NY Sheep & Wool

Could the weather have been any more perfect yesterday for the second day of the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY? I doubt it!

Nice long drive on a beautiful day with my good friend RogueKnits in tow, made the to-and-from worthwhile. And once we arrived, we were like two overstimulated kids in a candy store. I was especially taken by the explosion of felt crafts that were on the scene--amazing what folks can do with fiber!!


First we stopped in the booksigning tent to see a veritable who's-whom of the knit-set with their latest-and-greatest books at the ready to be bought and signed. Signs for the Harlot and Stitchy McYarnpants were up, but saw hide nor hair of them--which did my pocketbook some good being it was the first tent we were in. Didn't want to make an impulse buy--especially one that is knit-centric, considering I'm a true anarchist... a crocheter. Which, I am sad to say, was sorely under represented at this venue.

Be that as it may, I ended up being lured into a rather pleasant conversation with Carol Cypher, a felting artist, who herself is quite the conversation piece! Her ornamented dreadlocks, and ecclectic clothing, pleasant visage, and just overal charm, it was easy to be lured into a lovely chat with her. I stood and flipped through one of the books on her table, "How We Felt: Designs & Techniques From Contemporary Felt Artists." And though I did not buy it at that moment, I probably will eventually put it on my Amazon list.

As we ambled along, another thing caught our eye: Knit-a-Yarn. From what their handouts said:

Knitayarn.com is the only online Web channel built specifically for knitters to share information, post events and happenings of interest, and watch video podcasts featuring people from within the knitting community.

I'll have to check it out tonight, although we missed our opportunity to be interviewed or otherwise participate.

ETA: 12/28/10 The Knitayarn.com domain no longer seems operational.

Another thing for me to check out online tonight would be Fanatica Fibers, as I furtively grabbed a card from their kiosk, which was bustling with activity--little did I know at the time I grabbed the card, that they are located in Bloomfield, New Jersey, not far from one of my favorite yarn crawling towns, Montclair. They specialize in needle felt and wet felt kits and sculptures. I might just have to Mapquest them and incorporate them into my next yarn crawl!

My first purchase was a 2oo gm "VF Silk Guggle ball," which I got from Fessler Spinning and Weaving, which reminds me a bit of recycled sari silk, only my ball is a bit finer.

Second purchases made from a different vendor (who didn't put any type of receipt or business card in my bag was two small bags of camel down which I got for a drop spindle tutorial eventually, and a plastic container of some assorted color wool roving to be used in needle felting projects/attempts.

I also scored myself a package of some garlic venison sausages from Highland Venison... cannot wait to dig into them. But they are a precious commodity, as I no longer have a hunter in my life to provide me with fresh, still bloody and sometimes, still furry slabs of venison with which to render some utterly delicious and healthy chilis and stews and stir frys. So I stuck the sausages in the freezer and will contemplate carefully, what I shall do with them besides just grilling them and slapping them in a bun. I'm thinking of 1 link being added to a jambalaya or a gumbo, maybe a frittata with goat cheese, who knows what else?

One more business card I picked up was for Crochetshirret.com. Is it crochet? Is it shirring? It's intriguing and they, too were busy. So I grabbed the card, and fortunately they, too, have a website. So I'll check them out tonight, too.

I didn't want to buy too much stuff, and also I didn't want to overwhelm myself with too many new things to try out. For me, the camel down was a sufficient enough thing, and the wool for the needle felting projects was sufficient to keep me engaged during the winter, on top of my usual crafting.

Okay... things I was disappointed in?

1. The festival food. It was expensive, and not necessarily good. I had sausage and peppers and onions on a roll that cost me $4, had no peppers, three little nuggets of sausage and the roll was dry and stale; I had fries which were the only redeeming festival food either my friend or myself ate, also $4; my friend had fried dough which both of us were expecting to be like zeppoles, only to realize they were tasteless pizza dough fried and covered in powdered sugar, also $4; and lastly the kettlecorn (a small at $2) was just unsatisfying. The food so disappointed us, that once we arrived back in Westco, we went out for gyros at Lefteris just to get the taste of disappointment out of our mouths. Needless to say we left Lefteris completely satisfied.
   
2. The lack of crochet hook craftspeople. Sure there were a few folks there that had a few garments tossed out there to lure me in, but no interesting hooks. One place (I think they were in the horticultural building) had some Brittany hooks, but hey, I can get those anywhere. I was looking for something hand crafted... something personal, like what Turn of the Century offers. I've since zapped out an email to them, hoping they'll keep next year's Sheep and Wool in mind. Ohio isn't on the otherside of the world. There's always hope they'll make the trek!
   
3. I did not see whether the Woodstock Hooker was in attendance. Rhinebeck and Woodstock aren't at polar ends of the earth either... I was hoping to see him and his ecclectic hats and great energy there, representing crochet. They have such a Xenobia Bailey kind of vibe to them! Hopefully next year?
   
   
4. I was kind of surprised that there was no representation or advertisement for the upcoming International Fiber Collaborative, considering that in March 2008 a gas station will be covered with a hand crafted "cozy" crafted out of panels submitted and stitched together, as a means of a dialogue to express concerns over dependency on oil for energy. Since this is going to be happening in the upstate region, I was surprised that there was no showing or even advertisements regarding this, which could have drawn attention to this worthy cause.
   
   
5. Lastly, I wasn't impressed with the handout. There was no rhyme or reason to the way things were mapped out, and no legend or key to use for folks who are interested in knit, crochet, felting, weaving, spinning, rug hooking, etc, to simply go directly to the vendors that interested them, thus leaving them to wander about aimlessly with no real game plan. It would have been nice to know up front where (if any) crochet tool vendors were so I could have made a bee line for them instead of feel like I was on a wild goose chase.

All in all a fantastic day. Gorgeous weather. I got some smallish things to occupy me for a while. But no real inspiration. It was just a good, organic day out in the fresh-ish air, and a good time spent with a friend:)