08.31.11
Posted in Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, fiber, hand spinning, knitting, sheep, wool at 12:57 am by Kate Perez
As usual, I started this series about the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival 2011 and then got lost in space. Literally! (See previous post.) But I am now fully grounded, as is the last of the space shuttles - BOO HOO! - and continuing the saga that I began in this post:
Bonnie, Patti and I got whatever fitful sleep we could as the train pressed onward towards D.C., Union Station and, eventually, the fiber Mecca that is the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. We arrived in Union Station only 17 short hours after our departure from Florida. Did I mention that this train trip of ours was a little bit crazy?
Union Station - Washington D.C.
We oohed and ahhed over pretty, urban, Union Station for a bit, and then we set out to find some serious coffee and nosh on some breakfast foods. What we found was not as good as what we get for breakfast at Bonnie’s bakery in Titusville. There were no scones, no palm trees, no super-fast-free-wireless, and, most importantly, no knitting, but it was acceptable.
Less than 24 hours later…..
We hit the MS&WF with the rest of the fiber junkies.
Entrance to Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival 2011
Main Barn - Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival 2011
Main Barn - Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival 2011
Sheep Fleece Show and Sale - Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival 2011
Being at the Festival and not having to work or run a booth there was both weirdly unsettling and secretly thrilling for me. I could shop and admire, and shop and admire and furtively fondle - oh Yes! there must be fondling, whether the booth owners like it or not. It cannot be helped. Let’s admit that straightaway. And, having had a booth of my own at the Festival for several years I can honestly say that I feel those who are anti-fondling are not true fiber people anyway. That is not to say that I approve of children fondling fiber and fiberish items. They must wait until they can spin and knit like the rest of us and, also, refrain from having sticky stuff on their hands.
Here are a few of the more spectacular items that I admired, did not buy and …
I will take the Allfur plea as to possible fondling.
Knitted cable sweater and Super-cool Knitted Kilt
Fabulous FairIsle Sock from The Sanguine Gryphon
Do NOT click on above link if you value your financial solvency!
OK, I tried to warn you but you didn’t listen.
Blue ribbon FairIsle entry - Skein and Garment Contest
Tree of Life Bag - Beautiful!
The “Endearing Elegance of Female Friendship” So adorable. Only won 2nd place because it was
past the 1 year entry time limit. Skein and Garment Competition
Whimsical Felted Vest - Skein and Garment Competition
Felted Ram - so real looking! - Skein and Garment Competition
Not sure WHAT this is, but I love it anyway - Felted ? Skein and Garment Competition
I wouldn’t have thought of this two-toned design for a shawl but it looks great.
Love this Sweater - Coat because it reminds me of Mrs. Weasley.
Repeat after me, “I do NOT need another spinning wheel, I do NOT need another spinning wheel….”
If you have read my blog before, you may already know that I am unable to limit my fondling to furry things; I am known to fondle the live, furry animals of others. Luckily, these were mostly out of my reach. I never go to the MDS&WF without taking at least one trip through the sheep barns.
Painted Desert Sheep! I have not seen these before, but now I’m needing some for myself.
One of these would EASILY fit under my sweater.
I love Jacobs, but the horns are harder to hide under your clothing when you steal one. Just
sayin…
Unbearable cuteness and crimp
Clun Forest - one of my all time favorite breeds!
I’ll take this one too.
Of course, I saw alpacas too but I did not stop and fuss over them. Too sad!
One of the most exciting parts of the MDS&WF for me is finding out who won the cover-art contest. This contest is open to any artist and the winner gets $1,000 plus everlasting fame as their sheep-related art is reproduced on thousands of T-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, bumper stickers, pins, notecards, and … well you get the idea. Some Festival Committee friends made sure that I got a 2011 volunteer T-shirt, which was super nice of them, but I can’t say that the design was my favorite. It looks more like thread to me than yarn.
Next post - Auld Lamb Syne as Kate helps run the Jr. Handspinner’s Contest.
