“We don’t need no stinkin’ badgers!”
Tuesday September 09th 2008, 11:22 am
Filed under: Non-Knitting

Barbara-Kay says she’s only ever met two truly ugly yarns. I’m curious to know what they looked like.  But now I’ve got to tell you about one someone once gave me: I’ve been looking for it, but I have some vague memory of passing it on to someone who saw it and really liked it.Fern-inand Magellan

Back at the height of the furry-feathery yarns craze, I got a visit from a friend from another state who happened to be coming to California anyway and wanted to stop by.  She was someone who knitted up samples for yarn companies and she had a leftover skein she wanted to share with me, partly because she thought the thing was just too funny.

We’re talking a very thin nylon strand connecting lots of soft puffs of white and brown, chenille-y and very touchable.  Scattered here and there was a small accent of bright red.  In just the right shade.

Which is why she giggled as she handed me the yarn, confessing she called it Roadkill.

On that note…  Lawdog kindly put together all the links to his serialized Ratel (an animal also called the Honey Badger) story, saving me the effort of hunting them down, talking about some of his experiences growing up in Nigeria as the son of an American oil-industry worker.  And then there’s the furious furry tennis ball attacking the python.  I love his dad’s calm words: “Boys? Try to stay away from anything with an appetite, mmm?” Maybe they needed some Roadkill to distract it.  Here you go.


7 Comments so far
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“Roadkill”…yikes! Had a co-worker who had a collection in his office of anything that said “Road Kill”. Somehow, the thought of knitting something with a name like that makes me shiver…lol.

Comment by Joansie 09.09.08 @ 11:34 am

All I can say is beware of people you care about bearing gift yarn. VBG!

Comment by Barbara-Kay 09.09.08 @ 3:49 pm

Thanks for the links! Too much fun.

Comment by Ruth 09.09.08 @ 5:51 pm

Hi Alison,
The name of that yarn was really Paton’s Cossack. The yarn rep that sold it to our store nicknamed it that! The red you remember must have been fuzzies from something else because the others that I have are just browns and tans. It really did make cute scarves with something else carried along with it. Wannanotherball??? (hee hee) One of these days I’m going to knit that camel! Love your book!! Hugs, Susie in Edmonds, WA

Comment by Susie 09.09.08 @ 5:54 pm

Hi, Susie! I wasn’t going to name you without your permission. No, that particular yarn did have small red fuzzies amongst the brown and white fuzzies–I remember you saying that one was unique that way. I wish I’d taken a picture of it, but that was back before I thought I wanted a blog.

Comment by AlisonH 09.09.08 @ 6:39 pm

This post reminded me of driving to my mom’s house the other day. I drove up behind a pickup with a livestock trailer hitched behind it and burst out grinning. In extremely large letters across the back it read, “Caution: Alpacas”. Couldn’t help but think of you 😉

Comment by Amy 09.10.08 @ 10:39 am

One of the new patterns on Ravelry is a badger Bag
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/badger-purse

Comment by Diana Troldahl 09.11.08 @ 5:38 pm



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