Counting Sheep in Rhinebeck, New York

Staged at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck, New York, The New York State Sheep and Wool Festival is a weekend-long affair, themed around fibrous animals and the products derived from them. When it launched in 1980, it was a much smaller, more intimate bred ewe sale, run by local shepherds hoping to market their wool. (Blankets by Bartlettyarns, who’ve operated in Maine for a century, were sold onsite from the outset too.) Now, it features some 240 vendor stalls, plus weaving, warping, and spinning demos, and lectures on farming and breeding. (Overheard while walking past one talk: “this yarn is perfect for doll hair.”) The festival is also among America’s largest annual gatherings of fiber-arts enthusiasts: those who sew, knit, needlepoint, crotchet, and embroider; who make tactile rugs and woven baskets and quilts; whether for sale or for their own pleasure.

As attendees perused their pastoral Disneyland—tents filled with premium, natural yarns bagged like cotton candy; an alpaca meet and greet; a book signing with the author of Mystical Stitches—many donned the official festival merch. (Namely, “Sheep and Wool”-emblazoned hooded sweatshirts or black logo tees.) Others wore jaunty headgear that simulated a sheep, its body abstracted: headbands affixed with wide, floppy white ears, tufts of curly fleece wedged between them like barnyard mohawks. My favorite hat was modeled by an elderly man in blue jeans and sneakers, and appeared to be custom-made—an enormous, droopy, three-toned woolen wizard hat, reminiscent of Gandalf the Grey. Elsewhere, I watched people rush between tents in fuzzy leg warmers, flocculent beanies, oversized scarves with pumpkin-colored borders, and chunky cable-stitched cardigans.