Permalink
08.16.11
Posted in Uncategorized, knitting at 12:48 am by Kate Perez
Okay, I promised to post the rest of my photos and experiences at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival 2011 and then… I kind of punked out. Sorry. My excuse? I got offered a nerdtastic, once in a lifetime, dream job for the summer.
Now I KNOW that I am not the ONLY super-nerdy knitter out there. In fact, I feel like I am probably the norm among fiber freaks my age or younger. I submit, for your inspection, some of my proof:
A web page about “How to Crochet the Hyperbolic Plane” taken from a link named,(SERIOUSLY!) :
Chapter 5 of David Henderson’s Experiencing Geometry in Euclidean, Spherical, and Hyperbolic Spaces
Found on the website:
http://www.cs.appstate.edu/~sjg/class/1010/wc/geom/crochet.html
I don’t know about you, but just the word “Euclidean” makes me break out in a cold sweat and have a high school Geometry, post-traumatic stress moment!
Then there is that Nexus of Nerdy Knitting itself, Ravelry - the online community for fiberholics brought to us by the miracle of fiberoptics. If you still don’t know what Ravelry is, you can find an article describing it here:
All About Ravelry
Ravelry is rife with such patterns as Entrelacqueen’s “Rings of Nerdom Scarf” (from the Ravelry forum Nerd Wars) and Jeny Staiman’s “Double Heelix” socks (from the Ravelry forum Geekcraft.) The latter pattern is so freaking hard the the designer, Jeny Staiman herself, provides a written pattern and a video. You can see the pattern here:
Double Heelix Socks Link
Then there are the more common nerd patterns such as the ubiquitous robots, Dr. Who scarf, Yoda baby hat and Harry Potter everything. Star Trek? Of course! I have several of those patterns in MY collection, including the Vulcan Sweater and the “Live Long and Keep Warm” Vulcan hat by Becca Stundel. Don’t act like you don’t want one of these - Knittah Pleeeeze! You can find that pattern here:
Live Long and Keep Warm Hat Link
And let’s not leave out Dancing Starlight’s project, “Fibonacci goes to Atlantis” (found on the Ravelry forum entitled, tlhingan hol vadmuvtah ghild.) If you have no idea what that forum is about, apparently the name is written in Klingon. The “Atlantis” in the title refers to the last ever space shuttle mission’s orbiter*.
I have barely scratched the surface of the surfeit of knitting nerdishness on the net and yet, I feel I have made my (double) points. It’s important for any fiber producer and seller out there to realize that, when it comes to producing knitting patterns, and naming rovings and yarn, nothing sells like nerdy. Just because YOU are a well-heeled alpaca breeder, doesn’t mean EVERYONE ELSE wants to buy patterns for that same, elegant shawl that YOU like. Yawn. And, please!, stop trying to sell us all on the idea of an alpaca fabric wedding dress! I’m tired of seeing them in alpaca-related magazines. They’re stupid! Try a pattern for Spock’s Vulcan Cloak once and a while, or sell the yarn from your hairy, 2nds at a Medieval Fair. Call it Goblin yarn!
So the answer to our original question is: YES and YES. This post is both a nod to knitting nerdyness and a craven excuse for procrastination. The nerdtastic job in question: Educator at Kennedy Space Center. And, yes, it DOES come with a NASA badge!
I saw the orbiter*, Atlantis, land from a field just above the runway, where only employees can go. I had lunch with an astronaut once a week all summer. I got to run a super-realistic, space shuttle mission using full-scale, training versions of the orbiter and mission control, which were run by about 30 different computers and live video feeds. The crews for these were students or adults who pay to be part of a space shuttle mission.
I saw Atlantis outside the Vehicle Assembly Building after the last ever space shuttle mission, and I got to “educate” many people about the U.S. space program. Some of this educating involved scaring the heck out of them with various rides and devices, other times we just blew things up or did weird science experiments. But, enough yakking. Have a look at a few of my “Rocket Summer” photos and then I’ll stop bragging about it - (at least on this blog.)
