SpiderWomanKnits

This weekend was the Massachusetts Sheep and Wool Festival in Cummington. Lucky for us that is just in our backyard (almost literally). Last summer we bought a cabin in a state forest just one town over from Cummington which has quickly turned into my favorite place to be. I have some sort of connection to this land/area of MA that is deeply rooted in a feeling of peace and serenity. Needless to say I was really looking forward to this fiber fest. I knew it was going to be a beautiful day.

The night before Mr. & Mrs. SpiderWomanKnits and little SpiderWomanKnits feasted on lamb burgers which seems a little barbaric in retrospect but boy were they good.

The next morning it was off to the fair! JessaLu and family met us at our house and we raced over to the fairgrounds. (Jess won) :-) For the record her car has two more cylinders than mine!

 

Right off the bat I fell in love with this sheep. JessaLu has the tabloid shot over at her blog.

He was promptly sheared. Aww...look at him! The sheep belongs to this guy who was doing the shearing, quite a young fellow, who raises and shears sheep (up to 100 a day!) for a living. He does this in Cummington so perhaps my path will cross with the sheeps again sometime in the future. I enjoyed cuddling him while I could. 

I didn't buy much at this festival but I LOVE what I got. It is 1120 yards (yes, you read that right ladies and gentlemen, 1-1-2-0 four figures!) of hand dyed superwash 100% Merino wool in colorway Denim. It is beautiful and I have no idea what I am going to make with it yet but I carry it around with me sometimes during the day and am enjoying it's company just the way it is until some project calls its name. It was dyed by a lovely woman (can't remember her name) in Stephentown, NY who is the owner of Silver Moon Farm Fiber Arts. Unfortunately they don't have a web site yet otherwise I would send you her way. She had other lovely colorways and the yarn was such a deal at $30 for the hank. 

Jess and I got to the festival quite early so after we shopped we walked around for a while until the Bloggers and Brownies picnic at 1pm. There were quite a few bloggers there, some familiar faces and some new ones. A BIG thanks to Katy for organizing the meet-up and getting us all to sign the offical "Blogger Sign In Plate" without which I would surely leave someone of the list of people I met.You can find that complete list on her blog. It was great to see every one and I am always invigorated by the instant community that springs up when ever you get knitters together. It's a beautiful thing.

 

Oh, we almost came home with one of thses guys too. What a sweet little Angora Bunny and a cute little (human) guy too if I do say so myself. 

If we weren't in a very transitional phase of trying to sell our house and figure out the next step for our family we would have added another furry creature to our little menagerie. Maybe next year.

 

All in all it was a magical weekend filled with amazing weather, great friends, and luscious fiber. What more could a girl ask for? 

Hi everyone,

I have a nice post coming along about our wonderful time at the Massachussetts Sheep and Wool festival this weekend but  Blogspirit "upgraded" their services this weekend which means that nothing is working right anymore. :-(  

So, in the meantime I would like to thank everyone for all of your great comments regarding the whole dishcloth fiasco! 

 I'll be back as soon as Blogspirit gets all the kinks worked out of their new system. 

 Much love to you all,

 ~Abi

Keffiyehs are hard to come by in Western Massachussetts but mine arrived today via airmail from the United Kingdom and I was really excited about it. Sometime last week I had a dream about wearing one and I just had to have one. Don't know why, I just did. On occassion I dream outfits and I have to wake up and sketch them...if I only I knew how to sew. Last weeks dream involved being in a desert, I was wearing a keffiyeh and I think Ralph Fiennes was there...oh wait ...maybe I was just watching The English Patient for the millionth time (my favorite movie by the way) Anyway, my DH caught a picture of me knitting in it (I swear I didn't make him take the shot) while we walked the Rail Trail tonight. I can't tell you what I am knitting because it is destined to be gifted to someone who I think reads this blog on occassion but I can tell you that I am knitting with lace weight alpaca and it is a mind numbing knit. By that I mean I can knit it when my mind is numb and not totally screw it up.

Here is a scenic shot of what I was looking at when I wasn't watching my row. The Rail trail is so nice. My little guy and I walk it quite often and since it was an old railroad track/flat and smooth strollers are not a problem. Tonight Mr. SpiderWomanKnits, the little guy and I walked until dusk when the bats started to do their thing and the day creature/night creature shift change took place. It was so peaceful. What a magical time of the day. This is one of my favorite places to knit. I am a wide open space kinda gal.

And here is a gratuitous shot of my new keffiyeh, tassels and all, just because I love it so.

Well here it is folks the Mason Dixon Ballband Dishcloth that caused quite a stir at the Berkshire Superior Courthouse last Wednesday. Frightening? Nope. Dangerous? I think not. Threatening? Maybe, if you have never made anything with your own two hands or have a real aversion to doing the dishes. But let's get real here it wasn't the dishcloth that was at fault. If it's dear friend Takumi hadn't ratted him out by indecently exposing himself to the security guard when we first entered the courthouse there wouldn't have been any trouble.

