Out of the mouths of babes

I had occasion to have dinner the other night alone with Younger Daughter while Rick and Older Daughter were at soccer practice. As we discussed our plans for the rest of the evening, I mentioned that I was going to finish plying the batt I'd started spinning. She commented, apropos of nothing that I seem to have a lot of yarn, to which I replied that yes, I did have some yarn stashed away. She then asked, "But Mama, what are you going to do with all of that yarn when you can't knit anymore?" As if such a thing were imminent. I said, "Why wouldn't I knit anymore?", and she said, "You know, when you get old." Again, as if such a thing were imminent.

Hmmm... I thought about it for a moment, and then pointed out to her that I'd only been really knitting for about six or seven years, and that I could easily knit another thirty years, and still not be as old as Memere is now. (Sorry, mom, but I think you'll see where I'm going with this in a moment.) She looked utterly enlightened, and not a little surprised, because it's pretty clear that her Memere still has plenty of life left in her, even at thirty years older than her aged mother. Memere could probably even summon up the energy to knit! It occurs to me that, from her perspective, Mom and I are both just Older, and Adults, and probably more alike to her in our adulthood relative to her feeling of non-adulthood than we are different from one another because of our ages. Maybe kids just don't see generations like we do. In any case, she seemed reassured that I wasn't going to fall by the knitterly wayside with a roomful of yarn left unknit.

Especially not this yarn.
Isn't it lovely? That's the angora/pollworth batt that I mentioned last time. This is a pretty close representation of its actual color, which is "pesto". I love it truly, madly, deeply.
This, plus more, is destined to become a pair of hats for my mother and me. I'll probably cast on for the first one tonight.

I think I also mentioned a couple of additional fallings-down from last weekend's fiber adventure. Both of them happened at the Carolina Homespun booth, which was amazing, not only for what it contained (an insane amount of wonderful stuff), but also because that's where I ran into Beverly, who'd mentioned in the comments that she'd be at Lambtown, and that she might say hi if she recognized me and it didn't seem too stalker-y. Well, I (serendipitously and entirely accidentally) saved her from that by accosting her as a complete stranger over the spindles to ask what she thought of them (apparently I have no shame when it comes to figuring out how someone could spin on those spindles that look more like nostepinnes to me than spindles). I should mention here that Beverly is a class-A enabler, too; as I dithered over the silk that I showed off in the last post, she stuck her head in that booth to tell me she'd bought one of their batts and that it was really wonderful. I committed to the silk very soon thereafter. It was nice to meet you, Beverly!

So, at Carolina Homespun, I bought myself this:
Silk/cashmere, in the colorway Persimmon. I kept walking up to it and picking it up, so I figured I should probably just commit. Doesn't it just scream "fall"? This may be the next thing to go on my wheel (although I confess that it feels too decadent to spin for some reason; I need to get over that feeling that I'm not good enough of a spinner for things like this).

The other purchase was one that my mom made. I have long been considering getting one of these "for the girls". Recognizing that "for the girls" really meant "for me and the girls", I have held off (no new fiber sports, right?). I showed it to mom and told her that I'd thought about getting them one for Christmas, and she said maybe she could do that. We chatted back and forth about it, until one of the weavers from the sheep to shawl competition heard us and told us how much she loves rigid heddle looms, that that's all she uses, and that this little one is a great one to start with and to do small projects with. That plus pointing out a few of the beautiful woven (as opposed to knit) scarves running around the fair pretty much did it. When I checked out with the fiber, mom checked out with the loom. (Thanks, mom!) I'm about halfway through warping it for the first time, and will probably finish that job this weekend and set the girls loose on it. Meanwhile, I'm contemplating what fiber in my stash might do well for weaving...