It's only a week plus after the fact, but better late than never, right? I really wanted to share these photos of our annual trip to NY Sheep and Wool festival in Rhinebeck.  We had a great weekend.  The weather was brisk and cold, and we were glad to have a hotel room in Fishkill (a bit far, but worthwhile) as friends spent Saturday night camping nearby, and alternating between freezing to death and rude awakening by the train which apparently goes through the campgrounds honking more than once an hour, all night long.  Some of the sheep, freshly shorn from demonstrations,  actually looked cold to me, with an expression on their faces that seemed to say "Where did you put my sweater?  I need it today."

Despite how the cold affected the sheep or our chilly friends, I'm sure it was a good thing for the vendors--I can only imagine it did wonders for yarn and woollen accessory sales which I can say from craft show experience, do NOT sell in hot weather.  All the vendors I asked had no complaints about sales. There was some reporting of "record" attendance, though one vendor was telling us how the fairgrounds would not release the actual attendance numbers.  Early on Saturday morning I was wondering if the economic doom and gloom would affect attendance and sales, since it seemed very quiet and easy to negotiate the barns to me.  Then around lunch time, it was suddenly jammed with wool lovers and loads of casual attendees, looking for something to do on a beautiful fall weekend.

All my photos are from Sunday, as I didn't want to lug the camera around on Saturday, which was my prime shopping day and hanging out with wool loving friends who also make the pilgrimage every year.  So Sunday morning we started our day by heading north of Rhinebeck to Red Hook for some apple pickin (this is the same farm that sells apples at the fair, though I can't recall the name off hand).  Here's Golden Boy picking some Golden Delicious:

This ornery sheep was giving her handler a tough time at competition:

I didn't see who won because I ran off to the fleece show and sale to see if there was anything I couldn't resist. There is still some nice wool left here to buy, but bags and bags are gone by now.  On Saturday shortly after the sale opened, you could barely move in here, and the line to purchase fleece was about 30+ people deep.  I decided I could wait for things to empty out and see if there was anything left.  I actually managed to get a third prize Cotswold fleece, a pretty good catch for Sunday afternoon!

Now for the highlight of my day.  I brought a box of spinning wheel parts with me that I purchased at the Shelter Island Historical Society in the spring for $5.  I had arranged with David Paul of The Merlin Tree to take a look and see if it was salvageable.  Here's what I brought, scary huh?  I left the box with him for a few hours and returned when he had a chance to look things over.

On return, David said that he had just spoken with a gentleman about the wheel.  The man had a picture of nearly the exact same wheel, and they had looked it over together.  He called it a "parlour wheel" (upright and smaller design to take up less room) and said it was most likely of German or Austrian origin.  He was fairly excited because all the parts were there and none in terrible shape, including a rare metal dipping bowl for holding water to dip your fingers in for flax spinning.  In around a half hour, and adding only a few bits of string for drive band and to join the treadle to the footman temporarily, the wheel was turning.  Only one small piece of the flyer needs to be repaired, and the wheel needs an overall balancing, tightening of parts, leather pieces replaced and some TLC.  Who knew that what looked like a box of junk was actually an investment in a little piece of history?  It's amazing!  We left the wheel with him to restore, and will hopefully get it back in the spring.  Thanks Dave! 

Oh yeah, can't forget my stash accumulation (photo notes on my flickr):

And I'll leave you with a picture from the end of the festival.  Craig with our future farmers.  A fun time was had by all.