There were sheep.
There was wool.
It was festive.
What more could you want?
When I asked my kids "Who wants to go to the Sheep and Wool Festival with me?" you would have thought I'd asked "Who wants to sit on the porch and watch paint dry?" I didn't expect an enthusiastic response. Anything I want to do is, in their minds, dorky by association. Throw in the prospect of hundreds of other like-minded dorks participating in said event and I'm surprised they didn't faint from the thought of it.
My friend Vicki asked me to join her and her husband and son for the trip to Rhinebeck and I wanted to go. Dennis wasn't available this weekend, and I didn't want to bring uncooperative children with me. They would kill my wool buzz. So, I did what any responsible, enterprising mother would do: I farmed them out to others. My eighteen year old spent the day with the thirteen year old. The eleven year old spent the day at a friend's house. The sixteen year old escaped for the weekend to play guitar twenty plus miles away with his friends. That left The Pook.
It didn't take much to get her to want to go. The promise of a haymaze and of sheepdogs chasing sheep was enough. We agreed to alternate doing things she wanted to do with woolfondling things I wanted to do. She got to go through a haymaze.
I got to buy a Batt at Grafton Fibers
She got a pretzel the size of her head and I got a yummy skein of Cherry Hill worsted weight to make my winter scarf.
We then went off in search of bldg. 26 and the Angora Rabbit demonstration. Pook likes rabbits. There were several very cute Angora Bunnies but they weren't doing anything. We walked through the whole building and saw a few more bunnies who were sitting in their cages just being bunnies. Wherever and whatever the demonstration was we missed it. We gave up and decided to walk through all the buildings and see what there was to see. I can't remember if this was my suggestion or not; it may have been The Pook's.
One of the best things about Rhinebeck is all the talent on display. I don't just mean the vendors. There were many people, men and women both, wearing some beautiful handmade items. I saw dozens and dozens of handwoven and handknit sweaters, scarves, ponchos, jackets, and shawls. There was one woman wearing an amazing freeform crochet shawl that I could have sworn I photographed but alas, I did not. You're just going to have to take my word for it; it was lovely.
Then I noticed a woman, walking two people ahead of me, wearing a stunning handknit lace shawl. It took a second but I realized I recognized the shawl. I looked up at her and realized I recognized her and her companions from the blogosphere. I said, "Excuse me." but she didn't respond. This was either because it was noisy or because she had no idea I was talking to her and that was because I didn't use her name, even though I know it, because it went right out of my head because I was stunned to have bumped into her at all. (So here comes super dorky moment number one.) I tapped her on the shoulder and said "Excuse me, would you mind taking a photograph with me?" at least I think that is what I said. She said sure and one of her friends did the honors and took the photo for me.
Yes, Stephanie (see I told you I knew her name) stopped on her way to get lunch to take a photo with my windblown self and the top of Pook's head. I thanked her and didn't want to keep her. She put out her hand and introduced herself. Normally, I'm polite and I handle social situations fairly well. I was thrown by having run into her and this derailed my standard operating procedure. I interrupted this woman, who is in fact a stranger, asked her to take a photo with me and I never introduced myself. My mom would be so proud. I recomposed myself, shook her hand and told her my name and that I was very pleased to meet her. I think I told her to enjoy her lunch. I really don't know what came out of my mouth. Pook paid little or no attention, she was underwhelmed, she doesn't read knitting blogs.
By the way, the shawl is gorgeous in person.
I took Pook over to the back field to see the Sheepdog trials.
She enjoyed that immensely.
I bought some sock yarn
and I enjoyed that immensely.
We walked through the pavilions where the sheep and goats were penned 
and she loved that. One very large sheep got out and seemed as stunned about it as we did. Just as it started running toward us I pulled Pook out of the way of it as two men came running and grabbed it. This is very exciting when your seven years old and it's over fast and nothing bad actually happened. When you're the mom and there is a large sheep running right at you and your seven year old it's not as exciting as it is a little scary. We decided we had enough of the sheep for a while so we wandered around a little and stomped some leaves.
Then came super dorky moment number two. We had found Vicki and were about ready to leave. As we walked through the last building we wanted to see, Pook spotted a plate of cookies. She's seven and they were at her eye level. She asked me if she could have one. That's when I noticed that the plate was on a display table with copies of this book. I looked up and who did I see but Stitchy herself.
She suggested we pose for the photo using our best wedding photo smile. It's been twenty years since I posed for a wedding photo so I don't know that I pulled it off. She is so friendly and we stood there and talked with each other for several minutes while Pook ate a cookie. She showed me the ugly tie which isn't really all that ugly the way she knit it up and how she has a friend who really likes it. I told her how much I love her blog. Pook ate another cookie. We talked about the absence of husbands at the festival and how her husband was thinking of setting up a wool-festival-widower booth with a Playstation and some La-Z-Boy recliners. I think that would work. Once again, I failed to introduce myself. If you read this, Debbie, I'm sorry about that. We talked about blown Rhinebeck budgets and generally just had a nice chat. I didn't pick up a copy of the book because I have one en route from Amazon. I don't think I mentioned that to her, though I know I meant to. Chat it up, Pook eats her cookies and then I don't buy the book. Lovely. Thus concludes super dorky moment number two.
All in all it was a good day. Pook wants to go back next year. I even had to buy her some yarn.
She wants to learn how to knit.
It was really great to meet you at Rhinebeck! And you were not a dork at all. All I asked was that people make some kind of eye contact with me when they took a cookie and indeed your lovely daughter did. Nothing got my goat more than people actively averting my eyes and swiping 4 cookies as they sped by. *shakes fists in rage*
Thanks for stopping by and for buying a book! I think our wedding faces are still pretty good! :)
Posted by: Debbie | October 23, 2006 at 01:43 PM