I was thinking that I’d been back from our New York trip for a couple of weeks and I still haven’t finished my blog posts. I just checked the calendar and it’s been just over a week, so maybe I’m not that behind. The last post I wrote is here. Now it’s time for the main event. We made this trip to attend the event that everyone in the fiber world just refers to as Rhinebeck. The location is Rhinebeck but the event is the New York Sheep and Wool Festival. According to a 2022 source cited in Wikipedia the festival draws 30,000 visitors and has 300 vendors.

We had heard about the long lines of people and of traffic. Wanting to avoid lines we got there over an hour early. We thought we would wait in the car but people were lining up. We got in line near the front.

Here are the four of us. While in line we started talking to the people just behind us. They were three friends who meet here every year from various states. One has been to my shop as she used to live in Winters, just ten minutes away. It’s a small fiber world, even with 30,000 people in attendance.

Look who we saw in the line as it started to loop around. It’s Siobhan, one of our Farm Club members. It wasn’t a total surprise because we knew she’d be here and we had lunch with her the day before.

Things were pretty well organized at this gate. The security people came along the line to check tickets, stamp hands, and check bags. Then once the gates opened there was no more waiting.

We entered at Gate 7 at the bottom of the map. The green blocks were full of vendors. There were a lot to see. In fact I was surprised that there wasn’t more livestock. I don’t know if there used to be, but you can see that a number of the barns are marked green indicating vendors. We first headed to Building E where Kathleen, Siobhan, and I had entered our woven pieces.

I entered six different classes and got first in four of them. My black and white pinwheel shawl was entered in a class that included all types of crafts but with the theme of Natural Color. The gold and red clasped warp scarf was entered in Handwoven, Small Item, Commercial yarn.

These two pieces are also clasped warp, because that is what I have been focused on lately, preparing an article for publication. The one on the left is locally grown wool, but commercially spun, that I dyed with indigo from the garden, and the one on the right is handspun yarn. So these pieces were entered in two different classes. I just sold the handspun one and the other is listed on the brand new Soil to Soil Market. This website is so new that there only two of us there right now, but it will eventually include Fibershed producers from all over the country.

Building E not only housed the Fiber Arts competition, but had gourmet vendors. Mary wanted to start at the booth selling wooden utensils.

Next to him was a vendor with maple syrup and lots of other maple syrup products. So you think those bags are wool ready to spin? No. Maple sugar spun candy! It took me over an hour to move beyond these two vendors because I got talking to the maple syrup farmer and then a friend from Oregon showed up behind me and we chatted. There was a lot more to see and after I wandered through the other gourmet booths I went outside. I decided to be systematic so as to not miss anything. I was going to start at the far corner and work my way back, but I stalled out at some of these outside vendors.

Notice the license plate of this van. They had a shoe shop set up. Shoes were in the van and there was a fitting area where you could try shoes of various styles and sizes outside the van.

These are wool shoes and I bought a pair. They will be delivered soon.

I got side-tracked here. The Tempestry project is focused on using fiber art to portray climate change by making “tempestries” to indicate high temperatures. This is partly how I got the idea of weaving my Year to Remember blankets. I found a book here that shows these pieces at National Parks all around the country, including one by my friend Lisa! So in the first two hours I had purchased items at four booths. Only about 250 booths to go!

I found a Fibershed building. Our Northern California Fibershed was represented. I like to think of us as the Mothership. After all, this is where it started. There were also tables and displays from many east coast Fibersheds.

We had heard about lines, not just to get in, but to get popular items. That white tent in the middle of this photo is where the souvenir t-shirts and bags were and the line stretched even behind where I stood taking the photo. I didn’t try to get a t-shirt until the next day and almost all were sold out even early in the morning.

The used equipment auction was interesting. The auctioneer didn’t know what all the tools were, but the crowd helped him out.

I wandered through the barns.

Sheep were being prepped for the show. I’m so glad that Jacob sheep are shown without all the fitting that goes on with many of the breeds.

I think this sheep and the one above showed in the Natural Colored Wool division.

There were also some Angora goats at the show.

Now to wander the vendor halls. I have over 150 photos from these two days. I guess I won’t be able to share everything.

This is a print by Clare Margaret. She uses cut paper for her original artwork and then makes prints for the wall and cards. They are gorgeous.

Fiber in fascinating colors and combinations.

A similar idea but with yarn.

A blanket woven of Harrisville Designs Shetland yarn. I bought some of this and have woven a scarf. More to come later.

This booth sold the wooden pieces to make these yarn wrapped sheep and they also sold the sheep.

A chess set by a business called GoingGnome.com

Hilltop Farm Fiber Arts had naturally dyed yarn, dried dye plants like I’m selling on my website and on the new Soil to Soil site, but with more variety. I liked this sheep at their booth.

Seen at a grocery store on the way home that day. For you non-knitters, that stands for Knit 1, Purl 1, common language to fiber artists.

For not planning to buy anything I brought a lot home.