Llama-o-rama!

I love fiber.  I don't necessarily love the animals it comes from, though.  I don't like buffalo.  They're tasty, but their attitude leaves a lot to be desired.  I could take or leave a sheep.  Rabbits are cute.  But I adore llamas and alpacas.  It's been a dream of mine to have a small llama or alpaca farm.

Adorable!

Beautiful!

Sweetness!

Every year on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, Miss Peach, my mother, and I hop into the car and head down the street to the pavilion on the MSU campus to attend Llamafest.  It's sponsored by the Michigan Llama Association, so it's mostly an event for people to show their animals, but they also have vendor space for people selling fiber and yarn, and other fun, related things.  It's one of the few times of year that I can actually relax, mostly due to the fact that it's difficult to be upset or stressed out when there are llamas running around.  (I mean, really.  You've got to work pretty damn hard at being anything but completely blissed out when you've got your hands stuffed into piles of alpaca roving and the air smells like animals and warm hay.  I'm far to lazy to fight the bliss, and honestly... who would want to?)

Don't fight the bliss!

This year was no exception, and so last Saturday, the three of us went tootling down the road to visit the llamas and see what we could buy see.  Imagine our surprise when we walked in and saw... wait for it... a camel!

Miss Peach and The Camel

Yes, I know that camels and llamas are related, and upon reflection it makes sense, but at the time it just did not occur to me and that anyone in the state was raising camels, let alone bringing them to animal and fiber shows.  This guy was pretty well behaved for a camel, he only stole a few things, and only from his handler.  I talked to the lady running the booth and she was so friendly and willing to talk about her animals; she told me all about what fiber comes from what shed, how the down ( which is surprisingly soft, by the way) is good for spinning while hump hair is good for felting water proof rugs.  So cool!  I was ready to buy all of her camel roving right then and there, (at $8/2oz ball... yikes!) but she didn't have a square and I didn't have a checkbook.  So promised I'd come back the next day and sated my need for fiber by buying some kettle dyed sheep roving and some painted llama pencil roving, a new drop spindle from the spinning guild and some really lovely angora with a shetland carrier.

My newest drop spindle, kettle dyed sheep, painted llama and angora.  Let the spinning commence!

On Sunday, armed with the checkbook and with F(uture) H(ubby) in tow, I returned to the Llamafest to acquire some of that remarkable camel down roving.  Predictably, I had missed my chance as she had sold completely out.  I was so bummed that I nearly lost my llama bliss.  But then FH and I made friends with a man who has a farm not to far from here, and watched some of the judging while he explained what was going on.  He invited us up to visit and see how things are run, and mentioned that his wife might be willing to mentor us if we decide to take the plunge and buy some property and a few animals.  FH, who used to show horses in his younger days, seemed totally at ease and thoroughly in his element.  I might just get my farm one of these days.

Someday, this will all be MINE!

See you next time!
Love Stephie



Plans for the kitchen: Corn Chowder from a recipe in an older issue of Saveur Magazine.
Plans for the needles: Mrs. Whatsit, but I'm more focused on the spinning wheel at the moment...
On the nightstand: Dunno yet.  Just finished the Forty Rules of Love: a novel of Rumi last night.
On the boob tube: The 4400, via the ever intermittent power of Netflix

Mrs. Whatsit: "She's Just as Real as You and Me. Maybe Even Realer."

I have a few favorite movies that I like to watch when I life gets a little hairy, or when I start to feel a few too many layered shades of blue.  Sister Act, Some Like it Hot, Chicago and other movie musicals work well for those dull, "nothing is going quite right", periwinkle days, and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is the perfect cure for a stormy, "I had a fight with my siblings", lake blue.  On really navy days, I binge watch all of the Harry Potter movies or the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy while the apartment stays cluttered and dirty and my family starves (um... no, can't admit that) makes their own dinner (HA!) orders pizza. No, not really.  Only sometimes.  The Love Of My Life usually throws some meat on the grill and then he, my daughter, Miss Peach and I eat very well, despite my navy colored mood.

Last night was kind of a cornflower blue, so, by the power of Netflix, I watched the Disney/ABC made for TV movie adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's, A Wrinkle in Time.  I loved the books when I was younger, so I had saved it in my instant queue thinking it would be a good choice for Miss Peach.  My hope (that's not quite it) pipe dream (well, that's half right, at least) was that it would spark her interest and she might want to read the book.  Then, having read and loved the first book, just as I had, she would continue on and voraciously read one after another in the Time series, which would lead us to beautiful, wonderful, magically meaningful mother-daughter conversations about life, love, and math, ultimately raising the status of our relationship to a level of respect and devotion envied by women everywhere, all while drinking tea and eating cupcakes and never getting fat.  (Don't judge me- a gal can have her harmless little fantasies, can't she?)  Anyway, since it lacked an explosion, gun fight or high-speed car chase during the first 30 seconds, she ended up going to bed while I watched it.  I can't say that I really blame her.  It was... a little disappointing.  Now to be fair, it really wasn't too bad for an ABC/Disney-fied made for TV style movie.  Truth be told, it was one of the better made for TV movies I've seen. (Of course, that may be due to the fact that I generally avoid those type of thing like the plague- kinda like that special place on cable known as Lifetime Television)  To their credit, A Wrinkle in Time is a complicated story with pretty sophisticated themes.  It's certainly not an easy tale to adapt to film of any kind, and I really should have known that it would feel more like fluff than the book.  But I digress.  The point here is that as semi-satisfying as the film in it's entirety was, as soon as Alfre Woodard came onto the screen as Mrs. Whatsit the cornflower blue haze lifted to reveal a perfectly dazzling not-too-hot sunny day with a scattering of puffy white clouds and a gentle breeze.  I had been inspired!

 Alfre Woodard in the Disney made for TV adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time.  Note the purple shawl.

When she first appears in the movie, Mrs. Whatsit is bundled head to toe in knit scarves, shawls and wraps, looking rather like a crazy shopping cart lady in January.  As the movie continues and she moves into more hospitable climes, she ditches most of her extraneous knitwear, keeping only a beautiful purple shawl with deep knotted fringe and periodic rows of cabled bobbles.

See the purple shawl?

 In the book, Mrs. Whatsit is described thusly:

 "The age or sex was impossible to tell, for it was completely bundled up in clothes. Several scarves of assorted colors were tied about the head, and a man's felt hat perched atop. A shocking pink stole was knotted about a rough overcoat, and black rubber boots covered the feet."

There it is again!

Notice the important words here: scarves, assorted colors, shocking pink stole.  Can you guess where I going with this?  Of course you can!  

 I've decided to design a Mrs. Whatsit garment.  Now, I'm certainly not the first to tackle a Mrs. Whatsit scarf or shawl, as a quick look around the Internet will prove.  But I'm super excited to start in.  I've already got the image in my head.  Tomorrow I'll sketch it all out.  Then comes the fiddly bits of choosing yarns, colors and general construction techniques.  I'll keep you all updated on my progress!

She even wears it in her centaur form!

See you next time!
Love, Stephie


Plans for the kitchen: blueberry jam
Plans for the needles: Mrs. Whatsit garment
On the nightstand: The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht
On the boob tube: Arrested Development via the (intermittent) power of Netflix