turkeys and toque

The turkeys show up each morning for coffee. They are hard to photograph because they are wary. I try to open the door latch without a sound, but they always notice.

This is a small rafter of turkeys..maybe they are considered a colevey, or a gobble of turkeys. I have seen flocks that are much larger. In past years, their numbers have exceeded 20 and 30 at a time. I've heard stories of nets being launched out of cannons, to capture and relocate them. They can devastate the undergrowth of a forest floor, eating the new growth. I didn't notice these turkeys as summer pullets.

Most of them seem to be males, though I didn't notice any beards hanging down, I saw the colors on their almost featherless heads changing from blue to red. I've often wondered about this...and what causes it. Hens usually have more of a gray blue head, and certainly more feathers that act as camouflage. Hens and Toms both have snoods. Snoods are the fleshy comb like growths that dangle down around their beaks, or bills. The snoods on these turkeys are still small, so maybe they are this years pullets.

I have finished another commission for Finca Alta Vista. This is a Toque hat, based on a design by Anna Zilboorg. I worked it up from two strands each of handspun alpaca (Allspice and Violette).

While I was knitting the strands, I worked from the inside and outside of two center pull balls. The Herringbone Braid called for a tricky maneuver now and then to keep the yarn from tangling on itself. No worries, I stopped knitting occasionally and held the work in the air to allow the balls of yarn to unspiral. I found that technique to be amusing.

Finally, I had taken the project with me to a spin day afternoon, and made a mistake in the decreases. I wound up letting it sit in my project bag for several weeks before I was in the right frame of mind to "tink" (or knit backwards) and discover the mistake. Thankful for stitch markers, there.

Once the mistake was corrected, the decreases fell into place and the crown was finished.

While surfing the internet the other night, I stumbled on a quotation. I managed to copy the quote before crashing..but I don't know where I found it. It describes how I feel about creating things in my mind as I go about daily chores and responsibilities, whilst I dream textile thoughts...other things I want to be working on.

“You know, I embroider my blouses with two heads. During the night, one of my heads dreams of designs, drawings, colors, and stitches and during the day my other head thinks of all the other things that a woman does: watering the animals, cooking, making tortillas, and besides all that, embroidering the blouse that I was dreaming of. One head is for me and the other is for my people.”

Nahua woman, Manuela El Tectil Mexicano, Linea y Color