I have been fascinated by yarn for as long as I can remember.
There used to be a time when knitting was a passing amusement and whatever pattern fell victim to my needles tended to be knit out of the discount store acrylic-based yarn as that was what was (and still is) commonly available. Knitting was one of those things that would send me close to insanity as my knitting never looked like the photos and the yarn squeaked. I have since learned that I knit Eastern style (Google it if you are interested) and I have learned how to “read my knitting”. Patterns no longer confuse me and my stitches look normal. Once I discovered how I knit, following patterns became a piece of cake and I could knit things that came out the way they were supposed to!
Once the knitting thing clicked in my head, my knitting productivity just exploded. The next hurdle was a growing dislike of acrylic yarns. Admittedly there are great uses for acrylic yarns but they squeak when I knit with them and that is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. Trying to find non-acrylic yarn locally was impossible at the time but there was the internet and eBay just waiting for me. My first non-acrylic yarns were inexpensive eBay auction wins. Next came ordering from online yarn stores. I am a yarn snob and proud of it! These days I have enough “mill-spun” yarn to stock a small store should I choose to. Um, yes I do have some OCD tendencies and no, I do not take medication for it.
One day while reading through my news feeds, I came across an article that explained how to spin using a spindle made from an old CD, a pencil and some rubber bands. I had to try this! The only problem was that I needed fiber and fiber isn’t something easily found in my city. Thankfully there was the internet and thus began my foray into spinning. The homemade CD spindle was quickly replaced with a lovely handcrafted spindle (or several over the years). Then came the spinning wheels which then escalated my need for fiber. The other half of my small imaginary yarn store can be filled with the fiber that is adjacent to my never-ending supply of mill-spun yarn.
It was between the second and third spinning wheel that I discovered weaving. Surely weaving would be a great way to use up a lot of my yarn stash. That didn’t work out the way I thought it would either. I love weaving and have a virtual plethora of looms including a 26-inch wide 8-harness jack loom but I still have enough yarn and fiber to last until the next millennium.
I freely admit that I have some odd OCD issue where the yarn and fiber is concerned. I really cannot help myself there. What I have learned is that I can have the worst day imaginable at work (database corrupted beyond repair, server goes up in flames, vital web-based resources are totally dead, etc.) but I can come home and spin, knit, weave or sew and suddenly the day wasn’t nearly as bad as it originally seemed. Creating and working with yarn or other textiles is how I express my creativity. I couldn’t draw or paint to save my life but I can knit, spin, weave and sew and make beautiful items. That is important to me.
When the Zombie Apocalypse occurs and all the stores have long since been looted and the non-zombie masses are reduced to wearing rags, I have the incredibly vital skills of being able to produce textiles…something most of the “civilized” world has forgotten in our quest for modernization. Yep, I am ready!
I am extremely fortunate that my husband supports and encourages my textile pursuits. My husband has worn hats that lose their shape, grow in size after each wearing, socks that are made from overspun scratchy wool, worn scarves that are so tightly woven they can stand upright in the corner and any number of my other “creations” and he has never said a word about any of these other than to offer praise and encouragement and suffer the humiliation of wearing said items in complete, total silence. If that isn’t love then I don’t know what love is! SSP, if you ever read this (and you probably will), I love you more than I will ever be able to express. Thank you for pushing me and encouraging me and always offering praise for my various textile failures and successes.
