Rhinebeck 2023 Recap

 

One of the best aspects of moving back to the East Coast is that for the first time since I started attending the NY Sheep and Wool festival, I didn't have to start off the weekend jetlagged, exhausted and stressed out from a red eye flight, followed by having to pick up a rental at the airport at the asscrack of dawn and then try to concentrate on driving through insane traffic.

 

This time I just drove part way to Philly and spent the night at my stamp friend's apartment overlooking Rittenhouse Square.

 

We had a terrific seafood dinner at Devon and breakfast at K'Far, definitely my favorite Israeli cafe in Philly.

 

After retrieving Amber from Astoria, where she now lives, we stopped for the best pizza ever at Aaron Butkus' pizzeria in Craryville.  Some people know Aaron as the lead singer of the CTxHC band, Death Threat.  I just think of him as my ex-BF, Noah's older brother whom I briefly lived with in Canton, CT along with CJ from Hatebreed.  

 

Anyway, we checked into Mirbeau and everything was perfect and exactly as expected.

Already high, the standards were slightly improved with complimentary cookies, champagne, sleep masks, sleep spray and chocolate truffles.

 

The more I reflect upon this trip, the more it feels equally about dining traditions as fiber arts.

 

We hit up Rhinebeck Bagels every single day.  The service always prompt and the quality consistent.

'

Despite the rain, Indie Untangled was rad!  I found exactly what I wanted, fancy stitch markers and yarn from 29 Bridges.

The swag bag was overflowing with cute little goodies.

My Ugg transparent rainboots were the smartest thing I packed.

 

As far as the shitshow now universally known as Wool & Folk goes, all I'm gonna say is that although we did have to illegally park, at least Amber and I were totally prepared and our rental wasn't towed.  We had our camper chairs and cooler.  We posted up under the podcast tent as soon as we arrived.  We even bumped into my boss Debbie, co-worker Keyser and friends Angela and Kelly from the weekly DWW morning meet ups.

While the marketplace was a total nightmare, we still thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

I didn't even feel comfortable documenting the Crying Jordan grimaces of all of the vendors so I took photos of these beautiful hydrangeas outside instead.

 

Because the marketplace was so overwhelming, the only thing I purchased was sweater quantity of the Wandering Flock 10th anniversary colorway.

At the actual NY Sheep and Wool festival, the only yarn I purchased was from Periwinkle Sheep.

I also bought some awesome sheep themed letterpressed stationery and ephemera and the Grand Shetland Adventures Knits book by MJ Mucklestone and Gudrun Johnston.

I picked up a book about Bargello a while ago from Cool Chris back in SF and I was very intrigued by this booth at the festival.

 

I've already shared many of my Rhinebeck photos in previous posts and this is all I have left.  The green Drover sweater sample was hanging in the Neighborhood Fibers booth.  I recently purchased a kit for it after winning a $75 CAD gift card to Ancient Arts from the PomPom virtual launch party.

 

Here's Alex and Susan participating in the drop spindle contest.  Amber and I both loved the drape on this Tidal sweater.

 

The final photo is from an incredible sushi and sashimi feast with my penpal, Suzette.  I spent the night at her place in Maplewood, NJ in an effort to break up my drive home.  Her neighborhood has so many impressive Halloween decorations.  We had such a nice time catching up.  Now that I'm back on the East Coast, I really need to visit my friends up north more frequently.