Under the Influence
The weekend was spend under the influence of friends. This group of grrlfriends enables good times, laughter (often uncontrollable), fiberlust, shopping frenzies (which can be but didn't seem to reach the point of being uncontrolled) and bouts of eating and drinking (which are never uncontrolled or cause us to be illegally under the influence). In other words, there was nothing but the best of times. 
Cheryl, Kathy, Kim, Laurie, Terry and Carole
Sadly Sandy and Norma were not in the picture, but they should be, especially my grrl, Sandy. I did not get as much time with her as I'd had hoped.
The Great Rhinebeck Incident, which is chronicled here, here and here had us nearly weeping with uncontrollable laughter AND we were sober! It was a story to rival any Keystone Kops movie and the laughter continued as the story spread. This incident is indelibly etched on my brain along with all the laughter that ensued. The laughter is the main reason I love Rhinebeck.
I love this picture!
This picture was taken while we under the influence of JMMs spinning class. Judith is an undeniable treasure trove of spinning knowledge. She left us discussing spinning techniques the rest of the weekend. I may try to put together a post about some of the wonderful things learned. The picture is of Terry holding a bison puppet that Judith passed around class just before we spun bison fluff (a very difficult task).
Walking through the barns from vendor to vendor quickly puts one under the influence of fiberlust. There is so much to see, so much to desire, so much to touch. The plan I had was to buy little to no yarn and that plan lasted for about 2 seconds. I walked into the Briar Rose booth with very frigid fingers which caused every yarn I touched to yelled MITTENS! Under the influence of the weather, I impulsively bought the skein of wool/mohair in lovely autumn shades of red. There is no buyers remorse and there will be a pair of knit mittens in short order. Also, under the influence of "last of a kind", I bought a large skein of Susan Briggs Icelandic lace weight from Tongue River Farms.
The small skeins of yarn, in natural, gray and blue, are Icelandic fingering weight singles from Frelsi Farms. The plan is for an Icelandic shawl in stripes of color. The idea of spinning for a shawl was quickly undone by the thoughts of knitting the shawl right away.
While I may have passed up the Icelandic roving I did not pass up all spinning fiber. Foxfire's cormo wool, one bag plain and one blended with silk, made its way home with me (not pictured). The blue fluff at the top of the photo is Jacob (a wool I have yet to try) dyed with indigo and the gray batts at the bottom of the picture are from Barnswallow. They screamed SHAWL and I was immediately under their influence.
Golding is another booth that hypnotizes me and puts me under its influence. This spindle immediately spoke to me, as did the spindle Terry is spinning with in yesterdays post. The understated beauty of this one won out. It's maple with a thin metal ring of bright fuchsia and it spins like a dream. It's my true Rhinebeck souvenir. Everything fit nicely into my suitcase and I came away with more ideas for future purchases. Not everything needs to be owned, bought or desire at one time. While purchasing all this lovely fibery stuff, much laughter, chatting, eating, drinking and hugging happened. We were all under the influence of a fabulous fiber festival. The trip to Rhinebeck was to be with "my people" and not for fiber hoarding.
U is for under the influence of fiberlust, under the influence of friends and uncontrollable laughter....undeniably life's best things.
