Learning the Ropes: An Intern's Perspective (Kristi)

Hello from intern #1! About me: My name is Kristi, I'm 28, teach high school English in Kansas, and am covered in freckles. This is me, hiking the trails at Acadia, on a day off from the farm.

 

A month ago, I had never seen an alpaca or been to Maine. I wanted to learn more about both, so I drafted myself to Good Karma Farm, to intern for June and July. It's been a fun and fibery education so far. Amy and Jim are wonderful teachers and knitting/yarn/fiber realm is a whole new world. This blog is picking up mid-internship and June's adventures could fill a novel. For the sake of brevity, here is the hyper-abridged novel version of June on the farm:

Moved into an adorable barn apartment with an adorable roommate (Emma, intern #2).

Met and fell in love with alpacas:

Got hooked on Contra dancing:

Crash courses in knitting, felting, and all things fiber:

Onto July! The 1st of July, summer finally came to Maine. Which means animals permanently adorned in wool sweaters have to be hosed down daily. Prevents heat exhaustion and brain damage and such. Fortunately, alpacas LOVE to be hosed down. They're like toddlers in a sprinkler.

To derail temporarily: it’s important to introduce Delilah, the deaf alpaca, to these narratives. As an educator, I’ve found that it’s imperative to always choose a favorite. Delilah is the teacher’s pet this summer. Partly because she’s deaf and I always love an underdog. And she’s just hilarious and sweet. This is Delilah.

Yesterday, Delilah had a little trouble figuring out the spray down system.

Delilah and Georgia like to drink right out of the hose while being sprayed. 

In other animal happenings, Stella the duck -- a new addition to the farm -- has been getting swimming lessons from Amy and growing fast.

A good portion of June's activity (not included in hyper-abridged novel) involved moving electric fence for the Icelandic sheep to do rotational grazing. Part of the challenge was keeping Violet, sheep escape artist extraordinaire, in the fence. I call her Houdini. We spent hours trying to outsmart and outfence our little Houdini and everyday was an exercise in futility. She always got out. This is an action shot of Violet leaping back IN with the herd after being chased by Amy and interns. Maybe white sheep can't jump.

 

Our attempts to outfence Violet-Houdini have proven more fruitful this week, after we doubled up the electric fencing. But Violet has found other, more passive ways to express her defiance. Now, while the rest of the herd goes out to graze, she stands defiantly in a part of the barn she’s supposed to be fenced OUT of and gloats (or glowers? It’s hard to tell what sheep eyes are doing) while we poop scoop in the barn. I got through school relatively unscathed by bullying. I’m 28 now and being bullied daily by a deranged Icelandic sheep. Too bad this bully can’t escape to better pasture or turn off the electric fence with her little hooves.  We win. For now.

Maine Media Workshop Comes to Good Karma Farm!

A couple of weeks ago, we received a phone call from Maine Media Workshops in Rockport Maine.  They had a class of 8 people who were learning about storytelling through short documentary type film and they wanted to use our farm to tell their stories.  So of course we said "Absolutely!".  Four films were made that day and we are happy to present the first one.  Enjoy!

Knit and Crochet Away the Winter Blahs CONTEST!!!

It seems like a good time for another contest!!!  This time we're asking you to knit or crochet a hat from any pattern you like.  You can use any of our yarns: the 60/40 worsted, the Secret Island 6-color or even Edna's yarn.  Once you are finished with your hat you need to get creative!  Find a cool location or model to display your finished project and take a picture of it.  Email us the picture to info@goodkarmafarm.com and we'll choose ten finalists based upon the creativity and originality of the photo.  We won't be judging your hat!  From the ten finalists a winner and a runner up will be picked by our fans on Facebook.  The winner will receive a $50 Good Karma Farm Gift Certificate and the runner-up, $25 certificate.  Limited to one entry per person.  The Contest will run from Groundhog's Day (2/2/2012) to April Fool's Day (4/1/2012) so get your needles and hooks working!
You can use Good Karma Farm yarn from your stash, order it through our website, or buy it from any of our retailers.  If your LYS isn't carrying our yarn, ask them to! 

We can't wait to see what your creative minds come up with!  Have Fun!!!!

A Blogging Resolution

With 2011 winding down we have a week or so to kind of catch our breath.  This is the time that we spend making lists of all the things that we wished we had done in 2011 so that we don't forget to do them in 2012.  Top of the list is to do a better job keeping up with this blog.  This picture kind of sums up that resolution.

We have been keeping bees for over 10 years.  Some years we harvest the honey and sometimes we leave it all for the bees.  Our bees worked very hard this year and therefore produced a surplus.  Did we blog about the extraction process?  Nope.  We took lots of pictures that day and there they sit on the hard drive.  Next year we'll do better.

