Martian Mountain Cow

When Peacock mentioned her Martian Lake Cow fiber, she told you all to ask me about the Martian Mountain Cow fiber I received for the same project.

Sorry it took so long for me to get an image, the Mountain Cow would not hold still. This picture looks a bit odd, because the Martian landscape interferes with terrestrial photographic equipment.



As you can see in the picture, the Mountain Cow is not a happy creature. It is rather grumpy and capricious, perfectly happy to eat almost anything in its path. Notice that it was trying to eat the camera as I took its picture. It does not drink much, meeting its need for liquids with the solid food it consumes; this is due to the inherently grumpy nature of the Lake Cow which defends its territory quite fiercely. Neither beast is one I'd like to associate with ever again.

Fascinatingly, the Mountain Cow's fur is also capricious. The first time I spun it, I itched for a week thereafter. I've since spun most of the rest of the fiber and not had this problem recur. I think the fur decided it liked me. I have no other explanation.

The Mountain Cow is a nomad, a trait it passes along to its fur. I received the fur in early June 2005. Shortly thereafter, I spun some samples of it and spent time thinking about how I would spin it and what I would knit from it. Then the fur wandered off! I could not find it for months. When it finally reappeared, I sat down to spin it all in short succession so the wandering problem would not reoccur. The fur behaved wonderfully during the spinning, however being yarn has not helped calm its nomadic spirit. If anything, its current incarnation as yarn is even more mobile than before. One ball is on the coffee table, one in the bedroom, and one with the remains of the unspun fur in the Zen room. Hopefully it will be more docile for its recipient to whom it must return in May.

(In all honesty, the Mountain Cow is a gesture drawing of my puppy done in sharpie on index card. Does everyone now understand why my art degree involved avoiding as many drawing classes as possible?)