Jun 16th, 2006
Lucky, lucky me
Tonight was the monthly meeting of my local knitting group. I got to hang out with a fascinating (and oh-so-knowledgeable about knitting) group of women, which is always a treat. This month, instead of meeting at a local community center as we usually do, we met at the home of one member, Pat, because she wanted to give away a ton of yarn.
The yarn belonged to a good friend of hers, Jan, who unexpectedly died two years ago. I never knew Jan, but tonight I heard lots of stories about her–and saw some of her amazing unfinished projects (most of which, unfortunately, will remain unfinished, because there are no patterns with them). Her husband asked Pat to take the yarn, and Pat, who has a huge stash of her own, decided that a great way to honor Jan’s memory would be to distribute the yarn to other knitters. Her only request is that we use some of the yarn to knit something for charity, since that’s something that Jan did regularly. It looks like we’re all going to knit afghan squares to be pieced together into one big blanket (this should be fun–my first afghan experience!), as well as hats and whatnot.
And Pat was on a mission to get that yarn out of her house: she kept urging people, “Take more! Take more!” There were some multiple-ball/skein sets of yarn, but most of the yarn consisted of single skeins of one thing. So with a lot of help from Pat and other knitters there, I managed to put together some interesting combinations, each of which ought to be enough at least to knit sweaters for Sylvia.
Here are five skeins of Noro, which I’ve heard of but have never knit before. I’m looking forward to giving it a try! We didn’t think it would be enough on its own for a sweater, so Pat helped me find several odd balls of yarn in colors that are in the Noro. I’m thinking this set will make a fun striped sweater.
There was one single skein of this brightly colored yarn. I don’t know what it is–the label says “cotton iroha.” Together with this bit of red yarn, I think there’s enough to make a hat.
These six skeins of cotton are actually purple, but my camera really wants to portray them as blue (and my photo-editing skills are just not up to par to fix this). This yarn has a very soft, silky feel. My friend Beth urged me to use this yarn for a sweater, saying that she and her daughter both have sweaters knit from something like this, and she loves how they feel. Six skeins ought to be enough to knit something purple-not-blue-you-stupid-camera for Sylvia!
And here’s the last set of yarn. They don’t all go together (well, a couple of them might), but I’m putting them in one group photo anyway. I don’t have definite plans for any of this yet. (Suggestions, anyone?) I may end up purchasing some yarn to accompany some of these skeins.
As you can see, I came home with a lot of yarn. (And this isn’t all of it: I also have some acrylic, which will be used for the afghan, and five balls of Patons Pearl Twist acrylic/nylon thread, which Pat gave me to pass on to my husband, Jan, who has taken up crochet.) There were about ten women at the meeting tonight, and everyone took home lots of yarn…and still, there was a ton of it left.
One Response to “Lucky, lucky me”
by the way, my mom is (was) a knitter / crocheter (?sp). be sure to spend a little time on saturday talking with her about your knitting issues. she might be able to give you some hints, suggestions, (and maybe some books!).