nash island roundup & shearing 2016

At the very end of May,  the Nash Island roundup and shearing. Downeast, Maine.

 It's my favorite day of spring. It's beautiful, it's elemental, it's timeless, it's all about community and fiber and friends and work, and the light and smells.  I shoot sheep shots and hold lambs and I am pretty sure, smile all day. Here's the Nash Island flock's history.

6 am-ish, dawn, by the dock on the mainland. No one but the sheep live on Nash, we ride out on lobster boats.

It gets festive quickly, with about 25 or so family members and friends of the Wakemans (who own the island) and Jani Estell (who manages the flock) bustling down to the harbor with coolers of food for the potluck lunch, shearing gear, and many layers of clothes and boots. The year's clip is what Jani spins in her Starcoft Fiber Mill to make yarn.  The island has no docks, we clamber into smaller boats when we get close to shore, ferry over and hop out in shallow water.  This year's crew includes knitwear designers wearing plenty of handknits. L to R on the boat: Gudrun Johnston, Carrie Bostick Hoge, Sarah "FiberTrek" Hunt* and Mary Jane Mucklestone**.  (I don't know what  great hat Gudrun has on, but Sarah is wearing a Rivington Cowl designed by Kirsten Kapur, who is also aboard).

You don't see many sheep at first--the island is hilly and the sheep are shy. Plenty of gulls swooping and calling, though.

And the views are stunning, though quickly eclipsed by the irresistible lambs.

Everyone gathers around the camp (the solitary building on the island) while Alfie Wakeman lays out the plan for roundup, assigning areas of the island to small squads.  The next generation of Wakemans, on the left, work hard . Wren Wakeman, in overalls, joins her mom Eleni(on the right in blue), and two other women, as shearer.

My squad (mid island,cough mid aged women) are assigned an area where we squat in tall grass or on hillsides, slowly creeping forward till all the sheep have been spotted and nudged toward a ridge of the island. On a cue, we all stand up and make ourselves large, then converge running  behind the flock, toward a corral. I am amazed, every time, that this works, and works well.The sheep run noisily into the corral by the water, and the gulls scream overhead, warning us off their nests..

It takes some shoving and catching and chasing, but the end fence piece of the corral finishes pushing the sheep into the pen, where they stay, just till sheared. The other 364 days of the year they roam free, grazing on seaweed and grass.

The first order of the day is sorting all the lambs out from the adults, and getting them into their own pen. This is the first time they'll be counted this year. They all call for their moms, it's very noisy and a little sad.Thought that one in the middle right seems smiley...

To separate the lambs, 3 people are in the corral quickly handing out lambs to the rest of us. We run a  parade down the hillside, over and over till all 80 lambs are moved to their own pen. It is the very best part of the day.  The lamb poo that inevitably covers your shirt is your merit badge.Here's Grant Estell doing double lamb duty. (no pun intended).

Knitwear designers wearing lambs. Gudrun on the left, and Kirsten on the right.

Pretty sure Kirsten was trying to sneak this one home with her. 

While the lambs are tended to and then released to wander baaaaing for their moms, the shearing starts up. Wren Wakeman, above, grabs a sheep to shear. 

Lily Wakeman and her cousin spend the day wrestling and carrying sheep over to the shearers, keeping order by the gate, and sitting them up for shearing (here, by Donna). You can see how much lanolin is in the fleece, by how shiny Donna's hand gets.

Sarah's job, upper left, is to catch the sheared fleeces, pull off the daggy parts, and then toss the fleece onto the skirting table, where a group of us stand ready to quickly pick out any seaweed or grass.  Jani (upper right) oversees and grades the fleece, calling out "Yarn", "Fog (her fabulous airy fingering weight lamb yarn)","Handspin" , the categories. The skirted fleeces are rolled into towering burlap bags- or if handspin quality, lovingly protected in bedsheets. You cannot imagine how much light gets bounced down and then back up off these fleeces. Or how easily our hands get sunburned, but soooo soft, covered in the oils from the sheep. This year's skirting table crew looked stylish, though, right?

It's noisy, and fun, and hard work and so so beautiful.

The lambs, who have all been released from counting and ministrations,  gather around our feet, looking sweet and baaaa-ing their little heads off, waiting to be reunited with their shorn moms.

There's a potluck lunch break that rivals any fine restaurant, and time to take a quick snooze on the warm beach stones. Or, as Kirsten did, break out your spindle and do the irresistible,  as a handspinner surrounded by pure fresh fluff. (For the record, I lay down and close my eyes on the warm stones).

