we went to the infamous rhinebeck, ny sheep and wool festival on sunday.

seriously, words can not describe the huge amount of yarn that can be found at rhinebeck. it is actually overwhelming, and i found myself in a bit of a daze. so much in a daze, in fact, that i took no pictures of the yarn. i have to come up with a better plan of action for attending next year. yesterday it just washed over me, next year i will have to take control of it!

we met (but, again, did not photograph) knitting celebrities, such as stitchy mcyarnpants, ann and kay, and jess & casey of ravelry, who were so sweet and seemed genuinely happy to meet all of the people that they have sucked into the world of ravelry. we also walked right past yarn harlot, but decided to not bother her since she was heading toward the front of the tent where she would be speaking to the waiting audience. i did get to see the finished kauni sweater, as she slowly walked by me, and it is gorgeous.

in addition to the yarn and wool for spinning, there were other non-yarn activities.

we stopped by the festival of cheese:

i did not partake of the free cheese.

considered eating a deep fried pickle, but then decided to pass:

we missed the sheep-herding dogs, but we did see the pumpkin chuckin’ competition.

some of the chuckers:

loading:

launching:

the pumpkins flew too quickly to capture on camera, though i tried. the pumpkins made a fantastic sound when they hit the ground at that speed! we got to see one of the teams actually hit the target, that was a real crowd-pleaser. speaking of crowds, there were a ton of people at the festival, but even so, it was surprising to see the huge crowd for this event:

the people, they love the pumpkin chunkin’ enough to step away from the yarn. perhaps, like me, they just needed to take a breather.

so sad, poor tina and her cheese issue :( that would have been my favorite part (besides a good pumpkin tossing! would have loved to see that.