Rhinebeck 09

I am less than 24 hours back from Rhinebeck and will give a bit of a review of the show. It was in one word fantastic. Thank you Maryann for all your help throughout the weekend. I saw many good buds including Manise and Beverly and Kris and met lots of wonderful people who came through my booth. That's the best fun about vending a show. Although the crowds are massive if you are a fiber lover this is a show to attend. If you hate crowds but love fiber, well, be brave on Saturday or come Sunday instead when the mood is a little mellower, very little. The weather was pretty gray and chilly all weekend but that didn't sway the mood one bit for most.

Without further prompting, I will start with The Longest Scarf Project which has been building all year. This year people from all over the country have been knitting, crocheting and weaving scarf sections and raising money by the inch or by the row to donate to Heifer International for their magnificent work around the world. All the scarf sections were sent to the Dutchess County Fairgrounds (Rhinebeck) to be joined together and then travel on to a more prominent location for viewing before ultimately being disconnected and given away as scarves, while the proceeds will go on to Heifer. The driving force behind this project is Linda Cortright and her great crew at Wild Fibers. They put together a small tent city on the fairgrounds to host the joining of the scarf as well as the annual evening event on Saturday night which I was able to attend.

Here is a view of the scarf sections as they were displayed in the tent. Mind you this is just a portion of the sections. There were boxes still unpacked and waiting to be joined together.
Waaayyy down at the other end of the table are the sections that the Long Ridge Farm team knit.
As I walked the tables I was in awe of the massive volume of knitting that was done for this project. It was impressive! And I was equally delighted to see our team's sections displayed! Thank you all for joining in the fun. The Long Ridge Farm team has raised $1800 so far for Heifer International! It was teamwork exemplified; working together for a common good. And we got a bit of a spotlight on the
FOXNY News as Linda interviewed about the scarf project. If you click the movie link and watch her pull out the scarf sections, the Long Ridge Farm sections are the last sections shown, all dusty purple, gray and green sections. And all knit with CVM/Romeldale yarns from our flock. Oh! So proud and thankful for the great job done by our group.

And I was equally proud to have the CVM/Romeldale breed be represented in the
breed display area of the show. Chris Spitzer and Dee Heinrick put together a beautiful booth to get the word out about the CVM/Romeldale. Chris brought three CVM lambs from Ohio and they displayed a number of finished pieces made with the breeds fiber for display as well as brochures and fiber sample packets.

I got to slip over a couple of times during the weekend to say hi and also visit with the lambs. Had to have a farm fix, you know? Sunday I stopped by early morning before the fairgrounds opened and slipped the lambs a fresh bucket of water. Too cute they were...still hanging out, chewing cud and resting in the early morning chilly air.

This ram got more photos taken of him than any other sheep at the show! He even sucked me in! He was soooo mellow, loved a good chin rub and a scratch behind the ear.

On my travels to and fro I passed this project...the Largest Sock.

Yet another amazing group effort and what a heck of a sock!

And a red kangaroo? I stopped watch for a bit on Sunday morning...it's name was Mouse. Male, female? No clue, but neat just the same.

There was a whole area where you could get a fresh copy of a recent fiber book autographed with the author present. That was an awesome corner of the fairgrounds. Earlier in the day Sunday I sold some Earthues dyes to a customer. We had a nice conversation, said our goodbyes but later when I visited the book signing area I found her, Melissa Halvorson, ready to autograph her new book Handmade Underground Knitwear by Wiley Publishing. It added yet another layer to the depth and quality present at Rhinebeck.
I also had a chance to chat with Clara Parkes during her book signing for her latest release The Knitters Book of Wool. Clara is extremely talented and well respected in the fiber community. All in all a fantastic weekend...lots of hard work for all of us, from vendors to shoppers to teachers to writers to sheep, and other fiber friends plus the farmers who raise them....such a great community and gathering of common interests!