Yarn Snob

My clock is chiming 6 am as I sit here. I have been awake for awhile watching my new kitten freaking out at everything that happens to move.... my yarn, my nightgown, my toe... ouch! Hang on, back up, what was that I said?.... Yarn?.... Yes, I have knitting on the go and yarn that I am using. Now I will admit that I am a bit of a snob when it comes to my knitting. I do tend to think that wool is better than acrylic, and that alpaca is better than wool, and silk is the ultimate... well maybe not the ultimate.... there’s always bamboo, and soysilk, and yak and quiviet...... but you catch my meaning I’m sure. I need to talk here a little about being a yarn snob. I became a yarn snob slowly over a number of years without realizing it was happening. How did I discover that I had become a yarn snob you ask? Actually it happened quite recently. I was offered several bags of yarn from some quite nice ladies in my guild at my last guild meeting. They are the type that go out garage saling each Saturday morning and are quick to be at a place where there are freebies being given out. They have offered me some of their “steals” in the past and I’ll be quite honest I have been given some very lovely items..... I am never one to turn down a free item if I can make use of it. Then these two wonderful ladies offered me several bags of yarn and of course the first thing I asked was, “Are they acrylic?” Now that was not when I discovered that I was a yarn snob. That discovery came later after I had picked out all the exotic yarn with the glitzy bits and was left with reams and reams of acrylic, just plain acrylic. You know, the kind that you find in bargain bins at Walmart. Some was very nice colours, I’ll give you that, but once I got it home and laid it out, I thought what am I going to do with all of this, as I looked on in dismay. I had actually turned it down originally but when pressed I thought perhaps my mother might make use of it, so in actuality I took it for her. I started to play with the colours thinking that perhaps I might make something with it for my church fund raiser. A blanket or afghan or something that someone might appreciate. And so I set to work with large needles and two different colours of purple. It wasn’t very long before I began to realize that I wasn’t enjoying the process. The yarn felt lifeless in my hands. I am continuing to knit but all I want is to get it done. I will be passing on what I don’t use of the acrylic to the other ladies at my church.

Enough about the acrylic and more about being a yarn snob. I started spinning my fibre about ten years ago. I was “all there” to buy a fleece, wash it and card it and finally spin it. The whole process made me feel like I was truly accomplished. When you take something that has no use other than to keep an animal warm and turn it into a beautiful product, especially when it is so labour intensive there is a feeling like no other. It is called success and it is a heady feeling indeed. Addictive might be a word that could describe it. You look at what you have created and you think, “Wow! I made that...”

Wool and it’s versatility are impressive. Then when you add a little glitz to your wool by throwing in some exotic fibres, some silk, or some quiviet, some yak or a little possum, hmmmmmmm, how can a body resist.

After a few years of this very addictive behaviour I decided that it was time to take it one step further. If I was really going to start from scratch, then I needed to invest in some fibre animals. I started out easy by getting a wolf/husky dog that had spinnable fibre. I’ve been spinning her fibre for quite a few years now and am pleased with the results. Then last year, when the lady that I buy my alpaca fibre from, decided to retire, I purchased some of her alpacas. Now I am the proud owner of ten sheep and five alpacas, soon to be six. We sheared this spring and that gave me more fibre than I will ever need. Next purchase a mill to prepare all that fibre for spinning.... then I can share all that beautiful fibre with my friends.

There is a problem to this though. Now I look at everything with an eye to its spinnability. My last purchase?.... Some seeds for flax..... my husband is getting worried... he should have been a long time ago.