By late afternoon, the skirting table has a mountain of discarded wool bits, Jani triumphs as the last of 111 sheep are shorn, and Mary Jane and Grant tie closed giant bags of fleece.

Back down to the boats we go.

This time the bags and rolls of fleeces get ferried out to the lobster boats, followed by us.

 Back on the mainland dock, waiting for the truck to take the fleeces to the Starcroft Mill. That's a Stopover sweater on Kirsten, and Sarah's wearing a gorgeous Cockatoo Brae knit in Starcroft Tide wool, from the island sheep.

Pretty much a perfect day. This is the 4th year I've helped at the roundup & shearing on Nash, the 4th year I've photographed it, and the 4th year that I am sure no imagery or recording can really capture it. But I'll keep trying. 
Here's a Yankee magazine story that narrates the day well. 
If you have a chance, try to knit with some of the Starcroft yarn, it is special and soft and strong -and even  if you didn't  meet the sheep and  know the story, as a knitter you'd know it by the feel. 

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*Check out Sarah's Fiber Trek TV YouTube channel for her adventures with all things sheep. I'm so happy to have met her. And you should see her knitting, I did a poor job of documenting all the great sweaters on the island that day.

** Mary Jane is wearing her Nash Island sweater, based on a traditional style, you can't get a better match than that. Another sweater that I didn't manage to show much of. Grrrr.  She often designs with Jani's yarn.  (Among many other wonderful things, Mary Jane designed the Stopover, which was my island wear choice for the day.)

november post 8: when in doubt, show sheep shots

an old favorite, from Autumn House Farm

• • •  Teaching at Fibre Space in Alexandria VA in just a couple of days! 

 The workshops are close to full- jump on in!• • • •

 

• Thursday Evening 6-9 Smartphone Masterpieces - hands on & fun class to take with a non-knitter  

• Friday - 10-5 Photography for Knitters & Makers- soup to nuts, Shooting to Editing & review - get up close and personal with your camera. 
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three cheers for the red, white and blue (large)

Browsing around on the internets, as one does when one is sitting in one's office avoiding large deadlined projects, I ran into the huge knit US flag art piece by Dave Cole,  quite a few times. Then, I read Lori's post on it, on her VersaciKnits blog.  She mentioned that her dad, an art collector, has the artist's model of the piece. 

Which prompted my memory of photographing Dave Cole while the piece was installed, up at MassMOCA in 2005.  Back when my blog had 15 readers, on a good day. These are a couple of the images.  If you want to see more of the piece itself and about Dave's work (at least 7 years ago) , take a look at my July 9, 2005 post. Including the model, that's now at Lori's dad's house. (I just love knowing where things end up, don't you?) 

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The funniest thing is, I can't recall what magazine I shot him for.  He continues to incorporate knitting and handsewing and materials that are waaaay outside the box to make his art. Take a look.

craft activism goes literary in Little Rock AR!

...with a side-order of yarn bombing, thankyouverymuch. To recap: the Arkansas Literary Festival invited me as a presenting guest author, and asked if I'd also lead a Craft Activism event.  It took about a split second to choose yarn bombing, masterminded by the kniteratiLR . We decided to also make flowers from recycled sweaters as embellishments,  giving  non-knitters a break.

We worried no one would join us.

Not a problem! We also worried the weather'd be bad, that it'd be confusing, that we wouldn't have good materials...

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Here's Patrice, my partner in crime.  Really, more of a fun ringleader. If we ever pull a big heist she'll be the one with the excellent map with the duct systems schematic and the timing to get to the getaway car. I'll be the one...um...whatever, I am sure I'll be useful.  Anyhoo, we had felted old sweaters, colorful buttons and Patrice scored a bunch of One Thousand Percent Old Nylon hand crocheted afghans at Savers Village. I've noticed people like to have directions, even for open-ended projects, so we made a handout and did some test-crafting, to keep calm the night before. We were worried that it was too "Make & Take" Nope, not a problem. The template & directions became a launchpad. Just liked we'd hoped.The table quickly filled. Recycled sweater flowers piled up, but then we worried we wouldn't engage a wider audience.Again,not a problem. Teenage boys! The most wonderful part is this: see the dude in the blue T-shirt? He'd said in a disdaining teen tough boy way that he didn't know how to sew, when I tried to hand him a needle & yarn to attach flowers. He said it in the same way one would  back away from an offer to smell something rotting in the back of the fridge. His friend, the one you see giving him a hand said something like Damn, what do you mean you can't sew? Instantly turning it around, making it a desirable skill. Then he showed his friend how. Now that is some pretty cool craft activism, right  there (also, they were lured away from video gaming to do this. Let that sink in..video games)

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We moved outside to yarnbomb a small parklike area. This little girl will no doubt be the editor of Vogue Knitting someday. She was on task and delightful. When we were done,  I observed that it looked magical, to which she replied" It looks like my kind of world."while sweeping her hands around the area.  awwwww.

Meet Meredith Martin-Moats, folklorist, writer, editor, NPR producer and craft activist, who wrote about us in her excellent blog The Boiled Down Juice . It's full of interesting subjects that aren't us, too. Also, her twin toddler sons' stroller got yarnbombed as they passed through.

If you want to see even more from this day, hop over to CraftActivism, I put up a full slideshow.

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It'd be a shame to not mention how cool Little Rock itself is.  Thanks to Patrice, I had a fab visit. She and her hubby Roy opened up their home, fed me deliciously,  and  put up with my endless chicken and bee questions.  Turns out Patrice and I had the same job, years ago, but not at the same time, in Boston, at a photo agency.  (I know, you really can't make up stuff like this). Even more satisfying than comparing notes about old bosses/co-workers was the fact that Patrice is a talented knitter.  She  has the good taste to have knit, and wears, many sweaters in my queue. ( I am sure you  understand how great this is).  When we had a teeny slice of free time, she gave me a tour of LR.  Here's some of it, captioned.

The Clinton Library. Gorgeous architecture, fascinating presentation of recent history. Along with momentous world events, there was a display dedicated to handmade gifts that President & Hillary Clinton received, like the beaded necklaces. There's something so sweet and also so pop culture about all of it.Central High School, a place I  knew from the old Life Mag photos from  early days of the civil rights movement. It's beautiful, peaceful, still turning out graduates. Of all colors.

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Detail of a statue in front of Heifer International.

 

And the Big Dam Bridge, which as you might guess, was built on top of a dam. It's a long pedestrian bridge over the Arkansas River connecting two riverfront parks, in Little Rock & North Little Rock.

goods & curiousities

Around here, darkness is landing with a cold thud mid-afternoon. Even if you don't celebrate the major holiday happenings in all their green and red and santa clausness, it's pretty easy to be charmed by twinkly Essex CT. (Did I mention pubs?)

along Main Street Essex

 Even for someone like me, a reluctant shopper. So, this week's photo heavy Monday: a visit to the Goods & Curiousities Store at The Griswold Inn.

 

 

It's full of cool stuff. These things for example? They look like little sculpted/carved paperweights (what do we need to weigh down, anyway?) but they're made of graphite. You draw with them.

 

That's sister Lulu on the right, by day she's the Director of Retail operations at The Gris.*  And on the left, Ann Weaver of Weaverknits, indie designer and knitter, on day 3 of an intense east coast book tour. Which might be why she looks slightly crazed. She's really not. You can see my Craft Activism presence to the left.

 

Ann & I had a showroom upstairs from the shop for the day.She brought knit kits,and handknits, I brought photos and cards. We both had books, samples ,and a lot to say.

  

I know you want a closer look at these pieces from the shop. 

Made from vintage newspapers.

 

Nice way to pass a December Sunday. Plus, I got some knitting on a gift done. If you wish you hadn't missed us, Ann's knit kits (with indie yarns and patterns) and both our books remain at the shop, in a corner with some other woolly items, like fleece lined slipper boots from recycled wool clothes, and hats.

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* Consider that full disclosure, nepotism and all. But I wouldn't bother to blog about the joint if I truly didn't think it was special, and worth a look. I'm not that kind of blog.

spaces

 I often find myself photographing at public schools. I'm almost always there because of  people and programs going on, and I love the subject of education.  But there is something about the settings that get me. Maybe because they're so timeless and often (economically) classless. I mean, look at the velvet curtain, the construction paper chains and winter decoration. This could be last week in Fair Haven , a working class  neighborhood of  Latino new immigrants in New Haven , or it could have been my elementary school, a few hundred miles and a couple, few decades um, lifetime, ago.

Thanks for all the blogiversary comments. This whole blogging scene, and the connections we make, and the things that happen next, are really truly amazing.

I thought I'd be showing you the finished Cobblestone sweater but you know that garter stitch yoke? A time (and yarn) gobbler. We've been on a bender of watching The Wire on DVD,  this week obsessed with Season 2.  So caught up in the plots and dialogue that I sometimes stop knitting to concentrate on the characters. I know ? Whats up with that? Unthinkable. But the sweater is  blocking now and so is another little project. FO's next post.

 

Meanwhile, play fair, OK?