Knit-Out at the Farm

Sunday was the Knit-Out at the Experimental Farm. Not having any idea what a Knit-Out was, I decided to go. I pumped my bicycle tires up, but then I couldn’t find my bike key, so I walked to the Farm.

It seems a Knit-Out is an event to which you take your knitting and you knit outside with other knitters. You can also take non-knitters and they will be given little knitting kits and taught how to knit. You can also take your knitting problems and get some professional help with those.

These kids are learning how to knit:

This six-year-old is visiting from Guelph and she and her parents and sister have been to 10 museums in the last two days. Her father passed on the opportunity to learn how to knit and just sat at an empty picnic table looking exhausted.

These intermediate knitters are learning how to knit cables:

I took my sock and my pattern to the Stitch Doctor, and she helped me sort out the confusing pattern. This was a very good thing, because I was interpreting the pattern in such a way that I was about to make a Very Big Mistake.

There was also a display of some pretty impressive knitting by members of the Ottawa Knitters’ Guild. I especially liked this free-form sweater.

And so concludes the knitting portion of my visit to the Experimental Farm. Since I was there, I thought it might be interesting to check out the Agriculture Museum. And it was!

I fell in love with this affectionate little Angora Goat with its silky ears and sweet little face.

This little calf is only a few hours old! Her name is Meg and she’s the daughter of Mischief and Fruror. Because she’s a girl, she gets to stay at the Farm. The boys all get sold before they turn 6 months old.

I think these are Clydesdale horses. These two seem to move in unison – they look up at the same time, they graze at the same time, they even synchronize the swishing of their tails .

This goat was funny. Very curious and friendly. You can’t tell from the photo, but he was standing on his hind legs here so he could get a better look at the human beings.

These twins had probably never seen a calf before, and the calf had probably never seen twins before. They were all intrigued with each other.

Nobody wanted to touch the piglet though.

There was also a building with demonstrations of cheese making and a museum of tractors. This is an old tractor.

This is me in the modern tractor simulator. You climb up into it, and push some buttons and suddenly you’re driving the tractor in the field. It’s rocking and rolling through the field and the tractor air conditioning is blasting and it’s very trippy. I had no idea it was going to do anything when I got in.

After all that, the museum was closing and it was time to head home. I wished I had my bicycle. On my way home, I saw an apartment for rent.

I got home, had a 20-minute snooze on the couch, and woke up knowing exactly where my bike key was!