YEARNING For More YARN

Perhaps the main contributor to my knitting addiction is the abundance of beautiful yarn that is available today. A good pattern can be a draw, and sometimes it is the purpose for knitting a project that pulls me in, such as to knit a donation for a particular charitable cause or an item to give as a gift. I've even been so taken with a pair of beautiful multi-colored wooden needles before that I found any excuse I could to put them into action. But most often it's the sight of a skein of incredibly beautiful yarn that makes my heart race and my fingers ache to pick up my needles and knit.

Some people are inspired by viewing paintings in art museums to pick up a pallet and brush and create. Others wander through flower showrooms in nurseries and envision gardens overflowing with blooms, their hands itching to get in the dirt to dig and plant. For knitters, a stroll through a yarn shop has the same effect. Row upon row of dazzling colors hanging in hanks of yarn on racks, or bundled in balls in cubbyholes along a wall...even the finished projects hung tantalizing about the store tempt one to search the yarn it was knit with and recreate the item on your own.

More and more I find I'm attracted to the multi-colored hand-dyed yarns that have burst on the market of late. Such dazzling mixtures of colors and sparkles decorate store walls anymore that if I dare to enter my local yarn shop I am unable to leave without the tell-tale purple bag hanging from my hand as I leave. One time I walked in just to pick up a ball of yarn I needed to finish a project. I marched in with mental blinders on, refusing to look to the right or the left as I headed straight to the bin where I knew the yarn was located...to the point that the knitting club seated and working away in the back of the room mentioned that I looked like a woman on a mission! I confessed that if I lifted my eyes off the floorboards for any amount of time I would be sucked in to the temptation lining the walls, and I simply had no time or money to spare on that particular day for such a delightful occupation. You can't imagine the accomplishment I felt upon leaving with just that one ball of yarn in my bag!

Equally important in the yarn selection process are the names given to each particular color combination. For example, how could anybody walk by a gorgeous purple and teal product called “Unicorn Tears”? I was totally sucked in. I knit a heart coaster for the start of baseball season simply because I passed a ball called “Cincinnati Red”. The coaster turned out better than the team's season so far, but that's neither here nor there. The color names on other skeins have often caused me to toss them into my shopping cart simply because they reminded me in some way of a particular person or event. I have a weakness for the emotions invoked by word combinations alone; a salesman's dream.

The one drawback to the beauty of the hand-dyed yarns lining store walls are the high prices attached to the skeins. The same has caused some yarn-enthusiasts to embark on dying their own. My daughter-in-law was so intrigued by the idea that she eventually gave it a try...an experiment she found so successful and satisfying that it has sucked her up into a whirlwind of new ideas, procedures, products and even business opportunities! So taken is she with yarn production now that she declares she rarely has time anymore to knit! While I know I'm too lazy to follow her in that pursuit, I'm grateful that somebody has a passion to so create, and I declare myself not just willing but waiting to sit and knit a bit with anything she happens to produce!

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

(Ephesians 3:20-21 NKJV)