One of my work sites - a far cry from the Alpaca Farm.
Atlantis as I saw her the day she landed for the last time. You need the badge to see THIS baby!
Part of my work-related training - the micro-gravity wall!
Our NASA-style spinning wheels:
Sitting in as Flight Dynamics Officer (FIDO) in Mission Control
Our Orbiter “Discovery”
This summer’s theme: “Sci-Fi Summer” featuring STAR TREK yay!!!!!
Kate walks through the Time Portal from Star Trek Original Series episode “The Guardian of Forever”
Okay, I admit, I added the smoke with Photoshop.
The end of summer staff photo. I’m the fat one, curled in a ball.
If you want a zero G photo of yourself, go see Jonathan at the Kodak booth at KSC.
To my fellow knitting nerds, “Live Long and PSSOver.”
Coming -dare I say it?- soon: More Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival pics.
*The Space Shuttle is the ship PLUS the external tank and solid rocket boosters. Without those fuel sources, the ship is called “the orbiter”, but I’m sure you all knew that.
Permalink
06.28.11
Posted in Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, alpaca care DVD, alpaca fleece, alpacas, knitting at 8:23 pm by Kate Perez
Alright already! For those of you who have (shockingly) wondered why I had not gotten around to adding anything about the train trip with my Florida knitting peeps, up North, to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, I am working on it! I say, “shockingly” because it always amazes me that people read my blog at all, much send me e-mails and comments about it.
Many of these are kind enough to offer praise for my - ahem! - “outspoken” advice about alpaca breeding, alpaca care and alpaca fleece (both the selling and preparing of). Of course, I am very happy to hear from these.
Others, incredibly!, read an entire blog, or the connected website - www.MountAiryAlpacas.com - of me - rudely telling them that they are responsible for preparing and marketing their own alpaca fleece, and selling it, and there IS no alpaca fleece sales fairy!, and still send me e-mails such as this one:
Hello,
My name is REMOVED I am looking for a place to sell my Alpaca fiber. Do you buy fiber? If not do you know of a place that does buy fiber. I have
several Alpacas. I have turned some of it into roving. My e-mail address is REMOVED
If you, dear reader, are at all familiar with my blogs and website, you know what happens next. It’s NOT pretty! Read it here if you don’t already know:
Mean Rants About Alpaca Fleece Sales
Still others - many others! - e-mail me asking such things as, Who do I recommend that they visit to look for alpacas? Who should they buy alpaca fleeces from? What type of fencing, pastures, equipment should they buy? I’m flattered that they think I know all this, 3 years after I went out of the alpaca breeding business, but I can’t help but wonder why they are not finding this information out there from someone who is still in the alpaca breeding business.
Are you listening alpaca people???!!! Why aren’t you blogging or publishing articles with straight talk instead of marketing blather and, especially, writing about the realities of fleece sales? Why?!?
Also, - and here my browbeating descends to a less than altruistic level, - I sell an Alpaca Care DVD that answers many of your questions about fencing, barns, care, who to buy from, what to look for, etc. You can order that
HERE
It’s not that I don’t want to mentor each of you personally, but I really don’t have that much free time. I, like you, have children, animals, a home computer network to run, an exhausting job, a website to re-do, and all that other boring stuff.
Which is not to say that, if one of you started a blog about how to keep your home network running with 2 PCs, 1 playstation, 1 Wii, 1 old tower PC, 1 iPad (none of these are mine!), 1 macbook, 1 Unix machine and one iMac on it, I would not subscribe to your blog and, even, e-mail you a bunch of questions. I would! But I would also buy your DVD, if you made one, explaining all this Network stuff in plain English. Please contact me if you know of such a blog.
Ok, ranting accomplished; back to lofty (get it? “lofty”) fiber ideals.
Bonnie, Patti and I hopped on the Amtrak train bound for D.C. on Thursday, May 5th. We left from the Winter Park Florida Station. If you are not a Floridian, Winter Park is where the swanky mid-Florida people live. They do not have livestock there, but they probably do own alpaca sweaters and socks for when they go skiing in Vail or Switzerland or something.
