Heaven, Hell and back again..
This whole weekend was a mixture of heaven and hell... so here's the tale.. (WARNING: long and pic heavy post)
Let's start with Friday..
Heaven: Friday afternoon packing for Rhinebeck, tossing all the gear in the car and making lists of which booths I had to hit first (ie... STR booth). We're spending the weekend at Mills-Norre state park in a cabin with electric and water. Granted, you still have to walk to the bathroom, but with a nice portable electric space heater it should be wonderfully warm and cozy.
Hell: 287 N... five mile backup.. for what I'm assuming was an accident, because there was nothing there by the time we starting moving again.
Heaven: Not having to go over the Tapanzee Bridge!
Hell: 5 miles/hour on the NY thruway because of some unknown traffic causing thingy.. not to mention going past the turn off for the campsite because it isn't MARKED!!! The sign for the state park was on the side road.
Heaven: We hit the campsite, Mills-Norre is a beautiful state park and it wasn't raining! (this was a short trip to Heaven)
Hell: Well... where to begin... Okay.. It's after dark, and there are no lights in the camp... I couldn't figure out why the bathroom had no lights till we found a ranger and were told that a wind storm had knocked down the power lines. Well, I had my headlamp and that was about it, we didn't come prepared for roughing it. So we turned around, went back to the nearest store we had passed and had to buy candles, matches, and a flashlight for mom. Okay.. so no power means the space heater I brought is usless, but mom and I both had good sleeping bags. Or so we thought... It was in the thirties Friday night with a fierce wind that must have dropped the temp to the teens with the wind chill. To put it mildly, WE FROZE!! I had my sleeping bag hood pulled in so tight you couldn't even see my nose and every time I shifted or a cold spot appeared I woke up.
This would have been a wonderful cabin with electric, it had a full kitchen (you can't see the stove and fridge against the other wall), the rooms were cozy (though the mattresses weren't comfy) and the main room was a good size.. Oh well..
SATURDAY:
Heaven: It's Saturday morning and we're up at 7am (okay, we were freezing still). We get up, eat breakfast and get ready to go. Hit the fair grounds at 9:45am, park and head straight for the STR booth. OMG.. what a mad rush. The vendors weren't supposed to open till 10am, but by then almost 1/4 of the STR was GONE! I scored three skeins of the midweight and mom picked out one. All before 10am and we still had to stand in a HUGE line. When we went past again around 2pm or so, the booth was EMPTY! We spent the day walking around, looking at yarn, fibers, spinning wheels, and animals. I spent the first part of the day hunting down yarn that called out to me, then decided to start looking at wheels. I tried out the Hitchhiker which is so tiny and very cute, but I had trouble with the single tredle. (mom has the pics.. so if I ever figure out how to download her camera I'll post them). I was very happy with the yarn I got. My deal of the day was 8oz of handpainted alpaca for $4/oz.
(Insert haul pics here when the sun cooperates)
One of the buildings had people demonstrating different fiber skills..
Now.. how cool is this??
This is an antique sock machine! Now.. I want me one of these.. can you imagine making a pair of socks in an HOUR!!!! Of course, the first thing I asked was.. what about the heel and the toe.. well, aparently the machine does very nice little short rows with NO holes. You do short rows for the toes as well and then graft it together.
I seem to have forgotten to take pics of most of the festival... guess sensory overload can do that to you..
Hell: Back to the cabin with no heat, so we built a campfire and had some smores not realizing that poor Carol was hiding in her cabin huddled in her sleeping bag... we finally find Maria, Jocelyn and Carol but it's too damn cold to do much, the fire was out and we still have no electric! Had to wait up for Jena to get there, especially because she was bringing blankets for Maria who left her's at home and had only her clothing to sleep in on Friday night. Maria did give me some spinning time on her wheel and something finally clicked for me. So even though I didn't get a wheel on Saturday, I resolved to look closer at them on Sunday.
SUNDAY:
Heaven: Mom, Jena and I go out for breakfast and then head to the fair. I'll let Jena post her own haul, but I have to say she was rather well behaved. I tried out a few more spinning wheels, then lucked into a Fricke wheel. I spun on it for a while and fell in love. It had to be mine, and guess what..
Allow me to introduce my new toy! The folding Fricke wheel! Okay, that's a lousy name... hrm.. my first instinct would be to name it either George or Seymour (that's what we name everything in our family) but maybe a contest to name my new toy??? Let me think about that one. The only part I'm not too thrilled with is the finish on the MDF... I may have to paint it..
So, of course.. after finding my new pet.. I had to find food for it. Lots and lots of food for it.. I tried to stick to nice basic food, since I'm new at feeding it. The purple is a Corriedale/Merino mix from Grafton Fibers, the river is Corriedale and the blue.. well, I have no clue but it was a mix of about four different wools. My new pet also came with 8oz of Romney, which I found very easy to feed it.
Ran into MBT on Sunday afternoon.. and boy was I jealous.. she got herself a BUNNY!!! I fell in love with one earlier in the day, but truthfully do not have the room for one. Mom got some pics of me with the bunny and said "you looked at that rabbit like people look at their first born" Maybe one day I'll have my own fiber bunny..
Wow.. that is a long post. At least the day ended in Heaven. The trip home wasn't too bad, though I was either sunburnt or VERY tired and was DRAGGING by the end of the day. Will I go back next year? YOU BET... Hopefully by next year the fleece sale will make some sense to me and I'll be there more for fiber than for yarn. Will I stay at the park again... well... we'll see. It was so much fun to get together with the other knittyheads and gab, but it was rather difficult without power.
