Creating art that works not works of art has been an integral part of my career. The artistic abilities that many may apply to a hobby have been my Bread and Butter; mechanics, building and golf are my hobby outlets. Over the years I have been amazed at some of the Knit items my wife has created. I have seen everything from Cabbage Patch dresses to Prayer shawls knitted artfully. I have stopped thinking of the commercial application of her efforts and begun to understand the joy she receives from the process of creating a handmade item. For many years now, we have enjoyed the blending of our hobbies into travel and time spent with friends with wonderful Wine Wool and Golf Trips. Recently during a weekend sleepover with our granddaughter one of the things on our to do list was attend a Fleece and Fiber event at the “Hallockville Museum Farm” in Riverhead.
So starts the story… Gail, Raquel and I arrive at the Fair there are vendor tents, displays, outdoor themed musicians, large fields, barns with activities, tents with crafts people and the stars of the show sheep, rabbits, alpacas and lamas. Raquel and I went off into a barn, we meet a gentleman drop spinning yarn; his hands busy at work feeding fleece into a small drop spindle that he hand crafted and before our eyes creating yarn. Wow! Guess what, this fascinated me and my granddaughter. We moved on from artisan to artisan both of us had a great time. My wife was talking with many of her friends from guilds she is a member of. We all went outside Grandma had promised to show Raquel some Bunnies, these were Angora bunnies, we had just seen their fleece become yarn and here they were scampering around and cuddling with children and adults. Next we walked over to sheep all full with woolen coats ready for shearing. Then Grandma says to Raquel “how would you like to meet a Lama”. We walk across the field and there is “Mac” a beautiful tame approachable and to my surprise domesticated Lama. We had a brief introduction by one of Macs’ handlers; his lead was handed to my wife and we were petting Mac. What I soon found out that I never knew was my wife had knitted shawls from Mac and other animals at the fair. It all clicked with me and the concept of farm to yarn was a wonderful natural extension of my wife’s hobby that interested me. Later on we saw Tabitha shear a sheep. We had a front row spot to view this skillful artisan complete her task. After shearing the sheep, sh
e laid the beautiful and lanolin rich result on the ground, it was all in one piece and you could picture the animal it once surrounded.
I did some research on Lamas and Knitting and I found an amazing amount of material I have linked a few. Although we may not be ab
le to pinpoint the exact beginning of this modern day craft; we certainly can appreciate the beautiful results of those who are involved with Knitting, fleece and fiber whether for fun or profit.
