Okay, first thing to tell you? Rhinebeck was cold this year! When we left the house at 7:45, it was only 40-degrees (F), and it didn’t get above 52 degrees … and since the sun occasionally hid behind clouds, well, that felt pretty cold.

We got to the fairgrounds at 9:45–almost exactly two hours after leaving home–and at pretty much the same time we got there last year, except the parking lot was already at least three times as full. As the same time last year. At 9:45 in the morning! Right away, we knew the crowds were going to be bad.

The first thing we did–after getting some hot coffee–was to find Susan from the Martha’s Vineyard Fiber Farm. This is she (on the right), Patrick (in the back, and leaning forward, because he’s so very tall!), Erin, her farm manager (on the left), and Logan, one of Patrick’s sons (in the front). We all chatted, laughed, and shivered, and I gave Susan the bar of Jersey Girl chocolate that I “owed” her. (When I sent her her socks in July, I had wanted to include something from New Jersey, but well, it was July and not the best time to mail chocolate–especially good chocolate–so I wanted to wait until I saw her again.)

After a while, Mom and I headed off to do some shopping. We ran into Cheryl … well, not literally … although I did physically bump into Sandy at Briar Rose. We also saw Kim for the first of many times while near the Sheep Shed, and she pointed out Franklin. You know, Franklin, who I interviewed at Knitting Scholar last week?  It was so great to meet him in person!

I took this just about noon, and it doesn’t begin to capture the true crowdedness of the fairgrounds.

Then there was the Ravelry meet-up, which was huge, and was COLD. I saw Kristy, Sharon, Sairy (pictured), and Annie, and Jessica … and a few other people whose names are escaping me at the moment. (Doesn’t Kristy’s Venezia sweater look wonderful?) But the meet-up happened just at the point where the sun disappeared, and was up on a breezy hill, so yeah … cold. Still, I got to chat with Mr. Ravelry for a few minutes, too (aka Casey), so that was pretty nifty. He had a little Bob mascot in his pocket, which made me wish I had a tiny Chappy I could carry around with me, but that’s okay. Mom and I were joking all day that Chappy was on his cell phone, listening in on the day to see how often his name came up. (And, no, he doesn’t really have a cell phone.)

There was still a gathering of the usual “group” outside Building A, where I bumped into (among other people), Jessalu, Sandy, Leigh, Carole, Risa (whose hair has gotten so long!), Chris, Marcia, Beth, and Laurie.

Not to mention Margene, Norma, Scout, Amy (although I had a total brain-freeze when I met her and wasn’t 100% sure my memory was working and didn’t want to call her “Amy” and then be wrong, and so came off as an idiot, but well, what can you do?). Juno, Wendy, and Stephanie. And, finally, Kay and Ann of Mason-Dixon knitting who I ALSO interviewed over at Knitting Scholar.

That pretty much covered everybody I really wanted to see except Claudia and Silvia, and we bumped into them about an hour later (in almost exactly the same spot as last year). Julia from Moth Heaven, too, who gave me a Twist Collective button. Deborah. And, bunches more people whose names I simply can’t think of right now (for which, as always, I apologize).

Oh, and Laurie? Mom’s blog is MV Obsession. Please go over, folks, and tell her how nice it was to meet her!

We swung by the Angora goat showing (Patrick and his son are hard at work at the table), but decided it was too cold to sit on the metal bleachers, so we went for some hot apple crisp instead.

Just before the MV Fiber Farm shareholder gathering at 3:30. Which was nice (with cookies!). It was really fun, but again, kind of chilly. Patrick’s son Harry worked on his knitting, Logan brought up the idea of a spinning wheel. Susan shared some news which I would tell you but don’t want to be the first one, so I’ll let her make it official. (And, Mom’s going to hate this picture of herself, but *I* like it. She was sitting behind me and, without looking, I just pointed the camera over my shoulder to take a shot. It’s  not perfect, but I like it.)

(Updated–no, she absolutely hates the picture. Hates it. Like every picture of her these days. She says it makes her look 82 years old. So, I changed to a thumbnail size and took away the link, so this is all you can see of this picture!)

We left about 4:45. Or, we tried to. Well, first, we got into the car, and Mom said, “What is that smell … Oh no!” She had stepped in, er, something and had it all over the bottom of her shoe. She tried to wipe it off with a paper towel, but ended up leaving one shoe in the trunk of the car for the drive home. (Better that smell stays in the trunk of the car, you know?) The parking lot was insane. It took 15 minutes before I was able to pull out of my parking spot! I think I saw Cara, actually, blocking a car so that her husband could pull theirs out. (If it wasn’t her, it was some other intrepid knitter.) Seriously, the cars simply were NOT moving, and when I turned my head and looked to see where our little lane of traffic merged with a bigger lane, which curved around to merge with the actual “exit” lane which worked its way around to the actual road … NOTHING was moving. So, once I finally got out of my spot (thank you nice driver), instead of turning left into the totally-stopped traffic, cut across the lane, turned right up the grass, and went out the back way, wending my way past the vendors and out around to 9G the back way. SO much faster. Even though traffic was tied up at the light at Rt 9, I said to Mom that I bet we wouldn’t have been out of the parking lot yet.

Anyway, it was TONS of fun, as always. We got home about 7:45, and I’m tired–though, thankfully, not as headache-y as I was last year. I’ll show you my “loot” tomorrow (because yes, I did buy stuff. How could I not? Money might be tight, but this is a once a year event AND my birthday is in three weeks, so, well, what could I do?)

Oh, and you’ll be pleased to know that Chappy weathered the long day without me.

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