Who Needs Rhinebeck?

There were no sheep, llamas or alpacas at Willow Books in Acton last night. There wasn’t any festival food or fiber booths or fleece tents. But there were bloggers galore and when Kathy declared that it was our Rhinebeck and that we had to make the most of it, she was right. So we did.

My friend Sharon (who is, sadly, blogless, but I’m thinking not for long) and I drove out together and met up with Kathy and Julie for dinner. We then headed to the bookstore and started seeing tons of bloggers, some we had met before, and some we were meeting for the first time. We also saw the one thing that Rhinebeck didn’t have that I’m willing to bet everyone missed the most. Our dear Steph.
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This is Stephanie with Laurie. I was so excited to meet Laurie in person for the first time. Laurie, you rock!

The readings from Knit Lit the 3rd ranged from touching to hysterical and the line for the book signing was long. Steph braved her way through it (it just might have had something to do with the promise of beer with bloggers afterwards) and even made a snarky comment or two to the cranky man who kept telling us: move along, there’s no time for conversation and only generic signatures are available. Here’s a picture of Mr. Cranky Pants.
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I think he’s counting up the money he’s making by selling all those copies of Stephanie’s books. Which you would think would have made him nicer to all those bloggers there to buy the books, but I digress.

And while Stephanie was signing, a large group of bloggers gathered to wait for her to finish so we could go get beer. There was Wendy, Kellee, Stitchy, Sandy, Laurie, Kathy, Julie, Chris, Ruth, Kristen, and, and, oh, if I left you out, I’m sorry and please leave me a comment so I can find you again.

And ya know what? This is the part that I think was just like Rhinebeck. Because it was all about friends and knitting and talking and laughing. We told our stories and shared our knitting triumphs and disasters. We ate (there was cake!) and drank and connected in ways that I’ve seen bloggers connect before. It should no longer surprise me and yet it still does. For example:

Linda Roghaar lived in the area of Maine where my mother’s family comes from.

Sandy and I were knitting socks from the very same colorway of Trekking.

Sharon and Stitchy have a shared interest in beekeeping.

Kathy and Kristen and I all went to women’s colleges.

I could go on with this but you guys all know exactly what I’m talking about. Meeting other bloggers might not be why any of us started blogging but, for me at least, it’s turned out to be coolest benefit of the whole blogging thing. We called Cassie and we talked about calling Margene but, alas, no one had her number. If you weren’t there, you can rest assured that you were missed.

It may not have been Rhinebeck but it was good enough for me.
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This Post Has 26 Comments

  1. You captured the spirit of the evening perfectly. It was SO much fun, and so good to meet you and the other bloggers.

  3. Oh–I wish I could have gone to the book signing. But I suppose one can’t go to EVERY fiber-y event. Glad you had such a great time!

  5. Paybacks a bitch huh. Now look who’s bitter. 😉

    Glad you had such a good time – and Rhinebeck was pretty much like that. Only with sheep.

  6. You guys look like you had a ball!! (Only a teensy bit jealous over here… no Rhinebeck… no almost Rhinebeck… yup. Jealous.)

    🙂

  7. I think you really did hit on it. All these wonderful people are a serious bonus to this thing called blogging. I’m glad you got together with this group, and a tad bit jealous 🙂

    Chris’ blog is woolybuns.typepad.com

  9. Jealous, jealous, jealous! Can I have a “bitter” button for missing this one? Jeez about the cranky guy.

    Next time, call me, will ya? 😉 I could have used a friendly hello last night. ‘Course you probably would have called the cell and gotten Rhys in Dallas. But anyway…

  10. Wow, I am totally jealous that I didn’t get either the Rhinebeck or the almost Rhinebeck.

    It looks like a great time.

  13. Yippee! I found your blog. It was a blast, wasn’t it?

    I didn’t make the list, but that’s OK, since I don’t have a blog (yet). After meeting all you lovely folk, I just gotta get one up soon.

  16. man! i should have gone. i’ve totally lost my spontaneity in my old age. i would have given mr. cranky pants what for that’s for sure.

    bah.

  17. It’s a whole different feeling to click on a blog and see pictures of people you’ve actually met face-to-face, isn’t it? You know how tall they are (BookishWendy looks taller on her blog, don’t you think?), what their sweaters and shawls really feel like, etc. I’m green, as you know, but very happy that you had such a great time!

  18. Isn’t the knitting community a wonderful thing? It’s saved my sanity on more than one occasion. 🙂

  19. ~Big sigh~ It was wonderful. And I DO know what you mean about connection. It is a good thing, is it not?
    🙂
    Happy Trekking. If I ever get done the things around here that I need to get done, including going to the grocery to get some bread so the family can stop eating sandwiches on stiff bread, then I will rip the trekking socks and think bigger!
    Bigger they say is better. Hmm. I don’t know…..
    And it was absolutely MY pleasure to meet you.

  20. well, well said; it was a lovely evening and worth the lack of sleep – meeting you (and a few others I’d yet to see face to face) was the icing on the preverbial cake! (Mr. Crankypants is a totally appropriate name for him; you’d think by the third book and fourth event with knitters he’d have this figured out…)

  21. Yet another reason for me to wish I live closer to the Eastern end of this state :o(

    I’m sorry I missed it! However, I since DID go to Rhinebeck I guess I shouldn’t complain TOO much…

    ;o)

  22. I’m so grateful for the call last night – it was fun to talk to everyone but damn, it really sounded like you were all having more fun with the beer than I was at home. 😉

  23. What’s with Mr. Cranky Pants? How can he be so miserable around all you wonderful knitters? He must be the spawn of Satan…

  24. what a blast All you girls are great and thank you stitchy for my blog name now there’s no turning back. see you at spa. sharon

  25. Excellent description. Good photo capture 🙂
    A great time was had by all. It was more than cool finally meeting you after so much blog comment back-and-forth. We did it up right that evening.

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