Monday, June 28, 2010

Friday, June 25, 2010

Alpacas!

Given the photos of Sam at the bottom of this blog, I think it's obvious how much he loves alpaca wool. While travelling through Pennsylvania recently, I saw an advert for an alpaca farm! Turns out there are over a hundred such farms in PA alone.

We visited one near Punxsutawney called Flocks by Knight. Unfortunately, they didn't have any wool, but I came away with some wonderfully soft fibre to try - once again - to spin, courtesy of Lucky Pierre (he's the tall black guy if I remember right), and a bag of short bits (un-spinnable), which I'm planning to sew into a pillow for Sam.

Thanks to Tracy for taking the time to show us around!









Also, being a city person, I was just as impressed by the hay and the tractors and the chickens.


Monday, June 21, 2010

Truckers Who Knit

How awesome is the news in this article from the Wall Street Journal? Truckers who knit! And quilt and sew and... Like shepherds and fishermen of old, a new generation of men are finding ways to keep their fingers busy during their downtime. I've always loved truck stops - someday, I hope to run into one of these guys, like Kevin Abraham-Banks, "a 37-year-old trucker with a shaved head and dragon tattoos, [who] passes time at truck stops with his cocoa and knitting... 'The fact that you can take strands of thread and basically make something out of it, that's awesome I think,' he said."
I agree!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

World-wide Knit in Public Day!

Oh yes, today's the day! Time to take your knitting to the streets!




If you're in Montreal, WWKIPD as hosted by the MontrealKnits Yahoo Group, is taking place at Portugal Park, on St-Laurent, corner Marie-Anne, and there's also one at Effiloche. If you're in London, there's one at the Natural History Museum and one in Parliament Square, among others. Edinburgh, St Andrew's Square. New York, Coney Island. The list is endless - go forth and knit!