Friday evening my teenager and I are hopping in the car and taking a road trip like we have for the previous three years. We’ll pop an autumnal playlist in the CD player (maybe this, this, or probably this) and drive up the New York State Thruway in the dark until we reach our hotel.
The next morning, we’ll find a place to get some coffee and a pastry to-go, and enjoy the beautiful foliage on our trip to the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival.
I’ve already started checking the weather for Saturday, and I was so excited to see this:
Now that is perfect weather. In the past, it’s been too warm in the afternoon for sweater-wearing, but 54F°? No, I don’t think there’s much danger of overheating in that temperature. Yay!
This will be our fourth time going there together, and there is just one thing that I’d like to do differently: I’d like to keep to myself less.
I would like to be comfortable socializing with other yarn enthusiasts, wandering into the Ravelry gathering, saying hello to people who I may recognize from their online presences, etc. But left to my own devices, I know it won’t happen. I’m just too timid for my own good!
Every year my son, who is not exactly Mr. Outgoing himself, pushes me to be more social. “You should go introduce yourself,” he has said on multiple occasions. And I have usually replied with, “you think? Should I? No… should I? Do you think she’ll even remember we exchanged email? Nah.” And so on.
So this year, I have decided that maybe I should just accept that I am never going to be the one to initiate the conversation, and instead try to get some of YOU to make the first move for me.
I have just ordered some snazzy Polka Dot Cottage buttons (that’s a mockup pictured there – fingers crossed they show up in time) and some business cards with coupon codes on the back.
If you come over and introduce yourself to me at Rhinebeck, I will give you a button (while supplies last) and a coupon code worth $5 off any pattern or tutorial purchase in the Downloads Shop.
Sound cool? I hope so! I really would love to put some faces to familiar names, and I am very enthusiastic about the process of chatting with some like-minded folks at the festival. I just need a little help getting started 🙂
How will you know me? First off, I will only be there SATURDAY, so don’t look for me on Sunday 😉 Also, this is me:
(unless my new glasses have not yet arrived in the mail, in which case this is me:)
and the plan is to wear this sweater:
Additionally, I will have this guy with me (and he will probably not be wearing any handknits because he is a teenager and because “no Mom, I’m not a hipster”):
He and I both will be wearing one of the aforementioned Polka Dot Cottage buttons, and I will have a tote bag with my Polka Dot Cottage logo slung over my shoulder. I’ll also have on a Ravelry button with my name and Ravelry ID (lclarke522) written on it.
If any of these things change, I’ll be sure to blog it, or Instagram/Tweet it with the hashtag #pdcsayhello (feel free to use that hashtag to get my attention!)