One of my main worries about moving to rural Florida was its (perceived) lack of adequate fiber resources. And, No, I don't mean cereals! I wondered,
Would I have access to a proper selection of knitting yarns? alpaca, wool-whose sheepy parents are identified by breed, silks, bamboo, organic cotton, linen, hair of the Mo?
Would there be other hand spinners with whom to obsess about rovings, slivers, batts, carders, combs, wheels and poorly twisted singles?
Would there be SERIOUS knitters? - the kind who are unashamed of their calling as goddesses of yarn creation and wouldn't think of buying yarn at WalMart or refusing to knit a pattern just because it required the dreaded STEEK?
Luckily for me, the answer to all of these is, Yes, yes, yes!
Florida is surprisingly fibery! In (shameful) fact, I am one of the least talented Florida knitters I know. Thank the goddess, Frigg, that I am a pretty decent hand spinner!
I have an entire posse of cool, tart, witty, knitty BFFs right in, nearby, Titusville Florida. Check out the photos from our last "Magic Ball" yarn exchange.
Yes, these ARE my girlfriends so, if they make a weird, unattractive face in one of the photos, of course I will not show it!
and, at little "smoothing" from Photoshop never hurts either.
The wonderful toys that came inside of MY Magic Ball. The adorable Snow scene square on left is a measuring tape.
Bonnie's magic yarn ball looks like a giant, ugly pickle.
How's THAT for recycling? A knitting needle bracelet! Aluminum needles for knitting are SO not comfortable for grannies OR young, hip gals!
Ever had to grind your teeth and mutter certain swear words because you read YET ANOTHER headline like,
Knitting, it's not just for grandma anymore!
?
You know, people who think that knitting and spinning still looks like this:
or this:
****see note at bottom
Here's my answer:
Hey dumb would-be-writer dude or mod gal who's too cool to knit, Knitting never WAS just a grandma thing!
Hand spinners were called "spinsters" because they were too smart to settle for Mr. Not-even-passably-attractive. They, wisely, chose spinning instead. The women who invented the Aran Fisherman's Cable designs were gals who were trying to dress their family and make a living, not grannies in polyester with nothing to do but knit and watch Judge Judy.
Not that I am hatin' on grandma. I hope to be one someday and I plan to wear whatever ugly thing feels comfortable. Some people might say I already do. But, I digress.
So here's to MY local knitting posse.
My favorite, knitting-related tatoo on one of our members:
Links to blogs by members of my local knitting posse:
http://pischilein.typepad.com/
http://web.me.com/bonniebakes/Bonnies_B ... /Blog.html
http://jodysoup.blogspot.com/
http://knitswellwithothers.blogspot.com/
And, gratuitously, this photo of the self-proclaimed "Queen of Koigu" acting up in a shocking manner at the Magic Yarn Ball exchange.:
This year, we've even had winter in Florida! It's been the coldest winter since 1958 in nearby Daytona Beach. We've even had something resembling snow, which I mentioned in my previous post.
That being the case, we knitters are pretty much the only Floridians not walking around miserable and whiny because we're trying to stay warm wearing cotton.
Yes, right here in America, there are still people who don't understand that cotton is not a proper fiber for winter clothing.
Shocking!
Having mentioned the Calorimetries made for my sister, a friend and myself in my last post, I am sad to report that MY Calorimetry was quickly snatched up by a visiting relative. That is one of the really annoying things about living in Florida; visiting friends and family always assume that THEY need your hand-knit winter garments more than you do.
OK, to be fair, they DID have 4 FEET of snow this winter in Mt. Airy, where I had my alpaca farm. Not sorry I missed THAT.
So now I will be forced to knit another Calorimetry for MOI. Luckily, I have one of the yarns from MY magic ball, just waiting:
Araucania "Limari Multicolor" 70 %Merino, 20% Alpaca, 10% silk, hand-dyed bulky. Can't wait to get started!
Florida - Fibery, Alpaca-Friendly and Fine!
****PS. If you are wondering about the granny-knitting and spinning illustrations used above,
I recently fixed a friend's computer (Not that I KNOW how to do that, so please, Don't call me!)
She inherited this computer from a distant relative. It also had an external hard drive that came with it. She did not want the hard drive; something I find unimaginable. So I took it off her hands.
On the drive I found gay porn and many, old movie posters. Most of the posters, I dumped, but I kept the two above as well as a signed, photograph of my favorite, classic movie-star, Olivia DeHavilland.
Hopefully, I will not be sued by Warner Brothers or whoever made the movie "Mortal Storm" where Nazis threaten the Bavarian granny whilst she winds a yarn ball off of Margaret O'Brien's hands.
Maybe it's time to make a movie about cool, young spinners and knitters. I think I know where we can get a script.
Coming soon - Diary of a Frenzied Fiber Queen - my life as an alpaca breeder otherwise known as Kate's diary.
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