We had our yarn, our needles, our Kindles, our copy of the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival Catalog and, most importantly, a lotta cash. Bonnie and Patti even looked cute in their travel outfits.
We knit, we chatted, we ate in the dining car, we knit some more.
I finished THESE socks (from Cat Bordhi’s “Sock Soar on Two Circulars”) in time to wear that evening on the cold - over-air-conditioned train.
We started trying to sleep sometime around Georgia and, it was then that the three of us realized that cell phones should be banned from long train rides! It’s 17 hours folks, and that can include a LOT of blathering about nothing coming from people who don’t knit or read! And guess how loud one must blather in order to be heard over the noise of a train? Pretty loudly! One more reason that we ought to make knitting and reading mandatory for all of our children! I was wearing earplugs AND noise canceling headphones and still had the pleasure of hearing several, very long “conversations” about nothing, well into the wee hours of the train ride.
I frequently threatened to take photos of Bonnie and Patti sleeping but, of course, I didn’t really do this …. until the ride back! Here, though, is a photo of Bonnie’s hand knit footies that she wore on the train. What a showoff!
Coming soon (I really MEAN it this time!)
Photos, photos photos from MD Sheep and Wool Festival 2011. Honest! Really! Soon!
Permalink
05.05.11
Posted in alpaca fleece, knitting at 4:29 pm by Kate Perez
That’s right knittaz, I am on the train from Florida to D.C. today with the knitting posse, and we are on a take-no-prisoners trip to MD Sheep & Wool Festival. Hide your yarn, your needles, your drop spindles and your rovings - these gals are armed with the credit cards and ready to fiber freak on you. No MDS&WF vendor is safe from us! I will be skeining at the Jr. Handspinner’s Contest at 2.pm on Saturday.
Many Photos of MDS&WF coming soon…..
Permalink
02.16.11
Posted in Uncategorized, alpaca fleece, alpacas, knitting, nun at 5:34 am by Kate Perez
So some actual, real life nuns ordered my Alpaca Care DVD and sent a check to pay for it. As if! I can’t believe they thought I’d fall for that one. As if I didn’t know that charging some, charity-running nuns for ANYTHING is the surest way to be hit by a bus immediately and go straight down to you-know-where! I wasn’t raised itchy, wool plaid skirt wearin’, no meat on Fridays eaten’, act of contrition-sayin’, confessional kneelin’, genuflectin’ mega-Catholic for nothing. So, of course, I tore up the check and sent them the DVD for free. The last thing I need is the cosmic Nun’s ruler upside the head. Hey sisters, this is me at age 7 along with my twin brother Kevin. Enuff said?
Kate & Kevin - No, non-Catholics, We are not pretending to get married!
Before I get the usual torrent of hate mail from readers who lack that little thing called sense of H-U-M-O-R, please realize that I respect nuns greatly. They are one of my absolute favorite things in life. They never hit me with a ruler or anything else. (although my brother Kevin did get the soft, chalky side of the black board eraser upside the head once for being unable to shut up in class - what an aim that nun had!) In fact, I have long been a fan of these particular nuns, the Sisters of Providence of Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods, because they run the White Violet Center for Eco-Justice and have alpacas. I used to buy their alpaca art notecards for my booth at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. You can find out more about their good work here:
Nuns Alpaca Website
Sister Maureen sent me back a charming letter letting me know that my donation was tax deductible, and also saying that the nuns liked the bloopers reel of the DVD - the part where I berate my husband for needing about 40 takes to get one 2 minute segment about the shearing table correct and, also, show him conking his head very hard on a metal livestock chute. So that feels a little weird to me. How bad do you have to be if NUNS tell each other amusing stories about how mean YOU are? Yikes! Is this punishment for the times that my college roommate, Sheri, and I used to put the white T-shirts over our heads so they hung down off of our foreheads backward, like wimples, and sing that “Dominique nique nique” -Singing Nun song while playing our guitars?
