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October 18, 2005
Sheep and Wool (and Llamas and Rabbits and Dogs)
Apologies for the sparse posting. The more blog-worthy events one has in one's life, the less time there is for blogging. For instance, yesterday I went with Rose and Francis to the NYS Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY. Despite the overly long drive (poor map planning on my part), we had a good four hours of sheep and wool gawking and festival-food eating.
Derek ducked out at the last minute for fear of being stranded in a field with sheep and llamas while the rest of us discussed the finer points of spinning yarn. He needn't have worried. I was completely distracted by festival-food fare for the first several hours. I got some buffalo mozzarella (nothing to do with sheep or wool, really) and some sheep's milk cheese right off the bat. Then I stood in line for some lamb kebobs, but my conscience got the better of me right before I had to order and I beat a retreat, guiltily eying sheep along the way, to a stall advertising "Artichoke French". The line was endless, but the final product -- fried artichoke hearts with bread and collard greens and beans -- was worth it. I love artichokes. I chased that down with apple crisp while resisting the urge to buy fried dough. Finally, I picked up some fresh kettle corn for D and some maple sugar cotton candy. (The stuff is heavenly. Just insanely good.) I tried some wine, but wasn't happy with the sickeningly-sweet samples I got so I gave up.
All the while, I was thinking that I really should start looking at yarn seriously, but I kept getting distracted. There were rabbits, llamas, and sheep to look at and pet. And given that sheep need herding, there were sheepdog trials. I was absolutely fascinated by those -- the dogs look like they were born to herd sheep -- they know exactly what to do and when to do it. I also caught the end of a frisbee dog demonstration which was very entertaining -- hyper frisbee-obsessed dogs can jump VERY high.
Toward four o'clock, I started to panic. I circled desperately around the same four buildings trying to decide which yarn to buy. I couldn't concentrate on finding something for the baby blanket emergency because I needed cotton for that. And since I can only think one project ahead, I didn't have a project in mind that I needed wool for. The sheer quantity of wool on offer -- sometimes for wildly different prices -- was intimidating. After much grumbling and credit card swiping, I ended up with three lovely kinds of yarn: some light brown alpaca (for a sweater) from A Touch of Twist, and blue merino (another Clapotis or similar shawl) and gorgeous Manos de Uruguay variegated red wool yarn (luxurious, tarty scarf) from The Needle Lady. I managed to squeeze the last purchase in while the vendor was packing up (whew).
A few more Rhinebeck photos are on Flickr.
Posted by csageday at October 18, 2005 12:34 AM