Menagerie

Yesterday I went to NHSW with Donna and Lynne. We had an excellent time. Having slightly overshopped two weeks ago at CTSW, I decided that anything fibery would have to work extra hard to talk me into taking it home. (It does too talk. You just have to be listening.) Luckily I had less opportunity than usual to resist the siren songs, because everyone was there, and I kept bumping into friends all day long. After a couple of years that somehow seem like an eternity of knowing her only online, I met Suzanne and her charming family.


She was wearing a stunning shawl that she designed as she went along — dang, I wish I could do that, well, I can, but I wish I could do it as well as she did — and we talked about kids and politics and knitting.

A few days ago Norma was worrying that her red sweater wouldn't fit, wouldn't hang right, wouldn't look good on her, just all around wouldn't work.


I have no idea why. It's a perfect sweater in a perfect Norma color, and it looks like it grew on her. (How does she get the shoulder seams so perfect? I do not know.)

I was privileged to witness the culmination of five years of wheel lust.


Cate sat down and spun for maybe ten seconds, then pulled out her checkbook. As I had just been spinning on it myself and wishing that I could take it home without risking life and limb (the expression "fifth wheel" comes to mind in several senses), I was pleased to see it and Cate find each other. I also met Cate's lovely children. Are they not lovely?


Cheryl ate a pickle. We encouraged her to get some ice cream to go with it, but she was enjoying herself, not pandering to stereotypes.

And I saw Carole and Terry wearing her newly finished shawl, and Manise and Chris, whose fiber was its usual chatty self, and Martha and Marcy and Sandy and... what am I, a link machine? You know who you are.

And then there were the animals. I watched the sheepdog demo for a little while.


This is the first year I remember Dave's bringing his clever dogs and ever-patient sheep to NH. I see him with them every year at Fiber Frolic (anyone Frolicking this year? inquiring minds want to know), dogs are dogs and sheep are nervous, and I never get tired of the show.

I am all in favor of same-sex marriage (congrats to the state of Maine on recently becoming #5, and New Hampshire may follow very shortly).


I do generally prefer same-species marriage, but to each her own.


It's hard to blame anyone for loving the furry critters.

But the coolest thing I saw all day was not part of the plan. As I emerged from the restroom at the back of the fairgrounds, a movement near an unoccupied building caught my eye.




There were four of them, darting under the building (I think their den is probably under there somewhere), crawling back out again, stalking and pouncing and romping together. So cute! But I hoped everyone's lambs and bunnies would be safely locked up for the night.

Dang, I love festival season.

WIP

When I turned 50 a couple of months ago I felt a sense of liberation. I'm old enough to know what matters and what doesn't, and certainly too old to worry about what people think of me. WYSIWYG, as they say in my business, and let the chips fall where they may.

Then came last Tuesday. The Ten on Tuesday was ten words people would use to describe you, and I felt as if I'd consumed a quart of ice cream in world-record time. I guess I still care a lot what people think of me, and I worry that some of it might not be good. As a friend said, inevitably some people won't like me, and since there's nothing I can do about it I shouldn't worry; and after decades of practice I actually almost have that one. It's the people who do like me that I get bent out of shape about: do they really? and why? Because if I start trying to analyze it, I'm damned if I can come up with a reason. Of course it's hard to think when your brain is frozen.

Nonetheless, I'm going to take a crack at this, if (almost) a week late, as a character-building exercise.

Ten Words People Would Use to Describe Me

1. knitter
   
2. spinner
   
3. creative
   
4. funny
   
5. grammarian
   
6. ailurophile
   
7. sesquipedalian
   
8. tangential
   
9. unglamorous
   
10. bookish

Well. That wasn't nearly so hard as I'd feared. The factual ones are indisputable and therefore easy, but there are a couple there that I really could use if asked "what are your strengths?" — which, as you might guess, is the interview question I dread the most. #8 btw is a description actually given not of me, exactly, but of my conversational style: after (again) decades of self-training I am capable of staying on the same topic for more than half a sentence, but it's not easy.

Are you still here? If you've patiently read through all of this omphaloskepsis, the least I can do is give you some eye candy, even if it is Monday.



Bring on the next Ten on Tuesday: I'm ready. I think.