Fiber and Fried Pickles

On Saturday, October 20th, I spent the day at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY.  Sarah Punderson (aka the designer Sarah Montie who I interviewed in the Lunch Truck podcast episode) invited me to join her and her friend Elizabeth on a bus trip run by Carriage Yarns in Ocean, NJ.  Even with the motion sickness on the ride up

BEST DAY EVER!

Right before we arrived, Sarah mentioned that Melanie of the Savvy Girls podcast would be in the book signing area with her CD Knitting all the Day.  We thought we’d stop by and find out when she’d be there but were lucky enough to catch her before it got too busy.  She signed our CDs, and I got a brief interview with her that will appear on the next podcast.

Not a cloud in the sky, temperatures in the 60s, and the second thing Sarah wanted to score was deep fried pickles:

We asked the woman serving these less than healthy bites if they were vegan, and they were! I admit, they weren’t nearly as greasy as the fries I got to settle my stomach – the batter was similar to tempura and the pickles not overly tart.  A great way to fuel up for some fiber purchases!

All 3 of us were more interested in indie spinners and dyers than the more commercial products on sale at the front of the festival, so we walked back to the smaller tents where I found this amazing kid mohair from Lis Barsuglia-Madsen of Scandinavia Weave and Knit:

I plan to make Joelle Hoverson’s Very Pretty Lace Scarf from her book More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts which I bought in the city last March.  Elizabeth purchased a few skeins from Periwinkle Farm that were gorgeous – she bought some of their yarn at Rhinebeck last year.  Sarah got some handy stitch markers that had notations like “k2tog” and “ssk” on the back which I liked but at $20 was too big a hit to my budget.

After our first fiber purchases, we headed over to the Ravelry meetup where I met Ysolda Teague:

… and Stephen West – nicest man EVER!

After that meetup, we wandered around looking at more fiber goodness.  Even though it was October, it was warm and crowded so we went over to the podcaster meetup.  I finally met Maria from Subway Knits at Melanie’s CD signing and met Laura and Leslie from TheKnitGirllls podcast as well as KnitPurlGirl who listens to me – so thrilled – at this meetup. The Ravelry and podcaster meetups showed me that buttons aren’t passé – they’re a lot like the pins my kids used to collect in DisneyWorld.  I collected a few & they are now on my bulletin board in my classroom (yes, that’s Loop Philly next to the pins – my favorite yarn store!):

All this chatting and shopping made us hungry, so we found a tamale stall that Sarah and Elizabeth ate at last year.  They were a bit unorganized and cooking their food off site, but since the wait at their booth was only 20 minutes and it was over an hour everywhere else, we dined there.  Block Factory Tamales, along with quite a few other vendors, offered vegetarian and vegan options.  I got the vegan shiitake pot pie and Elizabeth and Sarah got the shepherd’s pot pie.  We washed it all down with apple cider (it’s October after all).

Fully fueled, we went back to shopping only to realize that that all Sarah purchased were those stitch markers!  She finally bought a skein at Socks that Rock after enabling Elizabeth and I to buy quite a bit of fiber.  I discovered some amazing hand dyed and hand spun bluefaced leicester in a colorway called Beachcomber by Catfeather Farm:

Jamie, the spinner/dyer, doesn’t have a website and was actually just helping out at a friend’s booth.  The friend suggested that she bring along some of her yarn – she told me she really didn’t expect to sell any!  All 3 of us oohed and aahed over the amazingly colorful and soft hanks of yarn.  If I were rich, I would’ve bought every one!  When she told me she never got to see what her yarn became, I asked for her email so I could send along a picture of what this becomes.  On the way home, Sarah got out her trusty iPad and looked up possible patterns but didn’t come up with Laura of the KnitGirlls doldrums cowl pattern.  Of course, I started that Sunday morning and I’ll post updates as this project moves along!

The only downside of the trip was that it was so short! I can’t wait to go back next year and know that Vogue Knitting Live will not be nearly as exciting for me this year after attending New York Sheep and Wool.  If you haven’t been, make your plans, and I’ll see meet you for some fried pickles and lots of fiber!