Abbey here to share my gosadi Rhinebeck experience with you all. To be transparent, I found it difficult to write about working because no one wants to read about e-mails, heating up breakfast & waiting for the grocery store to open in the morning so I can buy cream cheese. But I gave it a shot!
a Rhinebeck yarn tale…
I have been to the New York State Sheep & Wool Festival (a.k.a. NYS S&W) a few times since my first visit back in 2017, but this was my first time working at Rhinebeck. No, I didn’t get paid to whisper to the sheep how pretty they were while gently scratching their cheeks. (The dream!)
I was fortunate to be part of the inaugural RBK gosadi House hosting designers from the gosadi community. Rhinebeck attracts so many fiber enthusiasts from around the country and the world -safe to say it’s a legendary event. I was excited to help gosadi debut and show gosadi’s commitment to the community.
Let me just say this was a far cry from my usual Rhinebeck experience! I usually do a little planning beforehand, which mostly consists of looking at the vendors online and doing whatever I can to keep one day available to attend the festival. I prefer the free-and-easy approach to a day out. The gosadi weekend was definitely more than that!
This time, I had lots more packing to consider. A few items for the gosadi house had been shipped to me so I had to make sure those were all loaded up. There was also a sponsor in the area where I needed to make a pick-up beforehand.
After months of preparation, there was a full four-day weekend ahead of me. Staying in an estate with meals catered by a private chef, an in-house movie night in the screening room on our arrival day, attending three separate fiber events followed by a house stitch night on Friday capped by two days at arguably the biggest fiber event in the country all while talking to people about gosadi. And a fashion show. IN THE RAIN. How’s that for really doing it up at RBK? This was NEXT LEVEL Rhinebeck!
There was a lot of back-and-forth about whether or not we’d be able to enter the house early. We needed to prepare for guests and the chef needed to start prepping for dinner. But fate was on our side and we got an early check-in! As part of the house set-up crew – this was magic to get.
As soon as we arrived at the house, we had to get the lay of the land. So many light switches!
Photo credit: Lauren @Mother Of Purl
Pictures rarely give the full feeling of a space so there were some things to figure out in person to make the weekend go smoothly. We were pleasantly surprised at how many distinct areas there were for photos. One downside was there weren’t many spaces available for private conversations. All of the elements had to be taken into account to make the weekend go as smoothly as possible.
Next on the list was welcome bag assembly. If you know anything about a Michele event, you know there will be SWAG. All three of us had brought parts of the “puzzle” with us, so we had to work together to get packages assembled and distributed so we were ready to welcome people.
I did not know what to expect, never having stayed in a group house for Rhinebeck but the gosadi houseguest list was stacked with so many incredible makers that I knew I was in for a good time. The list included Stephanie of Asylum Fibers, Kristin of KraeO, Jessie of Jessie at Home, Lauren of Mother of Purl, Beth of Fig and Filament and inTandem zine, Jessica of Snickerdoodle Knits, Julie of ACCROchet, and Leah of I Play With Fiber.
Team ‘Making It All Happen’ for gosadi were Hilary (gosadi Co-Founder / owner Nina Chicago) and Sam (gosadi Marketing & Designer Relations / owner Bobble Club House) and me, Abbey.
My favorite part of being in the house was talking with people who attended the same events. The solitary nature of our fiber hobbies is often why we enjoy them so much. But it was a welcomed change of pace to be part of the larger community of makers. With everyone’s days being so busy, I could see how much having that community benefitted all of the house guests too.
Having time together at the beginning or end of a day allowed people to check in about business topics and professional social connections. If we weren’t all in the same space getting coffee or having a breather, those conversations wouldn’t have happened or at least they wouldn’t have happened in the same organic way.
Another difference for me this year was this was my first time attending any of the ‘run up’ or what I would call satellite events: Indie Untangled – Rhinebeck, Wool & Folk, and CAKEpalooza. Many people think these events, along with the New York State Sheep & Wool Festival, are all one event. They are not!
The New York State Sheep & Wool Festival event’s website states: “NYS Sheep and Wool Festival started out as breed ewe sale by the local shepherds around 1980.” The Festival is a very full event with a variety of activities and displays. There is an extensive amount of information available on the Festival’s website so I urge you to check it out if you are interested in attending in the future. Or even if you’ve attended in the past!
Satellite events grew out of the desire for a greater number of vendors to access the large number of people visiting Rhinebeck for the NYS S&W Festival and for those attendees to connect with vendors that cannot, for whatever reason, vend at NYS S&W. The four events are independent of each other and have separate locations, vendors, and admission fees.
After arrival and a movie screening on Thursday, the first stop for Friday was Indie Untangled – Rhinebeck. The event is actually in Saugerties, a short drive across the river from Rhinebeck. Rainy weekends have been the norm this year for the region and the trend continued so ponchos and boots were packed. Indie Untangled is the OG of satellite events, celebrating 10 years this 2023 season.
The location is not directly in town, which made me feel more comfortable about slowly driving around to find the entrance to the parking lot.
Upon arrival at the check-in table, we were greeted and set on our way quickly and efficiently. The vendor buildings were chilly with their open sides but I stayed dry and was relieved to have so much fresh air in a situation that can feel claustrophobic. It was so great to see some of our gosadi house sponsors at the event! I said hello to Knit Coffee and got some hugs from RMR Yarn Co. (who I met at Stitch Up Chicago this year). It was a cloudy day so there were some dim spots in the buildings but I thought it was a great show.
