once my Geogradient and Maema are done, I’m diving right in to this!

Those were two large purchases, which is why I felt like I didn’t buy too much, because I only bought yarn at 3 other booths! And two of them were from vendors that always have great value. The variegated single ply DK on the bottom left above will become a brioche hat, and each of those skeins was only $15. The green and purple at the top are just great solid coordinating sock skeins to have in stash, and at only $10 each really feel like a steal. Probably the only “unnecessary”/”splurge” purchase was the White Birch Fiber Arts. But I LOVE all those self striping colorways and it will become socks eventually.

So yes, that’s Rhinebeck! I’ll be honest, I found it pretty exhausting this year. Not sure if that was just because of the early start or the rain or what. But getting to spend the day with my friends and be inspired by lots of cool crafts is always worth it.