[Nfb-krafters-korner] My day at the New York Sheep & Wool Festival

[linda]

Hi Dixie,

Wow!  Sounds like  you had a wonderful time - this is the time of year for
such festivals - we are still hot and humid here!

Blessings, 
Linda

-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-krafters-korner-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:nfb-krafters-korner-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Dixie
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 10:07 AM
To: 'List for blind crafters and artists'
Subject: [Nfb-krafters-korner] My day at the New York Sheep & Wool Festival

Hi all,

Just a little report on my trip up to Rhinebeck, NY, for the New York Sheep
and Wool Festival this weekend.
Oh, alright, so it is more than a little report...

I did my best to spend my stimulus money and jump start the economy.  You
should all be feeling the ripple effects any day now!

Most of what I purchased was for Christmas gifts so that in my mind was not
like I spend the money, right?  It was for someone else!

I did get myself a thing or three, or five...

There were these beautiful handmade glass beads which I purchased several
of.  They are large about the size of a quarter.  They are made of melted
fused glass and are in wonderful colors and textures.  I picked up one for
each of my daughters, one for my sister...  Oh, ok, and one for myself!  The
ones I got for gifts are all bumpy, kind of the shape of like a dandelion
flower.  They have swirls of color and the bumps are small clear glass .
Mine is sort of like if you took 4 beads, lye them down side by side and
then melt them.  The beads have swirls of red, blue, purple, black, copper,
and green.  I just strung it on a silver chain and now have a nice necklace!

Let's see, what else did I get?  Oh, we went to this one place that sells
wonderful socks!  They are made from alpaca, and copper.  Yes, you read that
right, copper.  The alpaca wicks away moisture, and the copper reflects back
heat.  So you can imagine how warm these socks will be come January. I know
it doesn't sound as if they would be comfortable with copper in them?  Well
they are so very soft and thick, and luxurious!   I got pairs for both my
husband and son-in-law...  Oh, ok, truth be told?  Yes,  and a pair for me!

I got this little tool for my daughter that is used for knotting embroidery
floss into chains.  It came with a book of directions on how to do this
knotting technique, along with several variations on the technique. I can't
remember what it was called, I will have to wait until Christmas for that.
I can't wait until I give it to her as I want to learn!

I found myself a pair of wool hand carders.  These are like great big dog
brushes that are used for lining up the fibers of wool, or yes, German
Shepherd hair in order to spin it.

I also picked up at a "fair trade" booth a set of Christmas ornaments, they
are handmade mugs made out of felted wool and say Joy on them.  In that same
booth I picked up a handbag I will probably give to my older daughter which
is woven cotton threads and the threads are woven over recycled plastic
grocery bags.  You can't see or feel the plastic bags but they are used for
structure to weave the brightly colored bag.  It is very interesting!  

Finally, I got myself a nice fair trade, African grass basket.   I had
purchased my daughters each one of these baskets last year. Since they liked
them so much I decided that I needed to pick up one so I could have one
also.  I certainly needed something to carry all my treasures, right?  We
stopped and ate lunch at this one booth that serves a wonderful lamb dinner
for $12.  It includes 2 nice lamb chops, 5 homemade lamb raviolis, and a
nice bunch of fresh spinach.  Then we went and watched the judging events.
A couple of our friends won for best in breed for their sheep, and one of
those sheep won Champion for best overall Ram lamb!

One of our friends is a woman who has a service dog.  This woman is in a
wheel chair, she has this dog for seizure alerts.  What a gentle wonderful
well-behaved, Golden he is!  I had explained I hadn't brought Cobalt because
I was concerned about the crowds.  People are too busy looking at the stuff
and not where they are going at this fair.  She said she had agreed and was
sorry she had brought her dog.  In one of the buildings a woman going down
the aisle knocked this service dog in the head with her basket.  The woman
in the wheel chair grabbed the arm of the offending woman and said to her
"I'm sure that you didn't mean to hit my dog on purpose?"  The offending
woman responded, "I don't like dogs!"  Can you imagine?  How awful!  The
thought that people are out there who would purposely harm our dogs!  Or any
dog for that fact!

Before we left we grabbed one more food goodie.  There is a booth that
serves different artichoke offerings.  Well, artichokes are one of my 2
favorite foods...  Ok, ok, ok,  3 favorite foods, we need to include
chocolate in the favorite category!

So we got what is called the Artichoke French.  These are sautéed artichoke
hearts which have garlic and I think some Parmesan cheese and served with a
piece of French bread to sop up all the good juices!  Yum!

The ride home was great, first of all we found a back way out of the
festival and completely by passed all the congestion in town.  Then, we got
stuck in traffic on route 84 so decided to take a back way, and by doing
that  we actually took a good 20 or 30 minutes off our trip!
It looks like we now have a new way to get there and get back due to these
beneficial detours.  

One more thing I forgot to mention, I also picked up a selection of
wonderful goat and cow cheeses made at a learning cooperative in
Poughkeepsie .  I brought those home and last night for dinner, my husband
and I had a lovely cheese plate, with crackers and apples and a nice glass
of wine.  What a nice way to end a wonderful day!


Dixie

~ @-> ~ <-@ ~




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