Spinning a yarn…

I am probably the last knitting blogger out there to recap Rhinebeck, but better late than never, right? The glass of wine I am currently drinking had me start listing out a play by play from the time we left my house at 8:45am on Friday morning until bedtime Sunday night, but then I decided that was a little much. LOL. The drive took us (Sara, Anna, Jen, and yours truly) nearly nine hours, but that included nearly eight zillion pee breaks (so not kidding) and a pitstop at Webs. We were there for about two hours! LOL. I got some Trekking XXL sock yarn and twelve (I think) balls of Debbie Bliss Luxury Donegal Tweed in a pale blue for a button up, v-neck cardigan pattern (also purchased) I fell in love with. It was another two hours to our hotel after Webs, during which time Sara and I kept trying to get in touch with Amy about dinner plans with her and Chesley when we arrived because we’d all planned to eat together that evening. Her phone had died or gotten shut off and we eventually gave up, but we did get in touch with one of the Spunky girls that flew in from Texas so we went to meet and have dinner with her. By the time we were getting ready to go back to our hotel for the night, Amy and Chesley showed up, so we ended up staying a little bit longer to catch up with them before leaving to tuck in for the night.

Saturday was spent doing a ton of browsing and fondling, a pretty good deal of buying, and being social. We got to the fair around 9 and stayed until roughly 3. I bought a lot more fiber than yarn…8 ounces of llama, 2 of alpaca, 1 of cashmere, 8 of Finn top, 8 of a silvery gray bamboo, 8 of a gorgeous reddish/white blend of wool, and a 4 ounce braid of merino/bamboo blend in gorgeous colors. I also did get some yarn…a skein of worsted (I think) alpaca in pastel greens, blues, and lavender, two sparkly sock yarns…one reds and maroons, and the other shades of bright green. I also got to meet a Rav friend of mine and her son

We went to the Ravelry party on Saturday night, which was cool. Got to see a lot of the “famous” people, if you will. I think the highlight of the evening really was just getting the little canvas ‘Ravelry Rhinebeck 2008′ project bags they gave out at the door, though. I could have left after getting that and would have been content. LOL. We left the party around 8:30 and after we got back to the hotel, we ended up going across the hall to hang out with some girls from Washington DC, one of which had booked our room for Anna (the girl in my group you didn’t meet) and therefore was the whole reason we got to be at Rhinebeck. We probably visited/knitted with them for about an hour before deciding we were all practically ready to fall asleep as we sat there, so then we trudged back to our room and into bed.

Sunday was just driving home. Nothing too exciting. LOL. It was a great trip and I had such a fabulous time, but I have to say, I was very happy to pull into my driveway that afternoon

After the weekend and a KnitPicks order I placed the following Monday, I’m officially stash busting/dieting. I organized my stash last week and I already had an overwhelming amount of both fiber and yarn before I left. Now it’s bordering ridiculous. So, it’s going to be a winter of all knitting and spinning and no shopping until NETA SPA at the end of February, unless I need something for a Christmas gift that I don’t already have stashed. But no stash additions. It’s going to be a challenge.

Rhinebeck booty: