Do the Sweater, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise
October 16, 2010 Martha Thomases 0 Comments
As I write this on Thursday, there is a big storm heading my way. Depending on how it plays out, there could be major winds and severe rain.It’s out to get me.
“Really?” you say. “There are more than 20 million people in the New York City area, but this storm is all about you?”
Yes, it is. See, New York City is supposed to get the worst of it on Friday. Rhinebeck, however, might get hit on Saturday. And Saturday is the start of the New York Sheep and Wool Festival, conveniently located in Rhinebeck.
The best way to imagine this event is to remember the last big Comic-Con you attended. Last week’s New York is plenty similar. Now, instead of fanboys and comics nerds, imagine knitters, spinners and fiber nerds. Replace the booths sponsored by publishers, film studios and gaming systems with yarn, alpacas, goats, sheep and angora rabbits. And instead of being in a large, metropolitan convention center, you’re at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds. Outside.
For the last several years, I’ve really enjoyed the event. Held the third weekend in October, the leaves are usually at their gaudiest. The air is crisp, and it’s lovely to walk around. Perhaps I spend too much money, but I’m supporting local farmers and artists. Who talk to me and share their creativity. And no one in the crowd objects to being stared at, because each of us is probably wearing – with pride – a recently knitted garment.
Rain doesn’t improve things any.
However, just as comics may have finally crossed over to the mass market, causing Comic-Cons to be so full of people that one can’t see anything or even move, the fiber arts may be getting too big. These events are losing the coziness that is one of the most attractive parts of the crafts scene. They expect 60,000 people at Rhinebeck. And that’s without a decent transportation system, or adequate hotel facilities.
Maybe I’m grouchy about it because I’m poor this year. Or maybe it has lost its novelty, now that I have my favorite vendors and there is less likely to be a new discovery.
Maybe I just don’t want to get rained on.
In any case, next year I’m thinking of going a bit farther afield, and trying something funkier.
Martha Thomases, Media Goddess, repeats her offer to make socks for anyone who helps her find a paying gig.
Jonathan (the other one)
October 16, 2010 - 10:08 am
So, it’s basically like NYCC, except the herds of fanboys are replaced by herds of alpacas and goats?
The smell should at least be familiar, then… 🙂
Martha Thomases
October 16, 2010 - 1:01 pm
Jonathan: Not really. There are probably several hundred animals, but the fanboy equivalent is a middle-aged woman. There are plenty of young women, old women, and men, but the overwhelmingly most noticeable group is people like me.
Whitney
October 16, 2010 - 1:27 pm
Amazing Martha –
Your posting immediately makes me want to nest and unpack my sweaters. The only thing that isn’t wonderful about L.A. that can’t be fixed – despite MOTU’s gripes – is the lack of really cold weather.
What knitted confection do you feel was your work of art? How did it start? Where is it now? The only craft that I ever took up was candlemaking with my little sister. I still have a scar on my left foot.
Martha Thomases
October 16, 2010 - 1:31 pm
Whitney: That’s like asking me to name my favorite child!
pennie
October 16, 2010 - 1:41 pm
What a lovely looking alpaca!
He is outstanding in his field. And for those who are wondering…that is so not a “do” but Pride’s own natural growth. All credit where credit is due, the bewitching photo was taken last week by my friend Kathy at our own local version of Martha’s event. No “Sheep and Wool,” attended by thousands, this was “Alpaca and alpaca,” visited by scores of happy kids and a few awestruck adults…
Martha, I just hope S & W’s weather was better than the one I went to with you and John. That year, the freezing rain and bone-chilling cold probably helped sales but sure made me wish I was covered in fibers.
Yours in alpacas.
Martha Thomases
October 16, 2010 - 3:51 pm
Pennie: It was breezy, but there was sun. And animals. And yarn. The only alpaca I bought was some amazing sock yarn, for a friend who wants blue-and-white socks. But oh, the angora!
Mike Gold
October 16, 2010 - 4:00 pm
Pennie, that was no alpaca. That was Moe Howard in bondage.
pennie
October 16, 2010 - 5:10 pm
Mike: And here I thought it was Curly!
pennie
October 16, 2010 - 5:11 pm
PS: When it comes to alpacas: give me Mo’!
Doug Abramson
October 16, 2010 - 8:55 pm
Whitney,
The lack of really cold weather in SoCal is not an issue. I was born in San Diego and raised in OC. For me LA is the north.
Whitney
October 17, 2010 - 6:09 am
Doug (and Martha)-
As a matter of fact, I’ll be in San Diego Sunday night for the grand opening of a beloved ex-colleague’s biker bar on Rosencrans. Lee Ving from Fear will be playing for our musical enjoyment. Ted, the owner/bartender of Shakedown, is going to brand the toes of my faux Doc Martens to say “UR” “NXT”, respectively. Tonight at the office, the photographer for one of our bands said he wanted to shoot me in porn — not boudoir photos, not erotic art. Porn. And the all-female heavy metal band told me what it was like to have to wear burkhas when they arrived at the airport in Iraq when they went to play for the troops.
Martha, please re-think telling me a story about selecting at a country fair the perfect alpaca that you clipped from its original owner, only after giving the sweet faced beast a sugar cube. Tell me about the poncho you made that you snuggled in while reading Mark Twain, while a Nor’estern howled outside your brownstone on the dicey side of Park Slope. I need sweet dreams tonight.
I think I spelled burkhas wrong. Good.
Martha Thomases
October 17, 2010 - 6:21 am
Whit: Lee Ving is in GET CRAZY, one of my all-time favorite movies! As they say on the Intertubes, so jellus!
My friend, Pennie, is the alpaca maven. I love them, but if I were to start a farm for fiber animals, I would have cashmere goats. And I wouldn’t do that because I’m not cut out to take care of their medical needs, like a good goat-mama does. Maybe I’ll get some angora rabbits. And I’d like a herding dog to take care of me in my old age.
For snuggling, I have two hand-dyed cashmere sweaters, made of 8-ply yarn (so they are really chunky and lush) that i love very much. I have a long, mohair librarian-style mohair sweater that is weightless. And my friend, Sandy, gave me some buttons made from old comic books, and I made a blue sweater with a lightning bolt down the back to go with them.
Mike Gold
October 17, 2010 - 1:39 pm
Get Crazy is one of the funniest, most clever movies I’ve ever seen. About 17 people have seen it — it’s not out on DVD, to the best of my knowledge. My DVD is from Japan. Li’l Johnny Ostrander turned ME on to it. I’d love to see it in a good theater.
Can’t beat the cast, either. And the scene where Malcolm McDowell hires his penis to be the band’s manager… priceless!
Martha Thomases
October 17, 2010 - 2:02 pm
Mike: Several years ago the Film Society at Lincoln Center did a salute to Malcolm McDowell at which they showed GET CRAZY. John and I went with my friend, Stephanie, whom we had turned on to the film (so make that 18). The curator did nothing but badmouth the movie. We hissed at her. Stephanie demanded to know why the curator was saying such things when we had paid to see it, and obviously were there to enjoy it.
Which we did.
Mike Gold
October 18, 2010 - 6:07 am
Why the hell would they show a movie they were going to bad rap? Elitist cocksuckers.
I’m reminded of how the booth announcer at the Chicago PBS teevee station bad rapped Monty Python right after they aired their first show. A month later, I phoned into their Dialing For Dollars pledge week and said I’d give ’em $10,000 if they’d nail that fuckers’ tongue to the stage floor, live on the air. The woman who took my call laughed and said she understood.
But, of course, she really didn’t. I would have supplied the nails.