I’m trying hard to recover from my Rhinebeck trip last weekend. I’m most of the way there now and feel almost human again!

I’m so very glad that I went over, it was really quite an experience and a lot to process in one go. When I came back everyone kept asking me what it was like and the first thing that struck me was that it’s really BIG. I’ve gone to busy shows before but they’ve always been a single hall (except for the trade show H+H in Cologne) but Rhinebeck just went on, and on and on…. You’d leave one hall, walk for a few minutes and there would be another hall just as big.

 

Before I give you details of the event I want to give a very big thank you to all of you that came to the Saturday meet-up, and everyone that stopped me over the 2 days to say hello. I meant so much to me that there were people waiting for us when we arrived waving our flag. It’s one of the hardest things as a designer to do, putting yourself out there where it feels very vulnerable . There’s the worry that you’ll be standing there by yourself waving a flag and everyone wondering who the crazy lady is!! I also know on the other end that it’s not easy to come up to designers to say hello so I wanted to let you know that it’s appreciated. It seemed that Tabouli (see above) was one of the most popular of my designs at Rhinebeck this year. I saw quite a few as I walked around!

A big thank you to Clara (on the left above) who helped us so much this weekend, booking the air b&b and doing the driving. The whole weekend just wouldn’t have been possible without her!

So the mischief began on Thursday when I met up with Woolly Wormhead and Sarah in Queens. They arrive a couple of days before me so they were getting well settled in. Next day we headed on to Indie Untangled for lot of hand dyed yummie goodness.

I bumped into Kate Oates on the Yoth stand where I splurged and bought myself a sweater quantity of their Daughter yarn. (Mary is pictured here as well).

When I buy yarn these days it’s always a different sort of purchase. I’m not short of yarn with a full supply of Nua in the shop but I love trying yarns that feel very different to what I stock. Daughter yarn was a new to me yarn that was a domestic US product that had a lovely springy, rounded feel. I think that it will make an amazing oversized sweater that I can wear all winter long!

On the first day of Rhinebeck I got to meet up with a few more familiar and new faces. Here we have Lesley (Knit Graffiti) who is a lot of fun, Jennifer who is a fellow knit designer from Ireland and Meaghan who I’ve never met in person but who has done some tech editing for me.

The only yarn I really wanted to buy while I was there was a light purple dk yarn for a sweater for my dad. Many years ago I knit him a sweater, Knockmore, from Contemporary Irish Knits. He didn’t really wear it for several years BUT now thanks to the chemo he’s cold all the time and last winter he was wearing it every time I saw him! So it seemed like a really good idea to knit a new sweater for him in one of his favourite colours. I found the perfect yarn almost immediately on the Green Mountain Spinnery stand. It was pretty much made for him. If only finding the time to knit an extra sweater was as easy as finding the yarn…

To finish off a great weekend we stopped by the Dragonfly Fibers stand. Kate and Nancy are possibly to 2 nicest business owners you could ever meet. Just so bubbly and full of life. I actually met up with Kate last summer when she was on holidays in Ireland so it was really nice to get a chance to reconnect.

When Kate was over this summer she was knitting on a shawl using Dance Rustic Silk. It had a lovely crisp, slubby silk feel to it and I really liked it. So this time I got 3 skeins from them in colour Zombie Apocolapise that should become something that’s just perfect for next summer! (Yarn pictured in a bag I got from Andi Smith).

 

So that kind of rounds out my whirlwind Rhinebeck tour. It was great, exhausting and just a little overwhelming! I’m not sure I’ll manage the trip every year but I’m sure that I’ll be back again some time!