Armed with Pointy Sticks

Won't Knit for Cash,

but I'll certainly knit for beer.  Payment is really not what I'm after, but barter... barter is a completely different thing.  It makes it fun, don't you think?

So anyway, Thursdays are fastly become a little knit-in at the local Irish pub.  Last week we may have gotten corporate sponsorship.  We're sitting in the dining room, and one of the bartenders is leaning through the window that connects it to the bar proper.  There are four of us knitting, and she asked if we'd ever knit for money.  The answer was a pretty general one.  Once you start doing something for money, it becomes work.

"Would you knit for beer?"

I instantly fell in love with this girl.  Sweet words like that are not spoken to me daily.  So now I'm looking for a pattern for her first request.  She wants a long, skinny scarf, in brown and cream tones.  So today I'm scouring the internet for a patter that will fit her expectations and hold my interest.  2x2 ribbing is not my thing, trust me.  I'll probably design my own, lace or cables, but I guess I'm idea dipping. 

Knitter's, there are some ugly scarves out there.  I can forgive ugly.  What is really killing me is the redundancy.  I don't care what fancy stitches you have under that fun fur, it still looks the same.  I guess you know that you have something special under there, but the rest of us are clueless.   No, no, don't chase us down and correct us, you seem to be having so much fun on your own.  Wow, three rants for the price of one.

Can't talk now, must find something Guiness worthy.

I Will Build an Ark

And fill it with a male and a female from each breed of fiber animal.

I could have, too, at this year's NH Sheep and Wool Festival.

I am woefully bereft of pictures, I am afraid, due to the fact that I have the worlds most kick ass camera and I don't want it to get wet.  nyah.

As always, the festival was a delight of the visual and tactile. We didn't get over to the livestock though, as there as a pond between it and us.  No joke, a pond.  I'da had some pictures of it, but... well, you get the idea of what the worst flood in NH in over 70 years does to the weekend.  And we're still out there, buying yarn, fiber, wheels. 

I didn't buy a wheel.  In fact, on the way in, I told Chris that there was going to be none of that silly roving stuff this year. It was all yarn that someone else had already spun, dyed, and put a neat little label on.

Well, I bought 1/2 lb of merino.  It'll probably rot on the door I've draped it over.  It smells good.  Maybe I will spin a bit of it.  I have a lovely drop spindle from the journey wheel people at last years VT S&W (good people,  I enjoy talking to them every time I run into them).  So perhaps.  Or perhaps not.  I just tried to spin a bit of another roving, which I'm not so attached to.  I remember why I don't do this more often. I hate it.  Guess I should take time to get used to it, huh? Or maybe I should just knit more socks.

Speaking of socks, this deluge was the perfect opportunity to show my river rapids socks what they want to be when they grow up.  I love this pattern.  This has helped me develop my very own "perfect pattern".  But you can't beat that design.  And they fit perfect!  How nice!  I'd post pictures, but I'm lazy.

I also picked up enough yarn to make Liam, a gorgeous pattern that was bestowed upon me by a wonderful benefactor.  Wendy, you are such a wonderful person.  Everyone else, buy her book. I should do a review.  I should do so many things in this entry.  This entry should be like five different, well-thought-out entries.  Maybe it will be.  Wendy rocks!  And Lucy is the most wonderful cat that doesn't currently reside in my own home.

Along with the yarn (a nice, soft, natural merino) I picked up a little jar of acid dye.  I'm going to dye the yarn after it becomes a sweater.  I was told that would make for the most even coloring.

And beyond that... a lovely earthenware sheep tea cup (ok, a coffee cup, but I don't drink coffee) and fried dough.  Cuz we don't go to the fairgrounds and not get fried dough.  Unless there's funnel cake.  Then it's a toss-up.

I will post pictures, I have a post coming up, I think I'll entitle it "Rescuing the Stash."  I'm cleaning out my house, and finding yarn and patterns and other such lovelies everywhere.  Found yarn. How great is that?