Yearning for that DESERT Yarn

In knitting days gone by, I would first find a pattern that caught my eye and then look for yarn to make it with. But in the decades that have passed since my first needle project, the many types, weights, and colors of yarn that have become available have reversed the process; I see a skein of yarn I simply can't live without and wonder what I can possibly make with it. Thankfully there is usually a pattern and a finished product posted nearby to give me an idea.

Such was the case with the Painted Desert yarn. The name itself invokes images of incredible beauty, and the yarn lived up to the billing. The colors grabbed my soul and wouldn't let go. I had come into the shop for bulky yarn with which to make a pair of slippers, and spied the ball of Painted Desert on a shelf to the side. A fingerling weight yarn, it wasn't right for slippers, but I vowed to come back at another time and and grab it for my next project. I stayed true to my word; returning with Sarah a few weeks later I found balls of the “Brick” variety in the clearance room (are you kidding me?!) and so even got it at a reduced price. My only regret was that I just grabbed one, thinking one ball of yarn would be enough for one scarf.

In the days since I have simply delighted in working the pattern up, watching the glorious colors gradually change from yellows to reds to blues and back again. Even the slants in the pattern as it was knit reminded me of the long sloping rock formations found in pictures of the Painted Desert in Arizona that I found on my phone. 

Maybe because I am older, I seem to need more light when I knit than before; despite turning on the extra set of overhead lights when I sit on the couch to do so at night, the living room remains too dark for the details of the two-ply yarn to come alive. But when I pull out a chair to sit at the kitchen table by day, the light streaming in through the glass door nearby makes the individual colors of the blended yarn stand out, and I stop frequently to simply marvel at the beauty of the colors as they unfold.

I like the comparison to lives lived in darkness rather than in the Light of God's love and Word. Without Him in our hearts we miss so much, walking without much hope and purpose and joy. But when we find that relationship with Him and start letting the Son shine on details we once kept in the dark, so much is revealed. The true colors of our nature are apparent, and change becomes visible as God gradually changes us into the image of His Son. It simply doesn't get any more beautiful than that!

“...God is light and in Him is no darkness at all...if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

(1 John 1:5,7 NKJV)