Our second stop of the day was Wool & Folk. This event was held in Catskill, NY, which was about a 30-minute drive north from Saugerties. Wool & Folk boasted over 100 vendors that were indoors and outdoors. That’s a big show! This was the event’s third year. I will admit to having some FOMO when seeing the event online in previous years. It always looked like such a social, relaxed, celebratory time so I was excited to attend in person.
I am going to avoid running through a play-by-play of my experience and simply say Wool & Folk was a deeply unpleasant event to attend. It was disorganized and blatantly unsafe.
I was able to visit some vendors that I was excited to see. Of course, the wonderful KraeO lit up her booth, as did Marian of Marianated Yarns. If you have seen anything online about the event, you probably are aware that more than a few vendors ended up losing money from vending at the event.
Go here for a full list of vendors with links compiled by Jeroen of @boymeetsyarn.
Friday’s third stop was CAKEpalooza. I had not heard of CAKEpalooza before this year. The event is held in the parking lot at Cake Wool Co Dye Studio in Saugerties, NY. It is the smallest of the three satellite events but that in no way is a bad thing. We attended relatively late in the day but were still given a warm welcome and a vendor map that had a hand-drawn style. The event was fully outdoors and there was a real camaraderie among the vendors. And I’d never pass up a chance to see Asylum Fibers in the (wooly) wild!
Indie Untangled and CAKEpalooza are primarily shopping events. Your ticket is for a time slot, so you have a set amount of time to mill among the vendors and make your purchases. I did keep looking at my watch but I think that was due to the fact I was working to see everyone and knew I was on a schedule for the day. I didn’t feel I was going to run out of time at either event. Wool & Folk does bill itself as more of a fiber event than a shopping event, which I’d suspect is the justification for the higher ticket price than either of the other two satellite events.
That being said, these satellite events are great places to learn about new-to-you indie dyers and local yarn shops, and to fill out the trip to Rhinebeck.
tips for newbies:
Heads up, it would be a good idea to have a solid plan written down for yourself when you attend any of these events: Who you want to see, what booth they are with, if there is a timed event, etc. Spotty internet service, along with the fall foliage, is something else the Hudson Valley is known for, so do not plan on relying on it during the weekend. Never mind the fact it is so easy to be stuck in sensory overload faced with so MUCH much.
Saturday dawned with – more rain. In spite of that, we were ready to head out after breakfast for the Main Event. The NYS S&W Festival is a very well-organized event. Given that it is held on the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, there are all the facilities you would expect from that classification of venue: helpful staff and volunteers, plentiful bathrooms, paved pathways, First Aid facilities, and lots of places to sit for a bit. When your ticket is scanned, you are given a printed brochure with maps, vendor lists, and a schedule of events. (All for $15 day-of-event tickets!)
I have only attended the festival on a Sunday. My first NYS S&W Saturday was the whirlwind I expected it to be. A big difference between Saturday and Sunday at NYS S&W are the meet-ups: Designers and local yarn shops host meet-ups at different places on the fairgrounds throughout the day. Think friendly knit/crochet wear flash mobs! I sat in on the Patty Lyons meet up and it was such a welcoming and happy crowd.
Another Saturday difference – there are a lot of Serious Shoppers who have the goal of snagging some of the show special yarns from different vendors and don’t want to risk them selling out. You may have seen sheep ear headbands on some attendees – those sold out before end of day Saturday this year. The maker came with over 300 headbands but it wasn’t enough for the crowd!
It’s easy to tell how important these events are for the vendors – so many make a large amount of their yearly profit from the show. I knew how sore my feet were by the end of each day so I can only imagine how the vendors felt. In addition, so many of the greetings and side conversations are about more than the next new pattern in the making list. Rhinebeck is a place where connections are made and partnerships are strengthened.
Seeing designers in person is SURREAL. For me, it is somewhere between seeing a TV star and your most fun classmate from high school that you’ve fallen out of touch with. For a second, you can’t place where you know them from and then it hits you! And they’re walking around enjoying the festival! And they’re everywhere! I’d never really kept a look out for designers before but attending on the Saturday makes it much more likely to spot a designer.
I should add a footnote to designers “enjoying the festival.” It is clear they are working – Meeting fans, posing for pictures, and having conversations with strangers is work. As much as they may appreciate and enjoy the fiber community, it still takes a good deal of energy to go through the weekend as a designer.
As anyone can see, Rhinebeck is a perfect opportunity to build your community as a designer or vendor. When else would you have so many potential customers all together and the opportunity to get pictures with them wearing your work?
The real highlight of Rhinebeck is sharing the joy of creation with other people. And my favorite part of this year’s visit is the ‘Tell me about what you’re wearing to Rhinebeck’ interviews Sam and Hilary did for gosadi at NYS S&W. People really lit up when you asked them to talk about their creations. There was so much pride and joy on display I could feel it parting the clouds.
In conclusion, my boots are muddy, I have yarn specifically for a new sweater, and I have MANY new patterns in my favorite list on Ravelry. Working at Rhinebeck gave me a reason to see and really look at more things rather than allow myself to be overwhelmed by it all.
Learn more about our road to Rhinebeck in our YouTube video about the trip!
