Rhinebeck Haul

As promised, here's my Rhinebeck haul. It's small, mainly because 1) it was my first time and I had no idea what I wanted/needed other than a drop or supported spindle plus some roving; 2) after paying for a wedding, major car repairs on both autos, and DD#2's college tuition in the past year, cash is real short in the Knitter household.

Left to right:
1) One skein of Brooks Farm 4-Play 50/50 silk and wool. This will be a hat for my grad student come December. I had a most difficult time deciding on the color (Brooks Farm has one of the most gorgeous ranges of colors I have ever seen in yarns), then remembered that the pattern has a sunflower theme. The first skein of yarn I picked up was dyed lovely shades of golden peach and apricot. I showed it to DH for his opinion, which was, "It's very orange." As if orange were a negative adjective. I picked up this rose and cocoa mélange sitting next to the peach and apricot (I think I was getting hungry at that point) and DH said, "That's very pretty." Coming from DH, that's high praise indeed.
2) A hand-made and -painted high whorl spindle from Snook Farm. These aren't on the website; I think they must make them just for the fiber fests. The lady said the wood is some kind of hard pine. You can see a little of the yarn I've spun so far on the hook. I have much to learn. The spindle was only $18.
3) One ounce of Coopworth roving from Snook Farm to practice spinning. This is the white fiber I spun. For $3 it's cheap enough that I can play with the roving and not feel bad that I don't get anything useful from it. I had a coupon for 10% off the Snook Farm purchases, so spindle and roving amounted to $20, even with tax.
4) Not pictured (I forgot to take it off for the photo shoot!) is a dainty silver and coral bracelet I bought from one of the Navajo vendors. I'm a sucker for Navajo and Pueblo jewelry, especially if there's coral in it. This one was only $18.

What would I have bought if I could? Well, I had in my budget enough $ for some Bartlettyarn sport weight to make a vest for DD#1 in a color she fell in love with at Brooks Brothers (but not the $385 price tag). But alas! though I stopped there first, they had only 2 skeins and 3 are needed.
I drooled over the Golding lucets. I never even heard of a lucet until I saw them at the Goldings' booth. Such a simple device to make an I-cord! My wrists ache for some reason when I make I-cord on DPNs; I have a 4-pegged knitting Nancy, but it makes a too thick I-cord. A lucet will make a thinner I-cord more suitable for ties or button loops. But $61 for the thing! I could not justify it, no matter how beautiful. A search on the web found wooden ones; granted, not carved like the Golding lucets, but made of precious woods all the same for prices ranging from $9 to $20. I think I'll go for the $9 one in walnut, and that one has only a $1 postage charge.
I never did find a supported spindle. I'll put that on my list for next year, along with a revisit to Brooks Farm.

One last photo from Rhinebeck, this one of the sheepdog exhibition. The little black border collie was a bit too eager to go after the sheep; she kept biting them. We were surprised by this because at the sheepdog championship trials in Morristown, biting is a disqualification. Rocky herds people (us, mainly), Skye herds other dogs (though his parents are champion stock-dogs). Wonder what they would have thought of this show.