Petunia rambles on and on….

Last year, when I went to the Fiber Fest in Snow Hill, Maryland, sponsored by the Julia Purnell Museum, I came back smiling, having had a wonderful day.  Vendors with lovely products, saw friends, met new friends, good weather, sheep to pet.

And ALPACAS.

I came home like a freak over the alpacas. I had petted them, and held them, and even sympathized with the pregnant one, tired after being on her feet all day – anybody that’s done that knows how it feels! And I went on and on to Pop about how much I wished we were in a position to have them – we live in a small house in a neighborhood that clearly is not zoned for farm animals.  (someone here would probably throw a fit if a family had a bunny in a cage in the backyard for the kids to play with).  A herd of alpacas would be quickly noticed.  I again berated that fates that control things, because once upon a time, in another life, I had the acreage and the barns and the space and the time – and that’s all gone now.

And I told Pop about the alpacas when I got home.  And he thought, I’m sure, “She’s a freak!” and “This, too, shall pass.”  “I’ll just humor her for a while.”  He agreed that the neighbors would notice, were I to try to pass off a few alpacas in our tiny backyard as Standard Poodles with oddly long necks. Pop is often thinking that I’ve got less than a full quota of working brain cells; he deals with it well most of the time.

This year, Pop was dragged against his will agreed to accompany me to the Fiber Fest. It was over an hour’s drive to get there, so he already had a head start on boredom before we even arrived in Snow Hill. But he thought the town was neat, and liked the location for the Festival, right by the water. And he admired the colors of the fibers at the first booth that caught my eye, and liked the colors of merino and BFL fiber that I chose. 

We continued to walk about, and he liked the sheep.

And then we got to the ALPACAS!

 

 

By Saturday night, he was looking about to see what he could sell, to invest in a herd.

 

 

So you all want to know what else I bought, while crawling about Delmarva in search of bargains, right? You know I couldn’t have just bought one skein of yarn and come home. It’s just not possible. No one would believe it if I said I had. I can hear Pop laughing now! I can hear the Daughter laughing, too!

Blue Heron Silk/Merino in Denim colorway

I would have bought much more of this, except for several reasons that came to me very quickly:

• The loan I would have to take out to cover the debit amount. 
• The man that was standing very close by me, between me and the register, right where he’d see the total.
• The fact that this man standing quite nearby looked very, very familiar. Very familiar in so many ways.

I decided, instead, to buy one skein, 375 yards, and make do and make this month’s mortgage payment.  This one also came from Frivolous Fibers down in St. Michaels, MD.  I’m not sure what it’s going to be, but I’ll wear it with jeans!

Then Pop and I went out to Kent Island, MD to Island Yarn Boutique.  Easy to find and get to (all praises to GPS) and to get off and back on US 50!!  Nice little shop, friendly helpful staff, nice stock.  As I use 50 to get to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge (why does the “terrified of heights and bridges” chicken cross the bridge??  Because the grandtwins are on the other side), I expect I’ll stop in again.  I found Poem, a singles yarn by Universal Yarns, with long color repeats much like Noro, in colors I liked.  The yarn feels softer than Noro, though.  I’m doing a scarf using an Entrelac pattern over on Ravelry, similar to Danica on Knitty, but smaller squares, 2-3 across, 8 st each.  They are amusing to do, and the ups and downs, basketweaving appearance, so simply created look as though you are really smart and knowledgeable and talented and stuff.  I’ve actually had men at work ask, “Why the hell is it coming out looking like that?” in a sort-of nice way. Sort-of. Then they just keep on walking, shaking their head.  

Tip for anyone doing Entrelac work, who doesn’t want to lose their mind  obviously, I didn’t read this soon enough

Before starting, read the article in a recent Cast On magazine about purling backwards, from the front side.  As entrelac requires that you work back and forth over small amounts of stitches (I’m doing 8-st squares), if you turned the whole piece at the end of every single row, you’d go nuts and toss the project into the back of the car, to use for traction the next time you got stuck in the snow. Took me about 15 minutes playing around with it, and now the whole project is worked with the front facing.

We also found a nice assortment of Galway Highland Heather, and in sufficient quantities where I started thinking sweater, and Husband was there, thinking SWEATER. He picked out a color he liked.  He says its gray, I think it’s a bit off gray to the greenish side.  We will never agree on this, and I admit my eyes are often wonky about colors.  I’m thinking top-down, raglan, and some sort of wide cabling bit starting at the front neck, as wide as can fit evenly between the start of the raglan increases, the rest plain soothing knit in the round, all done in one piece. I’ll be looking through all my stitch dictionaries to find a suitable cable to swatch.

I also bought a braid of fiber to spin, lovely colors and it feels so nice.  And it was done by a local dyer.  And that’s all I know.  Because the braid wasn’t tagged, labeled in any way, or weighed.  The staff admitted they knew little if anything about spinning (hey, they knew knitting really well!) and knew nothing of this “batting” they were carrying to help out the local craftsperson.  Great to assist local talent, BUT the goods need to have the weight displayed, fiber content needs to be stated and the name/logo of the dyer should be prominently shown.  If I’m happy with the product, I’d like to give credit where it’s due, and won’t be able to with this project.  And that’s a shame. 

 

Earlier in the month, I had gone down to The Upper Room Studio in Berlin, because the ladies there are such lovely people and they have such wonderful goodies. I came away with a bag of Louet silk merino blend of mostly purples. 

Taking a picture of spinning fiber while it’s still in a bag is dumb – I know that.  Too much glare from whatever light source.  I had no choice though.  It’s a small bag and there’s over 12 oz packed in there.  When it comes out of that wee bag, it’s gonna be like an explosion! (I  don’t know how they got so much in such a thin little bag – or why it hasn’t escaped yet. There’s enough in there to make huge lacy things! Or 3 huge lacy things. I’ve worked with this blend before and the spinning will be as enjoyable as the knitting and the wearing of the finished item.  This may be the project I take to the mountains next week.  Yes, Pop, deal with it. The spinning wheels have to go, too. Just get them in the back there somehow, right next to the beer?

I also found sparkly stuff at the Upper Room.  I have no idea what I’m going to do with it, what I’ll mix it into. Maybe it’ll just sit in these bags and I’ll admire it for years.

Better put these bags up high, though, cause if that stupid poodle gets to them and tears them open, I’ll spend the next 42 years on my hands and knees picking up little sparkly bits.

Heading to FiberFest in Snow Hill, Maryland on the 10th of October.  I went last year and really enjoyed myself.  This year, I’ve talked Pop into going with me.  I’ve seen Delmarva chickens on their way into the Perdue plant looking happier.  Must admit that I’m disappointed that Gryphon will not be there – she’s local and most extraordinarily talented, and a lovely girl.  But I’ll console myself trying to entice away playing with the alpacas.

With the back seat folded down, I could get a pair in there. Do you think he would notice? No? Maybe the smell, huh? Damn.