Back from dropping Mr. Bunn (and Eldest Daughter) off at college.

She brought all the essentials – computer and statistical calculator, desk lamp, clothes, electric kettle and tea, backrest pillow and bedding, her parents’ money – and her knitting. I anticipate a string of texts, notes, and letters reporting Mr. Bunn’s travails as a freshbun. Will relay any that are particularly amusing and/or full of knitting content.

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Back from our annual sand-fest on Cape Cod, and sad that there’s another 51 weeks to go before we return. It was supremely relaxing. A room right on the bay-side beach up near Beach Point in North Truro, lots of books to read and things to knit. No phones and no computers. The day consisted of consulting the tide chart for a relative fix on the time, cooking or going out when we were hungry, walking the beach and taking the occasional hike and paddling the kayak from the strand right in front of our room.

The big highlight of our week was a hike across the stone breakwater at Woods End at the lower end of Provincetown, to explore the isolated beach beyond. Not my pix here (obvious because it’s a good shot). Here’s another one. The rock hopping stroll was about 1.5 miles each way. Being a klutz I rolled a 2 on agility and fell at the far end, but although I was banged up a bit, no major damage was registered, and we all returned back the way we came.

On the beach dining included our now traditional over-the-coals paella (identical to this one from years past).

plus (on other days) chicken rubbed with lemon and olive oil then roasted on the grill, beef kabobs, steamed lobsters, and the usual kid-friendly hot dogs and hamburgers for lunch.

Dining out included Terra Luna in North Truro (always excellent); The Mews (our no-kids Date Night – exquisite food, very highly recommended), and Nappi’s in Provincetown (a good place to take kids to make up for Date Night); Mac’s Shack in Wellfleet (best fried seafood on the Cape). And an indulgent brunch snack at Provincetown’s Portuguese Bakery (kale soup, malassadas, and sweet potato turnovers to die for).

I read several books: the sheep detective story Three Bags Full, River of Darkness – a suspense/mystery set in post WWI Britain, and my annual bit of beach self-indulgence, See Dephi and Die, yet another Lindsay Davis Falco novel. Of these three River of Darkness was by far the strongest, with a well plotted mystery, intriguing characters, and a strong sense of place/time. Three Bags Full was quite breezy and entertaining for a murder mystery. Seeing the sheep confront human behavior was very amusing. The Davis book however was one of the author’s weakest. The main character suffers extreme lack of opposition and foils in this one, amusing just because by now the setting and cast are so familiar.

And yes – I did knit. Lots. I brought three projects, the Kyoto, my Truro blanket and my green tablecloth. I am almost finished with the Kyoto’s sleeves. Blocking and assembly (and pix) will soon ensue. My tablecloth grew by about five rows. I didn’t do anything on the blanket, chiefly because I have mislaid the exact needles I was using. They’re an in-between size, an older set somewhat between 2.5 and 2.75mm I didn’t like the variant gauge I was getting with standard 2.75s and I didn’t have any 2.5s with me in my bag.

So there you have it. One well rested/well fed but slightly bruised knitter. With vacation laundry and that 51 week infinitude stretching out ahead…

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An uneventful birthday weekend, squandered on laundry, work, housecleaning, and more work. Sigh. Still I am of the opinion that if one doesn’t celebrate, then the event didn’t happen and the incremental addition to one’s age need not be acknowledged.

I also have to report a misfortune occurring in our wider circle. Long time readers here will remember that my kids adore Roads End Farm – a paradise on earth for horse-mad girls, run by the Woodman family for more than 35 years.

Elder Daughter spent about nine summers there, Younger Daughter has been there for three. Apparently over Memorial Day weekend there was a fire at the farm. No horses, humans or other critters were harmed, but the camp lost its dorm block and a storage barn just two weeks before the start of the early summer session. Roads End does not go down easy though. They are planning on rebuilding and as far as I know will be opening for the season, albeit with some improvisation on living arrangements. If you’re a REF alumna who has landed here, please consider writing a note of support and appreciation to Tom, Alicia and the whole REF family (address at link, above). They’ve worked hard to keep the magic in the place, and now could use a wave of our collective wands to ensure that it stays.

In knitting news, I continue on the green tablecloth. It’s big and getting bigger. Unfortunately, it’s not photogenic. Yet another blurry picture of a huge olive green snood is not going to be an edifying experience. So I soldier on, visually undocumented.

One thing we are looking forward to here at String is Elder Daughter’s high school graduation this weekend. Soon she’ll be off to the wide, wide world of college. Another knitter released to the wild.

A bittersweet week to be sure.

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As promised courtesy of Friend Merlyn (she of far better photo sense than I ever will have) is our day at the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival. All the photos here are hers, reproduced here by permission.

To start, no sheep festival is complete without its eponymous totem. Here are a couple of girls, still in their fluffy finery, checking us out for illicit snacks.

By contrast, this guy is far more aloof. “Snacks? I disdain the possibility of snacks. Ooh, do I see hot sheep chix in the next stall?”

Which leads us to sheepy strippers.

That’s a lot of fuzz. Spinners and dyers were in a special heaven at this show because of all the raw and semi-processed fleece, dyed fleece and roving; spinning gear, and dyeing classes and supplies.

Here’s one tough spinner:

“Yo. You wanna talk grist? I’ll see your grist and raise you 5.”

Actually, there were quite a few men at the show sitting and spinning (or like this guy, wandering around with a drop spindle).

