Llyr's Daughter

They Just Don't...Get It

A friend showed me this article in the Star-Ledger from New Jersey. It's about alpaca farmers in that state, and an itenerant shearer, and what alpacas are, and alpaca farmers across the country, and how the owners love their animals. A nice story. A little plug for the alpaca farmer it focuses on.

And then on page 3, there's this:

But not everyone is as optimistic.

There would have to be an enormous shift in demand for alpaca fiber to justify the animals' price, said economist Richard Sexton. And even if that happened, the American market would still have to contend with the alpacas available from Peru and other South American countries.

"When you've got a cost stream that exceeds the revenue stream, the asset that's involved is worthless. That's what we have in the U.S. alpaca industry," said Sexton, a professor of agricultural and resource economics at University of California-Davis.

"I think most of these people that are in the alpaca industry are well-intentioned, but it's just a house of cards that's sadly destined to collapse," he said.

Hm.

Okay. They're expensive. Got it. But...

Maybe they just don't have sheep'n'wool festivals in California.

Inspiration

Laura rightly noted that I am not doing very well with Ravelry. No uploads, no queues... So how can I be claiming it's taking up my time?

Well, it's everyone else's projects, see. Everyone else has such amazing stuff, I just keep looking. One more scarf -- oh, but wait, that one looks nice too -- oh, and there's some lace, let's see what people have under lace -- what a nice pattern, who wrote that, oh, a blogger, what does she write about -- wait, I was looking at scarves -- but there are some pretty cables, do they have a cable section? Oh look, they do!

Ahem.

So I haven't been so much of an active member as a yarn-mojo-absorber. And it worked. I got really inspired to knit again.

I have a sweater that's been around since before the blog, some gloves I don't know how to finish (or where they are; I'd forgotten about them) and a couple of stray socks, but the big project that I have some interest in is Lady Eleanor from Scarf Style. I've been wanting to make this for over two years now, and I've had the yarn for nearly a year. I did cast on, but something about the set-up triangles put me off, so it gathered dust warped the spine of Scarf Style for months.

After looking through Ravelry, though, I marched right upstairs & dug around until I found it. And I sat down, and I started working on it, and

I. Love. Entrelac.

You know those stitches that are just-right easy? Entrelac is just-right easy for me. I can watch television (although probably not movies with subtitles), but it's still interesting enough to do on a bus. The yarn is good to knit with, too: it's soft, and there's no sign of the qualities of mohair I don't like.

But there's a but.

I was pretty excited about this yarn. I thought the purple/brown color combination would be cool. But knit up, it's just not doing it for me. The picture isn't very good about the colors; it's too red, despite being natural light. I'm almost on the third skein, and I have 11 more to go (14! why'd I buy 14??)

And yet... and yet I am going to finish this scarf, with this yarn. I love entrelac that much 

It All Depends on the Questions You Ask

In a Newsweek Web Exclusive, Karen Breslau writes of pollster Mark Penn's research published in his new book:
"The microsurge in knitting among teens? It represents a turning away from the prevalent online obsession of most young Americans."
I think the gentleman needs to re-visit his assumptions.

See Y'Later!

Hey there,

frecklegirl has invited you to Ravelry!
"Here you go! Thanks for your interest in our little site.
Let me know if you have any questions or problems!

Jess"