A Fine Yarn

Growing up in the Allegheny Highlands of Pennsylvania with a first-generation Bavarian grandmother, I heard a lot about frugality and thrift. That’s a good lesson to learn and one in need of more emphasis these days. There was a popular axiom, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

One of my Gram Werner’s primary occupations was mending. Her little old black Singer sewing machine sat in her small pink bedroom under a window from which she could keep an eye on the neighborhood and, next to it, was a massive, and constantly growing pile of mending. Mostly my brothers’s blue jeans but other things as well.

Gram had lost her husband when she was in her thirties and she raised four daughters, and also a nephew, on her own working the night shift in a carbon plant. Money was scarce and she learned to conserve. When she taught me to crochet and do needlework we always worked with yarns and threads that could be purchased at Murphy’s, the local 5 and 10, and everything was chosen with an eye toward durability and thrift. It was how she survived.

Those were good lessons but it took me a big chunk of my adult life to realize there was a considerable trade-off between thrift and quality. It has only been in the last fifteen years that I’ve been able to allow myself to buy fine fibers and fabrics for their beauty alone. However, having learned that lesson, I seem to be making up for lost time. My yarn stash has been growing happily and, while I certainly knit at every opportunity, my ability to buy has definitely out distanced my ability to produce. I don’t begrudge myself the yarns because I do use them and they are generally transformed into exquisite items - scarves, shawls, and other useful things - that make valued presents for people I love.

But I do love a new source for my treasures! Recently I found a vendor on eBay who imports yarns from Russia and sells them at prices even Gram would approve of. I purchase a few skeins of the 50% wool/50% angora to test the quality before going wild. It arrived and the colors are gorgeous but the texture was nice but not what I had imagined. Someone on the Knitted Lace List pointed out that in Russia what is referred to as “angora” is what we would call “mohair”. That made more sense. The yarn is still a good value and wool/mohair is actually better for lace-making than wool/angora. So I’m content.

But I’ve been sorting through the stash and have come up with a few treasures I am in the process of trying to envision a use for. The primary one is three, substantial hanks of 100% silk noil yarn purchased from Blue Heron some years back when, it would seem, they were still experimenting with fibers. I originally had four of them but one, a deep purple-blue, was combined with a luscious violet English mohair to make a beautiful shawl that is still folded in the closet awaiting a home. I need to photograph that and post it.

Another find - and I honestly don’t remember when I purchased these - is two large hanks of 50% wool/50% silk from Lorna’s Laces in a deep, pretty color called “Blackberry”. It must have been purchased it from Patternworks when they were still in Poughkeepsie because that is what the bag they are in says. I stopped there several times when driving back and forth ot Pennsylvania.

I love these fibers. I just placed another order from Knit Picks and another from Handpainted Yarns. I don’t know what I’ll make with these beauties but someday someone will have a long, luscious scarf or luxurious shawl to keep them warm. And I know they will last maybe even for another generation.

So, Gram, thanks for all you taught me. I wish you were still here so I could wrap you up in a cashmere shawl. It would help you keep warm while you do your mending.

Thanks for reading.