and now for round II

Posted on Posted in book reviews/events

i left off in the middle of saturday, as i was heading out into the fair to see all the excitement.

first stop—our annual knitspot meetup, an hour that all of us in the knitspot ravelry group and our clubhouse look forward to each year. it’s just a casual get-together, where we get to meet in person, chat, and admire each other’s knitwear

complete with yummy victuals contributed by participants (though one does NOT have to bring food in order to attend!). we actually had more knitters than this at the aprty, but getting everyone together in one photo is like herding cats.

we kind of leave the food up to chance and each year, we end up with a wonderful spread—be sure to join us next time; everyone needs a little time out from yarn fumes and this is the perfect resting spot.

i think anyone there would agree that the cutest FO of the year was worn by our dear little julia—a mini-me sprossling, knit by her mom, kristin; SO cute!! and she seems to like it, which is the nicest compliment.

after lunch it was back to work in the briar rose booth for me, where the afternoon went by in a flash. kim and megan helped chris and roger close up the tent while amy and i went for a much-needed run, all through the streets of rhinebeck. it was wonderful and head-clearing to get out and move; we did over seven miles before we knew it.

we all met up back at the hotel for a nice dinner of pizza and a well-deserved beer, which gave us the opportunity to knit and socialize with this nice group of knitters from pennsylvania.

kim made friends for life by passing around a box of bee stings left to us at the picnic by susan, who buys them at her local family bakery in.
i saw a full box of them sitting on the picnic blanket at the end of lunch and scooped it up to share later—i was not letting those wander off into the unknown (but there are only so many i can eat myself).

these buttery, honey toffee confections are, well—the bees knees (seriously; if you were there to taste one, you would not be groaning over my pun). i just love them.

and apparently, i’m not the only one who thinks so!

once we had distributed the joy to all who wanted to partake, it was time for kim and me to carry ourselves off to bed in our cottage cross the river. we sank thankfully under our cozy covers for a good night’s sleep to get ready for another day of festival fun.

sunday morning found us back at the briar rose booth to see if our help was needed during the early morning rush. we weren’t really needed, but this lovely lady and her son buttonholed me for an opinion on choosing yarn—what could i do?

joy (left) wants to knit a sweater for her son scott (right; lucky guy), and they were a little overwhelmed by the options in the briar rose booth (understandable; everything is beautiful). we figured out which yarn bases would work with the patterns they had picked out and then set to work finding a color scott likes.

we all finally settled on the denim blue, but then another beauty batted its lashes at scott and he started waffling. kim quickly descended on the situation and let him know what was what—that the denim blue was perfect and it would be foolish to consider anything else. i think i wasn’t the only one to thank her afterward, haha

after that, chris and her family had everything under control (of course), which left kim and me free to raom for the day.

we looked at llamas and sheep

and they looked back at us.

we wandered in and out of all the barns, grazing the yarn offerings that were left after saturday’d record crowds picked most of the booths pretty clean.

we had a lovely conversation with arturo, who creates the most needle-felted beautiful creatures. here he is working on a pair of goats, which just happened to come home with me at day’s end.

ravelry jess stopped us as we were moseying along to say hello and share some newly-minted photos of baby eloise; megan was about to faint form a fangirl moment, so i took the opportunity to get a photo of them together. if i had known we’d be joined in the next moment by mary heather and sarah, i’d have waited!

i didn’t leve the fair with many purchases—partly because i worked instead of shopping and partly because i was more careful this year about taking home too much. what i have doesn’t even fill one tote bag all the way—i will share what i did bring home as soon as i can get photos. silly me, i sent it all back with david on monday before taking pictures. i know there was a bunch of briar rose and few things from miss babs and spirit trail as well. i will be sure to tell you all about it when i get home next week.

next stop was NYC, where i will be teaching this weekend at the yarn co. on the upper west side, where i will be teaching lace, finishing, and sweater fitness classes tonight through sunday—still some spots left; sign up here.

now i am on my old stomping grounds in brooklyn; kim and i arrived here monday and have been exploring parts of new york city she hadn’t seen before. i dragged her all over the place yesterday—we covered over twelve miles on foot before landing at a fine dinner with our friends agnes and cathy.

kim flew home this afternoon, but i’ve got plenty of wonderful photos to share from our travels—stay tuned for the next update.

until then, happy trails!

15 thoughts on “and now for round II

  1. Now that Mr. Knitspot is a knitter, do you think it was safe to send all that yarn home with him undocumented?!

  2. Oh Anne,
    You are such a wonderful lady, I can not begin to express how you & the gorgeous Kim have enriched my Rhinebeck experience. This has truly been a bucket list holiday, I am still high on yarn fumes and brushes with knitting royalty… The amazing Chris from Briar Rose, what a wonderful lady( I thought I might hyperventilate during the first of my many fan girl dorky moments this weekend) meeting Jess was so awesome!! and who can forget our Stephen West sighting in his knitted drawstring shorts 😉
    Btw blog readers -I am only holding the empty pastry box -I definately did not eat it all on my own… Just sayin.. 😉

  3. Wow! I keep reading about Rhinebeck and am totally jonesing to be there. Thanks for shariing the fun!

  4. What a wonderful time you guys had! I am SO jealous! And to think there are pastries to go with it all!!

  5. Great company, gorgeous yarns and yummy food sounds like a near perfect combination. I hope that I’ll be able to experience Rhinebeck for myself sometime.

  6. So enjoyed this glimpse of Rhinebeck through your lens and thoughts!

    I agree with Danielle: You are an amazing woman to help tend a very busy booth all day and still have the energy for a long run!

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