Same story for so many things.  Next year we'll do better.  

It's your turn to pick a winner!

One lucky person will receive this lovely yarn bowl made by local Belfast potter, Mary Trotochaud.

Please peruse the contest entries on our Facebook photo album, and "like" your favorites. Whoever gets the most votes by August 30th will win this bowl!

And the second winner is. . .

Oh dear. This photo is too lo-res for anyone to read. We could, in person, though, and the second winner is Jan Tricarico!

Congratulations, Jan!

A second chance!

Oops! Seems that Ingrid Ellison's entry was in our spam folder, and she wasn't entered into the drawing. We scratched our heads and wondered what to do!

The solution? A second drawing! Everyone (except our first winner, Linda Hanford) will get a second  chance to win eight skeins of custom dyed yarn! Woo hoo!

Oh, and here's Ingrid's cow, knit up in Seafoam:

The drawing will be on Thursday, July 21st. Who will be our lucky second winner?

And the winner is. . .

Congratulations, Linda! 

Thank You, everyone, for participating!

It's been really fantastic seeing all your wonderful creations. It's been great to see all the different finished objects folks have come up with using one skein of yarn. 

There's more to come. . .so keep your eyes open. . .

The very last entries have arrived. . .

. . .at five minutes to midnight!

Jan Tricarico's Lazy Knitter's Lacy Scarf:

Meredith Mills' Anthro-Inspired Scarflet:

We also received an entry from Mary McCoy, but we could not get the photo opened. As soon as we can, it'll be posted, along with the winner (whoever that may be!)

Friday at 10:20 p.m.

We just received an entry from Cara Arnold, who wrote, "I didn't think I could knit fast enough to enter the contest, but I saw the Wave Hat entry by Beth Collins, and thought I could make it in time (2+ hours to spare!) I used the colorway Grenadine (love it! - like raspberry and orange sherbet!), but knit Beth's pattern on size 5 needles instead of size 6. Catie is modeling her new hat in this photo.  ."

Here's Catie in her very own Wave Hat:

Is this the last entry?

Don't know! Three hours and forty two minutes to go. . .

Darlene Herbert sent this photo from her phone. She crocheted this Funky Ruffled Scarf:

Friday afternoon entries

Tori Schreiber's Tuesday Night Cowl:

LaNae Moline's Assymetrical Beret:

About seven and half hours until the deadline. . .wondering if any more entries will be rolling in!

Friday morning entries

There's still time left, if you're reading this on Friday!

I'll be posting last minute entries until the deadline. Here's what we've received today. . .

Mara Bonsaint's Marina Hat:

Chris Harrington's Nautilus Scarf:

Elinor Schroeder's Merci Scarf:

One day, twenty seven minutes, and counting. . .

. . .according to the Countdown!

We're going to be sad when the contest is over. It's so much fun seeing what folks come up with using one skein of yarn! The entries have been so varied. Here's more:

Willy Reddick's hat, which she "made up as she went along." She says she cast on 80 stitches on a size 8 needle:

Here's Lisa Card's Star Crossed Slouchy Beret:

Lisa also knit these Eugenia Mittens in Mamma Mia:

Countdown!

The contest is over!

Here's Jill Cariglia's Malabrigo Neck Thingie (or as she calls it, "The Winning Cowl"), knit up in Little Monsters:

Two more days!

There's still time to get your entries in!

Here's Kathleen Olbrych's Brattleboro Hat:

Another 198 Yards of Heaven

We received another entry knit up using the pattern "198 Yards of Heaven!" This one was made by Giovanna McCarthy, who used the colorway Nautilus:

Thanks

Sue Dean kindly sent us the pattern for the Cabled Keyhole Scarf she knit for herself (and the Big Contest).  Thank you, Sue, but the pattern is for sale here, and so we can't share it. The scarf is knit in Nautilus:

Belfast is a small town, so we happen to know Sue finished this scarf over a week ago but hadn't gotten around to taking a photo. Don't let that happen to you by Friday at midnight, for by then, the contest will be over!

The weather is perfect

It's a gorgeous summer day here in Maine. Some folks have said it's "too hot," but Owen looks pretty comfortable here in his new shorties:

These were knit up by his mom, Jenn Steingass, in the colorway Little Monsters.

Another of our latest contest entries is knitted in Little Monsters, the Sprung Kerchief, knit by Betsy Schubert:

Happy Bradford knit this knitting pattern sampler with a crocheted edge using the colorway Sweetheart:

Enjoy this beautiful day, wherever you are!

Little Monsters

Today's entries are both knit up in the colorway Little Monsters. Betsy Schubert knit up a pair of Juniper Mitts. She has renamed them Beachcomber Mitts:

Jen Simoneau knit up this Lacy Waves Scarf: