(Are we seriously mere days away from November??)

I flew to Buffalo last Thursday, where Ann picked me up at the airport! It's been less than a year since they moved from Long Island, and it was really fun to see their new house.

We had a nice dinner at home with her husband, John, then drove over to visit her daughter, Caroline, and to meet her adorable grandson, Mr. Sweetcheeks! Only 20 minutes from Niagara Falls, we drove up there, too! It's an amazing site... and one that I will certainly visit again someday!

On Friday, we drove over to meet Cara & Claire in Saugerties in time for our time slot for Indie Untangled.

You think you're parkin' here? Think again... haha. #rhinebeckbitchinfour

It was an interesting venue -- nice and big, lots of light. I made all of my weekend yarn purchases at Indie!

I have plans, more or less, for most of those items... we'll see how it all pans out in the end! The skeins I found irresistible were from Hue Loco, Spun Right Round, Fuse Fiber Studio, Pandia's Jewels, and Lambstrings Yarn (I'd pre-ordered that skein).

We had a nice dinner together and then drove down to settle into our Airbnb in Kingston.

Saturday was RHINEBECK! Everyone but me seemed to have a plan; I peeled off and wandered through a barn or two, watched a demo, did some visiting...

Then it was time for lunch... well, it was a bit early, but the line wasn't very long yet (and it can get very long), so we took our chance.

Falafel for breakfast! Cara in the center, wearing her very popular & eye-catching Rhinebeck Sweater, which is a heavily modified design that begins with Thea Colman's Shaken or Stirred as a starting point.

It was a gorgeous day! Sweater weather, for sure, though it warmed up a bit in the afternoon.

Those clouds indeed developed into something... a literal DOWNPOUR for about 15 minutes! Thankfully, we were undercover during that.

I bought my Malojos Knitting Needle Gauge Ring two years ago at Rhinebeck, having fallen in love with Ann's. This year, Claire & Cara each scored one. That's the very moment, above, that the #RhinebeckBitchinFour was born.

Or maybe it was this moment:

It's about sheep and wool...

...sweaters and yarn (OMG, Harrisville Nightshades is/are incredible)...

...and PEOPLE! So many people, and every one of them high on wool.

You can see Kay & I modeling our Savage Hearts on Saturday on the MDK Rhinebeck post.

Julia Farwell-Clay wrote about my sister's Sasha Kagan/Vogue Knitting Int'l sweater:

I also visited with/hugged Lynne @the_yarnivorous, Seashore Sharon, Regina, Margaux, Robin, Sandy, Norma, Leigh, Wendy, Amy, JessaLu, Larissa, Gaye Glasspie... so many wonderful people!

Sunday was truly sweater (and hat) weather... and busy at the fairgrounds, but always so much more relaxed. Beautiful as always. Falafel again for lunch.

There were no Artichokes French and, now that I think back, I don't think they were there two years ago, either; my favorite, chicken pot pies, haven't been there for even longer. There were food trucks on Saturday, though, and I heard great things about chicken satay, Korean tacos, and pork buns... and there was disappointment when they weren't there on Sunday!

Falafel, though. (So good.) And also available at the new Aba's Falafel in Rhinebeck!

My actual Rhinebeck purchases were mostly gifty/kid things:

I had polar bear ornaments for Junah & Ginny and was happy to find another for Malina!

With a couple little items for myself! A cute little project bag from Madder Root Maine and a fine wool jersey scarf from Althea Bilodeau.

I drove down to NJ on Sunday afternoon with Cara & Claire, and stayed overnight at Cara's. It was so great to see her family! I watched my first Ghostbusters movie with the girls! (The new one. They couldn't believe I'd never seen either before!)

I was home on Monday night and was happy to also have Tuesday off. Since then, I've been busy with catch-up of one sort or another! Maybe still high on wool fumes...

It was so much fun!!