Let's start with Friday..
Heaven: Friday afternoon packing for Rhinebeck, tossing all the gear in the car and making lists of which booths I had to hit first (ie... STR booth). We're spending the weekend at Mills-Norre state park in a cabin with electric and water. Granted, you still have to walk to the bathroom, but with a nice portable electric space heater it should be wonderfully warm and cozy.
Hell: 287 N... five mile backup.. for what I'm assuming was an accident, because there was nothing there by the time we starting moving again.
Heaven: Not having to go over the Tapanzee Bridge!
Hell: 5 miles/hour on the NY thruway because of some unknown traffic causing thingy.. not to mention going past the turn off for the campsite because it isn't MARKED!!! The sign for the state park was on the side road.
Heaven: We hit the campsite, Mills-Norre is a beautiful state park and it wasn't raining! (this was a short trip to Heaven)
Hell: Well... where to begin... Okay.. It's after dark, and there are no lights in the camp... I couldn't figure out why the bathroom had no lights till we found a ranger and were told that a wind storm had knocked down the power lines. Well, I had my headlamp and that was about it, we didn't come prepared for roughing it. So we turned around, went back to the nearest store we had passed and had to buy candles, matches, and a flashlight for mom. Okay.. so no power means the space heater I brought is usless, but mom and I both had good sleeping bags. Or so we thought... It was in the thirties Friday night with a fierce wind that must have dropped the temp to the teens with the wind chill. To put it mildly, WE FROZE!! I had my sleeping bag hood pulled in so tight you couldn't even see my nose and every time I shifted or a cold spot appeared I woke up.
This would have been a wonderful cabin with electric, it had a full kitchen (you can't see the stove and fridge against the other wall), the rooms were cozy (though the mattresses weren't comfy) and the main room was a good size.. Oh well..
SATURDAY:
Heaven: It's Saturday morning and we're up at 7am (okay, we were freezing still). We get up, eat breakfast and get ready to go. Hit the fair grounds at 9:45am, park and head straight for the STR booth. OMG.. what a mad rush. The vendors weren't supposed to open till 10am, but by then almost 1/4 of the STR was GONE! I scored three skeins of the midweight and mom picked out one. All before 10am and we still had to stand in a HUGE line. When we went past again around 2pm or so, the booth was EMPTY! We spent the day walking around, looking at yarn, fibers, spinning wheels, and animals. I spent the first part of the day hunting down yarn that called out to me, then decided to start looking at wheels. I tried out the Hitchhiker which is so tiny and very cute, but I had trouble with the single tredle. (mom has the pics.. so if I ever figure out how to download her camera I'll post them). I was very happy with the yarn I got. My deal of the day was 8oz of handpainted alpaca for $4/oz.
(Insert haul pics here when the sun cooperates)
One of the buildings had people demonstrating different fiber skills..
Now.. how cool is this??
This is an antique sock machine! Now.. I want me one of these.. can you imagine making a pair of socks in an HOUR!!!! Of course, the first thing I asked was.. what about the heel and the toe.. well, aparently the machine does very nice little short rows with NO holes. You do short rows for the toes as well and then graft it together.
I seem to have forgotten to take pics of most of the festival... guess sensory overload can do that to you..
Hell: Back to the cabin with no heat, so we built a campfire and had some smores not realizing that poor Carol was hiding in her cabin huddled in her sleeping bag... we finally find Maria, Jocelyn and Carol but it's too damn cold to do much, the fire was out and we still have no electric! Had to wait up for Jena to get there, especially because she was bringing blankets for Maria who left her's at home and had only her clothing to sleep in on Friday night. Maria did give me some spinning time on her wheel and something finally clicked for me. So even though I didn't get a wheel on Saturday, I resolved to look closer at them on Sunday.
SUNDAY:
Heaven: Mom, Jena and I go out for breakfast and then head to the fair. I'll let Jena post her own haul, but I have to say she was rather well behaved. I tried out a few more spinning wheels, then lucked into a Fricke wheel. I spun on it for a while and fell in love. It had to be mine, and guess what..
Allow me to introduce my new toy! The folding Fricke wheel! Okay, that's a lousy name... hrm.. my first instinct would be to name it either George or Seymour (that's what we name everything in our family) but maybe a contest to name my new toy??? Let me think about that one. The only part I'm not too thrilled with is the finish on the MDF... I may have to paint it..
So, of course.. after finding my new pet.. I had to find food for it. Lots and lots of food for it.. I tried to stick to nice basic food, since I'm new at feeding it. The purple is a Corriedale/Merino mix from Grafton Fibers, the river is Corriedale and the blue.. well, I have no clue but it was a mix of about four different wools. My new pet also came with 8oz of Romney, which I found very easy to feed it.
Ran into MBT on Sunday afternoon.. and boy was I jealous.. she got herself a BUNNY!!! I fell in love with one earlier in the day, but truthfully do not have the room for one. Mom got some pics of me with the bunny and said "you looked at that rabbit like people look at their first born" Maybe one day I'll have my own fiber bunny..
Wow.. that is a long post. At least the day ended in Heaven. The trip home wasn't too bad, though I was either sunburnt or VERY tired and was DRAGGING by the end of the day. Will I go back next year? YOU BET... Hopefully by next year the fleece sale will make some sense to me and I'll be there more for fiber than for yarn. Will I stay at the park again... well... we'll see. It was so much fun to get together with the other knittyheads and gab, but it was rather difficult without power.
posted by Michelle at 10:29 AM
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