Rhinebeck

Rhinebeck was AMAZING. Thanks to Michele, Chris Q., Kris & Chris for such a great weekend!

Weekend in a nutshell:
Thursday:
I flew into Boston Thursday night. We ate dinner at a great pizza place (not sure where it was :). Thanks to Michele for being such a great host!

Friday:
After stopping in Northampton to tour Webs (there's more to come on this since I purchased quite a bit of yarn there), we trekked toward Rhinebeck, the knitting mecca. Around 7:30pm, we arrived at the hotel in Poughkeepsie and settled in for a long winter nap before our Saturday shopping extravaganza.

Saturday:
We arrived at the gates early and immediately ran (yes, practically ran) to the Briar Rose booth, where I entered a dimension I had not previously encountered. Elbows were flying and niceties were forgotten as we all jumped in and grabbed everything we could before it disappeared (There was nothing but buttons and patterns left on Sunday!). Briar Rose yarns must emit some sort of "happy" scent, as I felt like this was the last yarn on earth and I must buy it all up immediately. I finally escaped the tiny booth, $250 dollars lighter, but EXTREMELY happy with my new yarn and buttons (photos of stash are forthcoming). After Briar Rose, we headed over to Brooks Farm, another favorite, where we continued to enhance our group stash. We stopped around 11:30 to eat some incredible chicken pot pie, and spent the latter part of the day tasting New York state wines. Chris Q.'s comment about the Peach Fizz champagne-like concoction summed up the tasting experience: 'this has an odd finish.' We laughed and moved on to the cheese tasting, which was quite yummy. As the New York weather grew cooler (27 degrees Saturday night), we headed out to the car and off to the Ravelry Party at the Elks Lodge in Red Hook (Can you believe that there are now 200,000 knitters and crocheters on Ravelry!!). The party was great - Bags of free goodies were handed out ad Ravelry cupcakes were made available; Free Boddington's rounded out the night. Thanks to Ravelry for hosting such a FANTASTIC event!!

Sunday:
We woke up fairly early and headed to brunch before Rhinebeck. Michele's friend Chris from grad school joined up with us at brunch. Since we now had 3 ladies named Chris in our group, Michele and I became honorary Chris members: Michele Chris and Susan Chris respectively. Sunday was much less intense (probably because Briar Rose was sold out :), but no less fun. We got to meet some amazing alpaca and watch the sheep herding trials. We sadly left Rhinebeck around 3pm :( and Michele (bless her heart!) drove us back to Boston, where I caught my flight back to R'mond around 8:45pm. I had a pretty uneventful flight back except for the fact that my suitcase was so full of yarn it wouldn't fit into the overhead bin :) I suppose there could be worse problems in life!