The NY Sheep and Wool Festival was a great event last weekend. It was my first year vending at this event and I was delighted to be able to attend. My friend, Maryann, came along to help with every aspect of the weekend and she was a Godsend. It is a big job to set up and tear down the booth, not to mention being on your feet for 12 hours +/-. We didn’t leave the fairgrounds until 7PM Sunday night and I was grateful for her conversation on that very long ride back to NH (long only because it was dark and we were a wee bit tired!).
Friday night we got together for dinner with Tom and Diane Golding www.dropspindle.info/ at a great restaurant right across from the fairground, The Double O Grill. It was nice to unwind with friends after the day of driving and setting up our booths plus the food was excellent!
After a very busy day Saturday, Maryann and I enjoyed evening reservations at the annual Wild Fibers event that Linda Cortright hosts. We gathered in an enclosed tent on the fairgrounds for yummy food, red wine, gifts of wonderful alpaca blend socks from Red Maple Sportswear www.redmaplesportswear.com/ plus samples of Unicorn Fiber Wash, Scour and Rinse products www.unicornfibre.com/ Linda gave a spirited talk with slides of her trip to Central Asia this year. A nice gathering among fellow fiber lovers.
The weather all weekend was spectacular after a rainy Friday night of setting up. A cold front set the stage for low humidity and lots of sunshine. The Duchess County Fairgrounds are beautiful and clean, right down to the bathrooms, which had the friendliest, and most entertaining attendants I have ever encountered!
My only huge disappointment was one of the 3 fleeces I submitted to the judging/sale at Rhinebeck disappeared sometime Saturday. I checked them all in Saturday AM early but by Sunday AM the people who manage the paperwork had no record of the sale and the fleece was missing. Seven pounds of the most beautiful gray CVM, gone. My only hope is that the sales slip got misfiled and they’ll find it as they tally the slips in the next few weeks. If not then the fleece was stolen. I have accepted that inevitabilty with a sour taste. I have decided our fleeces will no longer be submitted to the shows. I will sell them at my booths at various festivals or through my reserve list. No more ribbons needed. I cannot allow that kind of loss more than once. It is hard work managing fleeces throughout the year to present for sale. Enough said.
I enjoyed all who came to our booth to learn about Earthues natural dyes for the first time and to see familiar faces of those who already enjoy natural dyeing and want more! Thank you all for a great weekend and I look forward to seeing you next Spring, if not sooner.