Luckily, I was dismissed from jury duty and my knitting was released along with me but the dishcloth is going to have to do some "community service" equaling about two loads of dishes a day for the rest of it's life.

So last Tuesday night a lovely little package arrived in the mail with a book for my DH and a book for me. Finally my copy of Mason Dixon Knitting had arrived! I have been a big fan of their texture and color selections for a long time and this book is appealing to me because of its domestically delightful patterns. I immediately cast on for the Ballband Dishcloth but it was late and I was tired so I decided it would be the perfect project to bring along the next day when I was scheduled to report for JURY DUTY. Now I might have mentioned that I flew to Ohio two months ago to visit a dear friend and didn't have any difficulty bringing my knitting on board the plane so I had no reason to believe that bringing knitting to jury duty would cause any stir. Boy was I wrong.

Flashback to last Wednesday, May 17th 7:30 AM. SpiderWomanKnits has Jury Duty.

After driving around for a ludicrously long time searching for a parking spot outside the courthouse that allows you to park for more than 90 minutes I enthusiastically climbed the majestic sandstone stairs to report for my first time ever as a potential juror. I was really excited about this. Eventhough you always hear people complain about jury duty I never wanted to let that effect my experience. I also have some weird attraction to the law/justice that even made me take the test to be a New York State Trooper at one point in my life (which I passed with flying colors). I think in license plate numbers sometimes and remember details as if they will need to be entered into a police report. It's really strange and also a story for another time. Back to the Berkshire Superior Courthouse. Anyway, I was excited not only to perform my civic duty but also to have some time to sit and knit undisturbed. Hey, I don't mind waiting around as long as I have my knitting.

So I go through security and get "wanded", no problem, but as I look to my right the security officer is opening my bag and removing my KNITTING (without any regard for dropped stitches either he just grabbed it and ripped it out!) With a big, fat smile on his face he hands me a ratty piece of paper with a number on it and says, "You can pick this (my knitting) up later IF you get a break but you can not take it in to the Jurors Waiting Area. Make sure you keep that number. It's the only way you'll get your stuff back."

Silence. My heart is sinking and my face is flushing with confussion and outrage. HE TOOK MY NEWLY CAST ON MASON-DIXON DISHCLOTH ON #7 CLOVERS AWAY FROM ME! This might not have caused me to panic had I brought along the book I am reading or a magazine or something but I had nothing, nothing. Just me and my dishcloth. Stunned, I navigate down two flights of stairs in a blurry haze and the panic sets in. I walk up to the bailiff (a woman) and ask her if it is really true that you can not knit while you are waiting, I say that there must be some mistake because the security guard upstairs confiscated my knitting, a dishcloth, could she possibly get it back for me? All I got in return was a stealy eyed stare and a direction back to my seat.

Typically I am a calm person sometimes I even borderline on a doormat because I can take a lot of crap and not be affected but I started to feel postal. I was like an animal. I hit a low point in my life here people like an addict or something. I needed my knitting didn't they understand that ? My hands were aching already, I was starting to shake. I didn't know what I was going to do and all I could hear were the guys behind me talking about how they had to wait for 7 hours the last time they served. Looking around me everyone was wearing something knitted, by machine, but still knitted. How could they turn on me. I felt betrayed. They needed me to knit, I could clothe the world, didn't they understand that?! I took my notebook out of my purse and decided the only way to relieve my tension was to go through my purse and write down ALL the other things that were MUCH more dangerous than a freaking DISHCLOTH the guard didn't take away from me! Here is what I came up with...

But it got worse. After waiting around for an hour or so we watched the video that tells you all about the importance of jury duty (at this point the romance has totally worn off for me and I am right up there with everyone else complaining about how much jury duty sucks and contemplating throwing something, like the cable needle the security guy missed, at the television) but as soon as the movie ends the bailiff says that we can walk around until they call us back to the waiting room! I frantically dig the ratty numbered paper out of my back pocket and run upstair to the security check point to get my knitting and my dignity back. Grabbing my dishcloth from his hand I run out to the sandstone steps, plop down in the delicious sun and knit like mad. Like a fiend. Fast and Furious. As soon as I finish that first row I pause to take a look around me and enjoy my fix. There all around me were all the smokers who had been trapped in the jury waiting room along with me taking quick drags enjoying their fix just as much as I enjoyed mine. I have never been a smoker (never even smoked a cigarette once or anything else for that matter) but I felt a kinship with them. All of us needed something and needed it bad. I knit the next few rows slowly and peacefully enjoying each and every stitch until we got called back again, I actually managed to get half the dishcloth done out there.

