So, are you curious about what’s in that bottom picture from yesterday’s Rhinebeck post?

The very first stop inside the fairgrounds was The Fold. I seriously questioned the wisdom of stopping there and standing on line for the yarn, but decided that I’d probably regret it if I didn’t. I know I can buy this stuff online, but I wanted to see the colors in person before buying anything and, well, I guess sometimes I do act like a sheep and just follow the crowd, huh?

Um, in this case, literally.

I bought two colors. Oregon Red Clover Honey which is beautifully sweet and golden, and Mustang Sally, which is a beautiful, purplish burgundy. So far, I’ve only made one pair of socks in Socks That Rock and enjoyed working with it, and since I haven’t joined their sock club, I feel reasonably justified . . . besides, I LIKED these colors!

Then, second, there was a visit to the Sheep Shed. I’ve stopped there each time I’ve been to Rhinebeck and have never been disappointed in the fiber I’ve gotten from them. That endless 3-lb batch of Merino/Silk which I still love came from them, as did the handspun that I made my Tatami sweater from. So, here’s this year’s contribution: One 8-oz skein of merino in a black/blue/brown blend, and one 8-oz skein of Corriedale in a beautiful pure blue. I plan to do the same thing with them that I did with the Tatami yarn–spin them separately and then ply them together. They already seem to like the idea, don’t you think?

There was one other skein from the Sheep Shed–I’m not even sure why I bought it except that I couldn’t stop petting it. It’s like a rose garden with pink, green and tan shades . . . very subtle and sweet.

Oh, and there might be 4-oz of pure white cormo there, too. I blame the wool fumes.

I dragged Mom over to the Bosworth’s Journey Wheel booth, too. Not because I needed another Journey wheel. Oh no, I’m quite happy with the one I’ve got.

I did, though, want to buy a new bobbin because, well, what can you buy the Wheel that has everything? And even though there’s only room IN the wheel for three, I kind of wanted four anyway. And, well, I’ve heard wonderful things about the Bosworth spindles  . . . (my assistant, you can see here, was very impressed). The best part, though, was when I mentioned that I had one of the wheels that I’d gotten from a friend, but that all three of the drivebands had broken within a month of each other (I still don’t know how that happened) and I was still trying to get the lengths adjusted. Well, it turns out that they have pre-measured drivebands right there, and all I needed to do was ask. Who knew? I could have saved myself all this aggravation just by sending them an e-mail months ago. Huh!

Naturally, with all this stuff, something to carry it all in was a good idea . . . I bought this at Robin’s Wheels. Mom helped me pick it out, and now I’m just hoping that there wasn’t anything on this basket that was making me sneeze like that last night…. It’s sitting in the guest room right now because–just in case–I didn’t want to have it in my bedroom last night. I can’t imagine that I could be allergic to it, but it was sitting right next to me and I was getting sneezier and stuffier, so I suppose it’s possible . . .

My little boy wasn’t forgotten, either. I bought him this toy at the Border Collie Rescue booth. Because, isn’t that what a guilt-feeling Mom is supposed to do? Bring home toys for the kids so they’ll forgive her for leaving them? (grin) Besides, the money was for a good cause, right?

Now, do I feel like I splurged? Well, yes, a little. Especially since I’ve been trying to be so good about money lately (because things are dire). But Rhinebeck IS only once a year, and it IS (so far) the only fiber festival I go to. (The NJ one last year didn’t count since there wasn’t anything I wanted to buy anyway.) Besides, my birthday is in two weeks and a girl’s got to treat herself, right?

Speaking of which, Mom carried this bag around almost all day. She CLAIMS there was something in it, but . . . I don’t know. It seemed pretty "empty" to me every time I looked at it. I think she was imagining things. If she’d been carrying Rhinebeck Loot, I would have noticed . . . right??

And now, it’s Sunday night and my vacation is over (sniffle). It’s been a nice one, overall. The weather was very cooperative, Chappy got lots of walks, I got some reading done, as well as knitting and spinning. I’ve been teasing Mom all week, though, because except for last night when we met Dad at the local diner for supper when we got home from Rhinebeck, I’ve cooked every meal since Monday–either entirely, or just the "hard" parts . . . so she’s gotten a vacation, too.

I’ve got to say, though . . . Chappy’s none too happy about this Mommy-Going-Back-to-Work thing tomorrow morning.

(Incidentally, I just talked about Rhinebeck and the crazy, enthusiastic blogger phenomena over at Punctuality Rules. Because that’s where I like to address more serious issues concerning writing, manners, and civilization in general, and you’ve got to admit, Blogger Bingo is an interesting topic as regards modern civilization!)

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