Moose And Other Wildlife

Meet Wilfred the Wildfibre Moose:


He’s almost but not quite life-size and he was constructed by a very talented member of my weavers guild, Diana McPhail. Another member made his basket-like antlers. He’s quite starkers at the moment but he will eventually be clothed in a wild array of fabrics, both woven and knitted by members of my guild. His purpose is to become the centrepiece of our display booth at the ANWG/HWSGA conference in Red Deer, Alberta in June. I am currently starting to knit sock version number two for him after frogging the first few inches that I'd already knit. The needles were too big for the yarn and the resulting fabric was much too holey. We don’t want his bare skin showing through now, do we? I’d be a lot farther along if I’d quit changing needles. I’m now using a mismatched set of aluminum dpns even though there are enough stitches to go around my Denise circs. The dpns feel much more comfortable to me. I’m hoping that since there are only a few more stitches around than in a normal man’s sock (80) and I’m only making one, I can at least get a half-decent length knitted by my deadline of 2 weeks from today. And that number will decrease towards his moosey ankle too. I can usually finish a pair of socks in that time. Of course that means I’ll actually have to work on it instead of sitting around sniffling!

Thanks for all the great comments on my wedding post! I know this won’t satisfy you entirely but for those who complained about the lack of a photo of me in my garb, here’s a slightly out-of-focus partial shot of me with my son’s mother-in-law. (Hey, I obviously didn’t take it!) The Ninja is very lucky to have such a sweet person for a MIL and we get along really well. She is “Grandma” and I am “Granny” to our two grandchildren. Don’t we look cute together in our veils?


All my children are now out of town. The Bride and her Groom are off on their honeymoon. A cruise through the Panama Canal sounds so very different from our own honeymoon in 1971. Three weeks after our wedding we went camping. In a tent. On an island. Not too elegant but that was all we could afford and besides, that’s just the kind of travelers we are! Cruise ship life is sorta like lipstick, hose, and high heels. Not me at all. But they love it and I know they’ll have a great time. Yesterday afternoon we took The Ninja and Family out to the airport for their flight to England. They’ll be renting a car and visiting with family and friends and going to naval history museums and such. I hope the little ones fell asleep on the plane or they were flying with some very tolerant fellow passengers! Earplugs would be a good carry-on item for everyone.

Happy May Day! I celebrated by finally transplanting my poor tomatoes into bigger pots. I hope to see some of you at Fibrefest. I’ll be there all day on Saturday the 12th so look for me in Birkeland’s booth or running around the vendor floor. Chatting with friends old and new and oggling all the items for sale are my favourite reasons for going to fibre events. I thought May would be a month of rest and recuperation but it’s shaping up to be quite busy, at least the first half.