Tuesday, April 28, 2009

And Now For Something Completely....Weird???

I have come across a much larger version of this opossum on my deck. It was dark out and I was letting the cat in. The cat, however, wouldn't budge and was staring at the far end of the deck. I turned to see what he was looking at, and there it was, a huge opossum staring back at me. It was creepy. He stared and stared and didn't move for awhile, and then s.l.o.w.l.y climbed the post to the arbor.

I learned that the opossum is the only marsupial in north America and that it has lots - maybe even fifty - teeth, very sharp teeth. Not something to tangle with.

So it was a surprise when I came across a vendor at Stitches South who was selling possum yarn from New Zealand. That stopped me dead in my tracks. I asked the vendor "You can shave a possum?"

She hesitated, and then said, "The yarn is recycled."

Huh? Recycled from what? Oh....

She could tell that I had figured out that recycled meant killed and quickly explained that opossums were introduced to New Zealand and that since they have no natural predators, they overrun the country. She said that they are very destructive to vegetation and therefore, people are allowed to kill them.

Oh. The yarn is blended with merino to make it soft and pliable, and did feel quite nice. But they shouldn't have displayed a photo of a mother possum with babies riding on her back. Just makes the whole thing feel wrong, somehow. Fifty sharp teeth or not.

4 comments:

hokgardner said...

I had a friend in college who was from France. Every once in a while, her English would fail her, and she'd stumble over her words. One night, we were walking to a restaurant for dinner, and we saw a possum waddling into the bushes. Carole said, "Look! It's one of those, those . . . those things you always see dead on the side of the road!"

Unknown said...

oh eew.

(hey, anyone in VA/MD could just stop and pick up roadkill, they are all over the place)

Sigrun said...

A dear friend of mine brought me some hand-painted possum yarn fromNew Zealand. I love knitting it. It is so soft, and with the working of the yarn, the possum fur is raising up so it is like a halo, but it isn't shedding. I ordered a shade card from the company and look at it for eye candy, since I promised no more stash increasing!!

Mary Ellen said...

I am curious, and would love to see/feel the possum yarn, but I have to agree - showing me a mom with babies is not the way to get me to buy it, not when I know they were 'recycled.'