Don’t act like you’ve never done that!
And, speaking of mean girls, my “friend” Jody asked me to take photos of the sock she test knit for a knitwear designer. It was OK when I only knew one test knitter personally (Roseann) but, lately I feel like I am the ONLY person I know who is NOT a test knitter. They even have their own forum on Ravelry where they can brag about whom they are test knitting for to one another. Big deal! I am not jealous. I could totally be a test knitter if I only, um, uh, … was a better knitter.
So I am thinking about starting a Ravelry forum for people who love to knit despite being so dumb that they have to knit every pattern at least twice to get it right. I will call it “Knit it again Damn!” or “R.I.P my knitting.” In case you think that I am unreasoning in my hatred of my frenemy, Jody, did I mention that she’s practically best friends with the Koigu Yarn designer AND has a fabulous apt. in Toronto and a house in Florida? Also, her ankles are skinnier than mine. Yeah. I know you’re feelin’ it now!
Look how nicely I photographed the sock though.
But, lest you think I spend all my time mocking nuns and hating my friends, I recently finished the Cranford Mitts. Of course I substituted Alpaca yarn for the main color. This alpaca yarn, bought from Lanart, is smaller in diameter than the 4 ply sock yarn the pattern called for, but it worked perfectly for me. While my ankles are big and look like I should be on an Eastern Bloc shot putting team, my hands are skinny and long. The thinner yarn made the mitts thin enough to fit me perfectly, and I added 2 pattern repeats to make the length correct. The mitts are very comfy and warm while still looking so pretty. And the pattern is available for an optional donation to Médecins Sans Frontières
The Cranford Mitts Pattern
The Cranford Mitts in alpaca yarn with a few changes
My latest project did not have to be ripped out … at least not by me. I was once again doggie sitting my friend Beth’s yarn-eating Schnoodle Izzy, who happily ripped the would be sock out for me. Yes, this has happened before and, yes, I DID hide my stash but I forgot the current project laying conveniently on the nearby coffee table, looking luscious and edible in it’s berry-toned beautifulness. But, alas, who could stay mad at this?
One person who DOES sometimes get temperamental with Izzy? - Sweetie, the mean horse. Izzy likes to “herd” the horses and Sweetie does not always find this behavior amusing. Look at the body language she’s got going on here. Run Izzy!
This week’s weirdest message is not an e-mail (unusual!) but a phone message during the course of which, a gentleman - that I won’t name - explained that he was in charge of a warehouse full of stockpiled alpaca fiber that had been donated to clean up the BP oil spill in Citrus County Florida, and did I want to arrange to have it taken away? If you have never read me opining on the many, many, MANY people who want ME to tell them what to do with their alpaca fiber because I have mean articles all over my website and other blog telling them that it’s THEIR responsibility to deal with their own alpaca fiber, you can find one of those here:
Alpaca Fleece Reality Check
or here:
Mean Blog Post about clueless owners of alpaca fleeces
I used to answer them all very politely, but now I just mock them on my blog. It doesn’t deter them from continuing to contact me, and it keeps us all amused, so where’s the ha -…”Ouch!!! was that a chalk eraser hitting my head?”
PS> Completely gratuitous photos of a young pelican that walked up to me on the beach and sat down (cussed down?) next to me. There was a dead adult pelican nearby, maybe Mommy Pelican? I called my 18 year old daughter to bring a foil bag of tuna to me, STAT but, despite the impressive begging of my daughter, I did not take Petey home with me. But I did e-mail his leg band number to the report a band website and notify 2 fish and wildlife officers of his location. Hopefully, Petey is being well cared for now.
Permalink
06.08.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:53 pm by Kate Perez
At least, I hope it is. Not sure if I will successfully migrate my simple PHP blog to this WordPress blog without mangling all of it, but I am going to try. The old Alpaca blog is SO old, that I have out grown the meager style choices and need something a little more robust. Here goes nothing.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading …
Permalink