Rhinebeck fun
Oct. 22nd, 2023 01:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unicorndukeIt's been a few years since I went to NY Sheep and Wool, I think 2018 maybe was the last time. For various reasons I haven't been back since then.
Earlier this week, I messagedreedrover who takes her goats to the Northeast Angora Goat Show to show and figured I could meet up with her and chat for a bit. I've had great luck meeting internet friends and I figured this would be fun. A day or two before, she asked if I could help hold goats during the show as some of the folks' usual helpers hadn't been able to make it. Sure! Goats are fun!
I aimed to get to the fairgrounds at 8:50 figuring that would give me time to wander around and look at things, but with traffic and parking and line, I ended up getting in at 9:15 and figured I should just go to the barn so I knew where they were. I did and met with RR. She's a delight and lovely to talk to! I got a little spinning time in before the show started and chatted with random passersby about Angora goats and spinning.
Then the show started. RR was busy but once I figured out who needed help, I kept checking in with those folks, and occasionally someone would shout a goats tag number at me and I'd go figure out what goat needed to be in the ring. I chatted with the other folks about the goats. It was pretty funny to just pick up the kid goats and carry them in, they complained so much, the little babies.
It was just so much fun. I'd missed that sort of camaraderie of animal showing and while none of the animals were mine, at least I could help someone else succeed. I enjoyed myself a lot. Sometimes there was a decent amount of passersby stopped to watch the show goats but they were all friendly and interested in what was going on. For one of the very large classes, there was too many goats and not enough people so someone grabbed a volunteer from the audience and she was confused but was great at holding goats!
During lunch break, I scooted through a vendor barn and remembered why I hadn't come to Rhinebeck in years and that's because it was fucking packed with people and the barn aisles weren't very wide. Hardly room for traffic to get through. I was masking outside of the livestock barn and I was surprised at the number of people who were wearing masks. Not a huge number, but more than I thought there would be and a lot higher percentage of vendors wearing masks, very understandably.
I didn't even get into any of those vendor booths even though I wanted to stop and get something from a vendor I had bought some beautiful Teeswater roving from years ago, but I was afraid I'd get stuck in there too long and be late for the afternoon show trying to get lunch.
So I moved on. I found a lunch vendor with a reasonable line and gluten free options actually marked on their menu which I appreciated. It was pork and rice and they had gluten free tamari, which I double appreciated. It was pretty tasty, if expensive. I ate in the livestock barn and chatted with RR while we ate, which was nice.
Afternoon show went great and wrapped up around 2 or 2:30 and I decided to brave the crowds again. I managed about 45 minutes, I missed multiple vendors that I wanted to stop at because there was too many people or I just didn't see them. I got pretty overstimulated and a little upset, so bailed on shopping. I did get some things at least but I think for future big shows, I need to spend a whole weekend, find someone to either stay with or a vendor to tag along with and do shopping on the less busy day or at the end of the day or something. It was dizzying. I did run into a number of folks I knew through weaver's guild or some vendors I knew from fiber stuff so that was nice.
I sat in the parking lot in my truck for 30 minutes in the line to exit, which was a little annoying but we were stopped so I just read a book on my phone and glanced up every so often while we all inched forward. Easy drive home and then I was very tired. Despite the tireds, I didn't sleep very well including a lovely 4am staring at the ceiling for no reason. Got up and got a bunch of stuff done, both necessary (folding laundry, baking break, cleaning my room), and fun (weaving, reading a book, putting together a sewing pattern).
Haul!
RR gave me a beautiful tan mohair fleece, it's so pretty!!!! I'm definitely going to comb it but I've been thinking through what to make with it. I think it would make great weaving yarn but I may also do some crocheting with it too. I've got some mohair I got in a destash that I could use it with too. I really should try tablet weaving with it too, omg the shine would be great on a plain band. hmmmmmm.
I also found the American Coopworth Association (I think) booth and I love spinning Coopworth, so I picked up roving from them, three natural colored grey balls and two blue and two purple balls. All total, 30oz of wool, so I should be able to make something fun out of that.
