I'M OFF TO RHINEBECK TOMORROW!!
Tomorrow I'll be flying to New York City on my way to the NY Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck. I'll be gone for about a week and will take some good pictures if I can fit that in, in between running from vendor to vendor.

While in NYC, I plan on visiting all of my favorite knit shops, like Purl Soho which is nextdoor to Once Upon a Tart, my totally favorite bakery, where I will have a scone and a latte every morning after a brisk walk from the inn where I am staying. I also plan on visiting Linda LaBelle at The Yarn Tree in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn. And HABU, which is just a couple of blocks from where I am staying, is a must on my list, as is Tender Buttons, a fabulous little button store on 62nd St. I also have to check out String's new digs. I hear they are now in a cute townhouse. Fiber shops will be my main focus, but I might see what's happening at the American Craft Museum.

My friend, Margie, and her husband are also going to Rhinebeck and will be in NYC when I'm there. Hope to hook up with them for dinner. This trip is to celebrate their getting the youngest off to college -- empty nesters, you know.

On Friday morning, I'll hop on the Metro North train and head up to Rhinebeck. This takes about 2 hours, and it's a relaxing ride up the Hudson River. I'll be staying at the Beekman Arms, a wonderful historic inn.

And I'll be in a suite in the Germond House, pictured below.

After I arrive and check in, I'll meet up with Margie and Charlie for a trip to the Morehouse Merino store and then dinner in one of the many great little restaurants in town. And then . . .beginning at 9:00 a.m. Saturday, it will be shop until you drop at the wool festival. My first and most important destination will be Hatchtown Spindles because I know they'll all be gone if I even hesitate a minute. And, of course, I will have to make a detour across the highway in the afternoon to the UPS Store to send off some of my purchases. Saturday evening will be dinner with my friends, Jan and Jim, before they head back home.

Sunday, of course, I'll have to make one last sweep through the festival marketplace before I head back on the train to NYC to have dinner with another friend. I am so, so, so excited!!! I love this trip, have done it several times before, and will do it many times again.

RAVELRY I got on the Ravelry bandwagon late in the game after hearing everyone talking about it for so long -- but yahoo!! I just checked today and there are only 526 people ahead of me. The site said that there are 30,000+ people already invited. Can that be so?

Well, it's time to go pick out my knitting projects for the trip: socks, of course, for the plane with some of my handspun yarn. Here are pictures of some of the skeins I have spun in the last two weeks. I'm going for the teal colored skein for my socks -- it's baby camel/silk plied with merino/kid mohair.

This one is merino/cashmere. I plied my "Sands of Utah" and "Calico Hills" colorways together.

And this is merino/bombyx silk, plied on itself and in some random colorways. This, I think I will save for a sweater.

So I'll talk to everyone when I get back from NY. And remember to save Sunday, November 4th, for the Southern California Handweavers Fiber Festival in Torrance, to be held from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.