Actually, I think it's more like "all the blogger have done it," 'cause I'm pretty late here with my Rhinebeck report. But I guess better late than never, so here's my official update, complete with some pictures (although not as many as I should have taken because I was stricken with camnesia). It's a whole week later and I'm still on a bit of a woolly high from the whole experience...
I left Long Island at the crack of dawn and met Punkin and her family at about 9:30ish at The Fold's booth. I wasn't going to buy anything from them because I didn't want to deal with the lines, but Punkin was already on line and I saw all those STR mill ends.
And thus began my trip down the rabbit hole.
After she made our purchases, we wandered around that first building. I decided that I needed some rules and a plan of attack, so here were my guidelines for the rest of the day:
- Make notes of things that I'm interested in buying (vendors, yarns, prices, and locations) and then review my notes before my actual purchases begin, and
- Don't buy anything at can generally be found at most yarn shops.
Punkin trying out a gorgeous Golding spinning wheel
So once we covered Building A and had an early lunch, I took off on my own to explore the fairgrounds...
...and start identifying purchases.
Merino/Bamboo/Nylon and Merino/Tencel sock yarns from Ellen's Half Pint Farm
FlockSock Yarn from Holiday Yarns
Alpaca Blend sock yarn from Snowshoe Farm
And finally, my biggest purchase--a Golding "Learn to Spin" kit!
Ooooooo...
There were several roving purchases, but those pictures didn't come out so great. I'll retake and show you those in a future post.
So how did I do sticking to my plan? Not bad really. Since I didn't hotel it as I had originally planned, I added that money to my budgeted amount and, ultimately, I only went about $35 over what I had planned to spend.
All in all, it was a wonderful day. The one big regret I did have was not seeing more people. I missed seeing a ton of people. I got wrapped up exploring the whole place and totally lost track of time--including the afternoon Ravelry meet up. Next year (if I get to go next year, that is) I'm gonna focus more on the people.
Simply beautiful!
