Rhinebeck Weekend: Part Two

I had such fun last weekend when I went for the first time to Rhinebeck, to attend the New York Sheep & Wool Festival.  The event lived up to to it's reputation.  The crowds were huge, the food lines were ridiculous and the variety of yarn for sale was incredible.  I present to you, my dear friends, some photos I managed to take when I wasn't being caught up in the crowd.

Me and my Rhinebeck sweater

Bartlett Yarns:  Sport

Dragonfly Fibers Gradient Set

Dragonfly Fibers Pixie Yarn:  "Vote"colourway

Harrisville Yarn

Bijou Basin Himalayan Trail Yarn

One of my favourite booths was Fiber Optics which had so many knitted samples.  Here are just a few of them:

Holey Chevrons by Stephen West

Party on My Needles by Joji Locatelli

Lamina Wrap by Ambah O'Brien and On the Spice Market by Melanie Berg

Fiber Optics Paintbox Gradient that came home with me

I also really enjoyed the O-Wool booth and was quite taken by some of their samples:

The Girl In Me in O-Wool 

Balconet Shawl in O-Wool

I couldn't resist this gorgeous yarn and ended up buying some.

I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to attend this festival (and a special thank you to my husband for going with me).  If I ever get to go again here are some tips I want to remember:

Things I Learned As A Newbie:
1.  Although the gates on Saturday don't open until 9a.m. a line up does start to form around 8:00 a.m.  I sat in my car keeping warm until about 8:15 a.m. and when I lined up I wasn't too far back in the line.  The bonus with coming early is you can park quite close to the entrance and then go back and forth to drop things off during the day very easily.
2.  There is more than one entrance.  Figure out what vendor is your top priority to visit first and figure out which entrance is the closest to where you want to go.  
3.  Prepay your entrance fee online before you go.  It saves time.
4.  If you want to get close to Miss Babs yarn (in Building C) you MUST GO RIGHT AWAY.  As a rookie I lined up at the wrong entrance, and by the time I got to Building C I couldn't even get near the booth. The line up was already out the door.  I tried several times during the day to get to Miss Babs, but the crowds continued, and the line up to pay stayed ridiculously long.  I didn't really care that much...I was just curious to see what the fuss was all about.  Best to stay two days next time and visit the booth on the Sunday.  (Same applies for Jennie the Potter).
5.  Go to Rhinebeck with a pre-made list of the basic things you want to walk away with.  There are so many temptations everywhere you look and it really helps to keep some focus.  For example, I knew I wanted a sweater's worth of sport weight yarn and I ended up with O-Wash Sport by O-Wool.  I also have a weakness for fingering weight yarn and I had promised myself not to buy any as I have enough to last me a long time.  The only fingering weight yarn I bought was at the Indy Untangled show and it was Voolenvine Yarn.  How could I resist? Enough said.
6.  Time your lunch early.  I lined up at about 10:45 for the infamous Aba's Falafel and the line up was quite short.  Later when I walked by there was at least an hour wait.
7.  Same for the Apple Cider Donuts.  Don't wait until lunch time.  Why waste precious time in a line when you can be looking at gorgeous yarn?

The infamous Apple Cider Donut

8.  Wear your hand made sweater/shawl/socks etc.  It was so fun to admire everyone's beautiful knitted/crocheted items.
9.  Make sure you spend time going into the town of Rhinebeck.  It is so beautiful and the restaurants are amazing.
10.  Take time to visit all the sheep, alpacas, etc. at the show.  There were sheep shearing events and even a dog show.

11.  And one last tip...next time go also on the Sunday.  From what I hear it is way less crowded.  There were so many knitted samples in all the booths that I would have liked to look at them more closely and take way more photographs.

I will continue to remember many happy moments that I experienced at Rhinebeck.   It was so much fun.  Do you have any tips to add to my list?