One of the reasons I’ve been on such radio silence, getting ready and then recovering from this massive thing!

Well. I brought 80+ pieces to Rhinebeck. Which is nothing for “real” vendors, but for me, it was massive, especially since I’ve been working on my dissertation at the same time.

I was a TINY bit less poleaxed than last year.

I thought enough in advance to get a photo of the booth when it was just set up…

and even more importantly, since I FAILED last year of me, Tsockstsarina and Jennifer who run the booth with the additional help of Patrick (who I don’t seem to have a photo of, bugger).

Getting a photo of these people is insane.

I did manage to get one photo of Thegeorg unlike last year. Though I admit it’s not a very good photo.

Had a delicious dinner with excellent people at a diner place.

In the morning, they let people in FIFTY minutes early. Which made for… a rush. Just before they hit, I got some photos of my stuff up, though only the first batch. Obviously with 80 things, I couldn’t have it all out at once.

The fiber and some yarn

the rest of the yarn

and my stitch markers

Then came…

the seething hoards!

I failed, again, to see everything (apparently the genuine AFLAC duck was there, who knew?) but I did wander around more than last year.

I met a bunch of people for a group shot (not my camera)

And yes, I was wearing my kilt and a double layer wool “ranger” jacket. It was lovely, comfy, and I wasn’t cold at all.

Lots of good people there. My good friends ZaftigWendy (of Yarnivore) and HoneyChild (of HotterFasterBetter art)

Honeychild and I wandered around quite a bit (mostly having horribly inappropriate conversations, which was excellent). We met these adorable little goats.

And the Serta Sheep

And a wensleydale that just begged for love

At the end of the day, for going to dinner and such, I needed to change. Luckily, it’s easy in a kilt. So I changed in the middle of the booth.

Then it was back to the diner for dinner with a different set of friends!

The second day, I aspinnerated the two Cyds, Cyd-Squared?

Don’t they look happy? “OMG, I’m making yarnz!”

Hrm… that’s about it. Oh, we took down the booth and I drove back home (2.5 hours, not bad, yay GPS!) in an ice storm (icky).

Oh, right, phat lootz. I didn’t buy much, I was very restrained. I got a couple pounds of dorset for dyeing, two abbybatts from Carolina Homespun where I was also viciously and mercilessly ASSAULTED by this evil thing.

It’s a Spindlewood, top whorl, laceweight spindle. I don’t know what wood it’s from, as the label had fallen off. I’m told it’s something from the Rosewood family. I also know that it’s a little under 0.5oz. Which for some would be ideal, but it’s totally not the sport of spindle I buy. I really love my 0.8-1.2 range spindles.

But… well… it hummed. Those who know what I mean will understand, and to the rest, lets just say it didn’t give me much choice in the matter. It was sitting next to a *gorgeous* piece made of amboyna burl and birds eye, and yet this one was clearly the one. And I’m loving it. It’s currently working on one of the abbybatts (Merino, Silk, Cashmere).

People often ask if the square whorls cause a problem. The answer is no. It’s basically like having 4 notches, and rim weighting. It spins amazingly long for such a tiny spindle. I love it.

So that’s Rhinebeck.

I’m currently working on reopening and updating the shop. It’ll be a bit. I’ll post when that’s done.

~The Gnome