Rhinebeck has come and gone in a blur of gold-red-green leaves and the occasional snow flurry (no joke). It was a cold-but-wonderful weekend, and these are just a fraction of the images I took away from it. (Click to embiggen.)

Disturbing monkeyface

Leaping alpaca

Stylin’ sheep

Katy’s excited face

My new goat BFF

Petting all the animals is one of my favorite parts of Rhinebeck. Katy and I certainly had our sheep-petting fill, enjoyed watching the leaping llama and alpaca competition, and wondered at the presence of monkeys, kangaroos, and lemurs at a wool festival.

Me, Katy, Rivkah

New friends!

Sunset selfie

I can’t even believe this.

Another wonderful part of Rhinebeck is meeting up with like-minded friends, old and new. Not only did I get to enjoy the fair with Katy and Rivkah and her mom, but I got to meet new friends from Ravelry in real life! There’s no greater feeling than finally meeting people you’ve spoken to for months online and realizing that you really do like them and can’t wait to see them again! As it happens, in the LITERALLY ONE HOUR I broke away from Katy to meet up with my new friends, Katy got to make friends with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee and Clara Parkes. (I am trying my best not to hate her for getting to meet my two biggest yarn idols in person without me. Sigh. In truth, I saw Clara later in the day but chickened out on approaching her. Katy is by far the braver one between us.)

Rhinehaul 1

Rhinehaul 2

And then once all the fair-going is over, we still have the haul to cherish. I tried to stick to truly special items that I knew I couldn’t obtain easily otherwise, or items for which I already had a plan. From left to right, my purchases were:

• Into the Whirled Merion/Yak/Silk fiber in Quoth (one of the Discworld colorways)
• Foxhill Farm Cormo Aran, for a Daisy’s Hat
• RedMaple alpaca socks that Katy bought me because she is the nicest
• Woodshaper darning mushroom in gorgeous lacewood and maple
• TexasJeans bead spindle in rosewood, birdseye, and curly maple
• Blue Moon Fiber Arts Merino/Silk fiber in Fall Frolic
• 6 skeins of O-Wool O-Wash Fingering, for an Andorra Wrap

That last one on the list was my biggest impulse purchase, the rest were more-or-less pre-meditated, but if you had seen the sample of the scarf in person, I doubt you could have resisted, either. I cannot wait to cast that sucker on!

Katy took this on her drive, it’s lovely.

And that’s probably my most favorite part of Rhinebeck: the re-inspiration it brings to my knitting, spinning, and crafting. It was much needed and is most invigorating.

Did you get to go to Rhinebeck? What’s your favorite part of shows and wool festivals?