New York Sheep & Wool (Rhinebeck Weekend - Part II)
Posted on October 21 2026,
It's always an adventure on the hill. On Sunday, we found a sneaky new (to us) parking spot where we got in and out of the festival with alacrity. We arrived just in time to take in the "Celebrating Local Sweaters" parade. We heard someone nearby express their discontent that it wasn't a parade of animals wearing sweaters, "just people", which made us LOL. Fear not, there were MANY animals afoot--and since they have four each, there were many feet. Oh, puns. Sheep and rabbits are always our favorite animals to visit, but we also clapped eyes on a kangaroo and some lemurs. You'll find less of those in the wilds of Upstate New York.
We did our typical rounds at the fairgrounds and saw the uzh, which we love (!), but we find ourselves gravitating more and more to the food barn. We sampled whisky, dips, jams, and snacks of all kinds. Peep our haul at the end to see what very little yarn we purchased. We call this being #yarnbrave. But hey, cut us some slack, we live amongst piles of our own yarn and do frequently patronize our friends' yarn businesses.
This year we decided spinning was in. We both snagged ourselves an Electric Eel Wheel from Dreaming Robots. Eve got a little portable one, deciding that that would be how she chooses to learn to spin. No drop spindle in her future. Tori, having spun before, took the plunge on purchasing a larger model. We're excited to dive into this new hobby with the goal of understanding roving better and how to dye it. We're hoping we'll take to it like... an eel to water. Maybe you'll be seeing some roving in our product lineup in 2027? 👀
We saw some Medieval in the wild, ate some mac and cheese and Brussels sprouts (separately, although combined would be delish), chatted up some authors and publishers, and saw a whole lotta Dollys--and this time we don't mean sheep. If you get that joke, you might be our age.
We rounded out the day by attempting to seek out any of the event's coordinators in hopes of getting some inside intel on the application process. We found some amazingly funny folks who did their best to help us out, but no one was to be found. We chatted up some volunteers and the Dairy Barn and made some ladies laugh at the Fairgrounds Admin Building, so basically it was really about the friends we made along the way.
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