Which takes us on to my main target of opportunity. Yarn. A day of selective yarn acquisition. Selective because there’s a mismatch between my imagination – what I can see myself doing with the yarn – and available time/yarn budget dollars.

Here are the three of us, daughters large and small, and (in my first appearance on this website) a small shot of magenta-clad me, poking through the Bartlett booth, then buying some laceweight at a totally different venue, from a vendor whose name I neglected to note:

I’ve got an eye bending, giant lump of black Jaggerspun 20/2, elder daughter’s buying the same thing in screaming russet. (She’s thinking of doing a Paisley, but that thought is still quite larval.) Even younger daughter got into the spin of the day, making a felted snake at the American Textile History Museum‘s booth:

But back to the vendor displays. As I wrote earlier, I was especially taken with the creativity of the Tsock Tsarina patterns, on display at the Holiday Yarn booth. I’m not quite sure how I’d wear or care for these art object socks, but the exuberance and detail of these designs are fantastic. And I enjoyed the opera theme of the entire line:

The colors and abundance of the yarn on display for sale was spectacular. Who wouldn’t be inspired by all of this?

And the day had its non-yarn amusements as well. I’ve decided that alpacas are animals designed by anime artists: those long, snaky necks and staring oversize eyes; the fluffy hairdos, and overly earnest expressions; the stylish baggy-leg look. The only thing missing is gigantic, oversized feet and “!!!”s floating over their heads:

Since plenty of shoots and leaves were on the menu for the day, we got a kick of of this class announcement, too.

Special thanks again to photo documenter Merlyn for providing today’s run of eye candy. You can check out the rest of her sheepy shots here.

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The offspring, Friend Merlyn and I went to the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool festival this Sunday past. We had a good time, with lots of sheepy things to look at, from fleece on the hoof to finished product. I do however note that Saturday rather than Sunday is probably a better day to go. It looked like some vendors and displays had already packed up and left, and some of the remaining sellers were displaying much depleted stock. There were still sheepdog trials going on when we got there, but the advertised horse show was among the events scratched for the day. Younger Daughter especially got a kick out of what looked to be a children’s llama agility course, in which youngsters led their equally young beasts around a set of gentle obstacles. It was hard to pick out who was cuter, the clearly concentrating little kids at one end of the lead ropes, or the gangly legged, long necked fuzzballs at the other.

I did manage to pick up some excellent buys. From left to right, 665 yard/8.3 oz hank of gray sport weight alpaca, from the Times Remembered booth – super soft and probably a bit more yardage than advertised on the label (labels were pre-printed with sport weight target yardage but hanks varied in weight, I picked a more weighty one); two skeins of sock yarn from Dorchester Farms; and an oversize lace weight yarn, one in black of 13.3 oz, probably around 4200 yards from a bargain bin in a booth whose name I neglected to note. At the same spot Elder daughter got some orange/russet lace weight of about 6.5 oz, probably around 2000 yards. Both pods of lace yarn were at a bargain basement prices. I also got some white cotton, close to 30 weight suitable for filet crochet at another stall that was offering mill ends. The two of us together spent less than $75 total on yarn, and garnered enough for winter’s worth of scarf, hat, sock and shawl knitting and crocheting for us both (lace is especially cost effective in terms of dollars spent on materials vs. hours of knitting enjoyment). Finally, in the center is the felted snake Younger Daughter made at the Textile Museum’s booth.

I almost bought a sock kit from Harmony Yarns/Tsock Tsarina – the sock kits there were the most original thing I saw on display, and I got a big kick out of the opera themes of the design. The Tsarina herself was working on a pair on a theme to match “Daughter of the Regiment.” I was tempted by the Firebird and Kitri socks, and admired the sculptural cleverness of the Vintage. The only drawback is that these are socks as art objects. They’d be difficult to add to the daily wear and wash rotation. Still, I took the card (they were out of kits in my mega-flipper size), with the intent to do up one or more of them in the near future. I meant to pick up some more Mostly Merino fingering weight, but although I pegged their display as being on the “zip back after full reconnoiter for purchase” I didn’t manage to loop around to them. Which was a shame because they had some beautiful yarn there in the highly saturated colors I prefer.

There were many other vendors of note although my yarn budget would not let me stretch to buy everything I liked. I especially enjoyed seeing all the micro producers in addition to the larger (yet still not big business) concerns like Bartlett Mills and Green Mountain Spinnery. Hand dyed/variegated yarns predominated, with natural off-the-animal colors a close second. Lots of bunny and mohair – sadly both fibers I avoid because they make my hands itch when I try to work with them. Most vendors on Sunday had short quantities of most products, although some of the larger booths did have full sweater lots left. I missed seeing one vendor I thought might be there: Nicks Meadow Farm, a New Hampshire sheep farm/yarn seller I’ve seen at local Gore Place Sheepshearing festivals. I like their scoured Maine style rustic wool and have used their heavy worsted/Aran weight to good effect in the past.

I did not take any wandering-around or day-out pix (as you can see from my feeble attempts at photography here, cameras are not my forte). However, Friend Merlyn did. I’m hoping to link to some of her shots when they’re posted.

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I don’t know if anyone reading here is within striking range but if you are, the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival is this weekend. I’ll be headed up there tomorrow. Not sure if I’ll be dressed in something recognizable, but it’s a good bet that the offspring (both small and large) and a friend of ours will be wandering the grounds and exhibit tents there for the better part of the day. I’ll try to take pix.

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