Rhinebeck – NY Sheep and Wool Festival – A Fantastic Fiber Extravaganza!

Joy permeated the autumn air at Rhinebeck this year. Everyone was in a festive mood moving about the Duchess Fairgrounds in their most beautiful knitted and crocheted garments. Saturday was a massive river of knitters. The line in the book area extended past my table that I shared with Margaret Huber who has authored over 45 books. She started in 1978 with her first book “One Piece Knits That Fit”. While the rest of us were knitting sweaters in pieces, Margaret had already written the book on how to make a sweater on round needles. She remains ahead of the curve. Margaret’s current book is how to create a lace jacket from crocheted doilies which is her version of upscaling (see the beige jacket in the picture) and free form crochet (see the blue and purple jacket) as well as her beloved granny squares which have come back in style. There were several young women with their granny square inspired sweaters making the rounds.

The line of knitters hovered around Patty Lyon’s table ( the women standing in the green jacket) all weekend to get her latest book “Knitting Bag of Tricks: Over 70 sanity saving knitting hacks for better knitting. She sold out!

Those of us behind the tables gawked at the myriad of sweaters worn by the chatty crowd that eagerly asked what pattern and yarn the creator had used.

Look at this knitter!!!!!! She finished the Marie Wallin wrap This represents countless hours of knitting. She proudly modeled it while we took her picture. I’m working on the same project and I have about 2 inches done. She encouraged me to continue and gave me some hints. She was elated that she found another person who understood what the extent of her accomplishment.

I talked to hundreds of people and saw countless sweaters that I wanted to run out and make. It was exhilarating and exhausting. Knitters are passionate and eager to share.

I’m glad the knitting community is a kind audience. It is humbling to stand and watch as people pick up your book, skim the back cover and thumb through the pages. They either put it back or they raise it up and ask for an autograph. I could never guess what the person was going to do.

Waiting for the first sale is like waiting to see if anyone is going to show up at your party. It’s agonizing. Hours and hours of work are represented in the pages of the book that a person glances at and then looks away. It wasn’t too long into the day on Saturday when a kind woman saw me at the table, and told me she had read the book and how much she liked it. This caused another woman to stop and look. I think the book found the right people to take it home.

I will treasure the stories that I heard and the friends that I made. I hope those who bought the book find it helpful in their spiritual journeys. Thank you to all of you!!!!!!!!