happiness in a skein

happiness in a skein
Originally uploaded by norvegal

Seriously. Does it get any better than this?

Yesterday morning I walked down to the farmer's market, which takes place every Wednesday in Portland's Monument Square. It was truly a propaganda day, bright and warm, the air smelled sweet, everybody was in a good mood, everything looked pretty, and it was the kind of morning when people visiting from elsewhere suddenly declare, "That's it, I'm moving here."

(I speak from experience and can only advise you NOT TO CALL THE MOVER until you've thought about it a little longer.)

Anyway, the market was overflowing with big healthy seedlings--vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers, and random ornamental stuff. One vendor had local cheese, another had pork in a big ice chest, and yet another had amber-colored jars filled with honey. Yum, yum.

But what made me happiest of all was the sight of this yarn, white and clean and bright and lofty and freshly spun and full of opportunity and potential, like a big empty sheet of paper. It came from the vendor's own sheep. (When I asked what kind, he shrugged and said, "they're just mutts.") His wife hadn't had any time to dye it yet because she was busy with their newborn. "I don't even know, like..." he said, shrugging and shaking his head, "how much yarn is in there or anything."

Dude, like, Yarn Whisperer here, reporting for duty!

So of course I grabbed a hank, popped it open, pull it taut, and give him a mini-tutorial on hank construction, showing how it was most likely a two-yard loop and that he could count the strands in the loop, multiply them by two, and have a pretty close idea of how many yards were in there (approximately 180).

I think I was probably much more excited about it than he was. In fact I'm plotting to go back and offer to buy up his entire clip for the season. For what purpose I do not know, but when has that ever stopped a knitter before?