And I also picked up some small bits of fleece from Clemes and Clemes Good Clean Fiber. Wildly expensive if you plan to get any large amount of fleece from them, but they choose nice fleeces and wash them well, so I like getting 4oz packs to try different fleeces or pick up something that I don't have much of. Those are Shetland, Horned Dorset and a 4 way cross of some stuff but it's a pretty brown color. I've got washable sock aspirations for the Horned Dorset, since it's a down breed and they have incredible springy wool that doesn't felt or shrink. We'll see if that ever happens
Earlier this week, I messaged
reedrover who takes her goats to the Northeast Angora Goat Show to show and figured I could meet up with her and chat for a bit. I've had great luck meeting internet friends and I figured this would be fun. A day or two before, she asked if I could help hold goats during the show as some of the folks' usual helpers hadn't been able to make it. Sure! Goats are fun! I aimed to get to the fairgrounds at 8:50 figuring that would give me time to wander around and look at things, but with traffic and parking and line, I ended up getting in at 9:15 and figured I should just go to the barn so I knew where they were. I did and met with RR. She's a delight and lovely to talk to! I got a little spinning time in before the show started and chatted with random passersby about Angora goats and spinning.
Then the show started. RR was busy but once I figured out who needed help, I kept checking in with those folks, and occasionally someone would shout a goats tag number at me and I'd go figure out what goat needed to be in the ring. I chatted with the other folks about the goats. It was pretty funny to just pick up the kid goats and carry them in, they complained so much, the little babies.
It was just so much fun. I'd missed that sort of camaraderie of animal showing and while none of the animals were mine, at least I could help someone else succeed. I enjoyed myself a lot. Sometimes there was a decent amount of passersby stopped to watch the show goats but they were all friendly and interested in what was going on. For one of the very large classes, there was too many goats and not enough people so someone grabbed a volunteer from the audience and she was confused but was great at holding goats!
During lunch break, I scooted through a vendor barn and remembered why I hadn't come to Rhinebeck in years and that's because it was fucking packed with people and the barn aisles weren't very wide. Hardly room for traffic to get through. I was masking outside of the livestock barn and I was surprised at the number of people who were wearing masks. Not a huge number, but more than I thought there would be and a lot higher percentage of vendors wearing masks, very understandably.
I didn't even get into any of those vendor booths even though I wanted to stop and get something from a vendor I had bought some beautiful Teeswater roving from years ago, but I was afraid I'd get stuck in there too long and be late for the afternoon show trying to get lunch.
So I moved on. I found a lunch vendor with a reasonable line and gluten free options actually marked on their menu which I appreciated. It was pork and rice and they had gluten free tamari, which I double appreciated. It was pretty tasty, if expensive. I ate in the livestock barn and chatted with RR while we ate, which was nice.
Afternoon show went great and wrapped up around 2 or 2:30 and I decided to brave the crowds again. I managed about 45 minutes, I missed multiple vendors that I wanted to stop at because there was too many people or I just didn't see them. I got pretty overstimulated and a little upset, so bailed on shopping. I did get some things at least but I think for future big shows, I need to spend a whole weekend, find someone to either stay with or a vendor to tag along with and do shopping on the less busy day or at the end of the day or something. It was dizzying. I did run into a number of folks I knew through weaver's guild or some vendors I knew from fiber stuff so that was nice.
I sat in the parking lot in my truck for 30 minutes in the line to exit, which was a little annoying but we were stopped so I just read a book on my phone and glanced up every so often while we all inched forward. Easy drive home and then I was very tired. Despite the tireds, I didn't sleep very well including a lovely 4am staring at the ceiling for no reason. Got up and got a bunch of stuff done, both necessary (folding laundry, baking break, cleaning my room), and fun (weaving, reading a book, putting together a sewing pattern).
Haul!
RR gave me a beautiful tan mohair fleece, it's so pretty!!!! I'm definitely going to comb it but I've been thinking through what to make with it. I think it would make great weaving yarn but I may also do some crocheting with it too. I've got some mohair I got in a destash that I could use it with too. I really should try tablet weaving with it too, omg the shine would be great on a plain band. hmmmmmm.
I also found the American Coopworth Association (I think) booth and I love spinning Coopworth, so I picked up roving from them, three natural colored grey balls and two blue and two purple balls. All total, 30oz of wool, so I should be able to make something fun out of that.
And I also picked up some small bits of fleece from Clemes and Clemes Good Clean Fiber. Wildly expensive if you plan to get any large amount of fleece from them, but they choose nice fleeces and wash them well, so I like getting 4oz packs to try different fleeces or pick up something that I don't have much of. Those are Shetland, Horned Dorset and a 4 way cross of some stuff but it's a pretty brown color. I've got washable sock aspirations for the Horned Dorset, since it's a down breed and they have incredible springy wool that doesn't felt or shrink. We'll see if that ever happens
no subject
Date: 2023-10-22 07:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-10-23 02:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-10-22 11:23 pm (UTC)It is a pretty brown colour!
Pretty much all of that is gorgeous.
Too many people sure is a thing.
Glad the goats cooperated!
no subject
Date: 2023-10-23 02:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-10-23 11:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-10-23 02:43 pm (UTC)