 

Luckily, shortly after we got back in I was dismissed (there was a plea/no trial) and handed my ratty piece of paper with a number on it back to the security guard for the last time (for the next three years at least) and walked out of the courthouse triumphant for having survived the whole ordeal with a greater understanding of myself and the rules of what you can and can not bring with you to jury duty.

 

I suffered people but if my story can save one knitter, just one knitter out there, from having to go through what I went through last Wednesday it will have been worth it.

I have been thinking lately.

(For anyone out there who is parenting toddlers or children of any age you know that this can be a major accomplishment at times.)

So anyway, I was thinking about defiant yarn. It all started about two weeks ago at my knitting group when two of my dear friends commented on the wonkiness of the grey yarn I used to knit the Easy V sweater. I may not be the best knitter (yet) so some of the wonkiness was due to the work performed by my hands but there was a certain quality about the yarn that seemed to defy my desire to tame it into neat little V's and uniform rows. Now I know everyone out there has dealt with yarn that just won't obey and no matter how even your tension may be or how conscious you are of the way you are forming your stitches. Right?

Well, what about the sheep? This wool I was working with was raw. You could feel the lanolin and smell it's earthiness. Could there be any way that a defiant sheep could produce defiant yarn? Stick with me here folks I know it is a stretch and I might be anthropomorphizing but there was something very alive about this wool that wouldn't let me forget even for a second that it is a natural fiber. For this post I googled "sheep shearing" and hundreds of images came back of sheep wrapped tightly between the legs of a (usually) man seemingly ambivalent about what was occurring. Do all sheep submit to shearing? I have seen demonstrations before and I know that part of the art is knowing how to hold a sheep so they go into a transe of sorts but there must be a few of them out there who kick and holler and defy this process? I find myself imagining as I put on that grey sweater now that there was one son of a bitch, strong willed sheep out there bleating, "You're not taking my wool mister!"

As spring rolls in and our gardens and farmer's markets start to swell with the bounty of hard work and harvest we begin to relish in the pleasure of preparing well grown foods. Perhaps at the same time we should also give pause to the small scale local fiber vixens in our neighborhood who are either doing there best to preserve a certain breed of sheep or just doing what they love by buying a skein or two of locally grown and raised wool, knitting something with it, and see if we feel a difference. There is an Eat Local Challenge for the month of May which I fully support and encourage. How about a Knit Local Challenge? Anyone game? It's easy to forget the origin of our craft as we peruse the aisles of tidy, colorful yarn in our local yarn shops but knitting is a craft deeply rooted in the earth. In cycles. I know I am going to get to know one of my local sheep farms this summer and I am lucky to live in an area where there are many. It just feels right. If anyone else is interested leave a comment. It would be so interesting to see what types of fibers are local in the global blogging world, eh?

Now, I'll manipulate leave you with a picture of half naked men shearing sheep who just might be at a local farm near you. Sorry, I just couldn't resist the picture.

Finally a Finished (and posted) object! I have so many FO's that need to be documented and now that the Northeastern weather is getting nicer there will be a whole bunch of stuff from the winter you'll be able to see.

I put the finishing touches on this Glampyre pattern just this afternoon. And Stefanie does it again with a quick, easy satisfaction guaranteed pattern.

There were only a few things that needed to be altered. I fell somewhere between the small and medium sizes so I had to do a few extra increases for the small size but neglected to calculate for the K3P2 ribbing when I was doing this so I had to increase one stitch when I got to the ribbing sections. No biggie. Also, the neckline is really wide which is ok with me except it is a sloppy sort of unfinished edge. Very Matrix. So it may evolve into something a little more fancy and if it does I will be sure to post the change. The yarn is Wild Apple Hill Farm (can't find a website but they were here) and is a good 'ol worsted raw wool type of wool. You know the kind where you have to pick organic particles out every now and then and lanolin helps break in your Clovers if that is what you are using. (I was using the bamboo interchangable circular set I got for Mother's Day last year.)

I very rarely get to do a MeMe but this one came from Bev and required so very little of me. Plus, I am a sucker for this kind of stuff :-)

Your past life diagnosis: I don't know how you feel about it, but you were male in your last earthly incarnation. You were born somewhere in the territory of modern USA South-East around the year 1025. Your profession was that of a monk (nun), bee-keeper or lone gunman.

Your brief psychological profile in your past life: Such people are always involved with all new. You have always loved changes, especially in art, music, cooking.

The lesson that your last past life brought to your present incarnation: There is an invisible connection between the material and the spiritual world. Your lesson is to search, find and use this magical bridge. Do you remember now?

 

If you are curious about this stuff consider yourself tagged. You can get your regression on here. A little story for you. Many moons ago I used to date a guy whose father believed and participated in past life regressions. One time I was dropping by the house and walked in to find the father and a circle of his friends and a regressionist (is that what you would call them?) guiding them on a group past life journey. When I opened the door and walked in people started to bug out a little bit. They all saw me as an old Indian Chief, they didn't see me. Weird, eh?