March-ing Onward!

Hello!

I'm so glad you dropped by for my very first post.  I imagine you're wondering why I want to join in the blogging madness.  Well,  In the coming weeks and months I will be writing about yarn, knitting, fiber, spinning, fiber retreats, festivals... all things fiber related that I have experienced.  You will also hear about my family and the friends I meet and visit while I seek out the best this industry has to offer the fiber enthusiast. So c'mon with me and hop aboard the Fiber Junket!

A little about me. I'm Julia, a permanent resident of Northwest Indiana, sometime resident of Cudjoe Key (17 miles north of Key West, FL). I was a SAHM (stay at home mom) for the past 25 years.  I say was because my youngest of 7 children took off for college in August 2013, leaving me with no job!  I view myself as retired  however, my husband, Jim  still works. I have 3 married children - two of which live out of state.  Of the remaining four, two are away at college and the last two are still at home commuting to work and school. This setup leaves me with quite a bit of spare time which I have managed to fill with various forays into the art/craft world.   I've tried my hand at many different mediums - pastel paining, oil painting, watercolor, cross-stitch, needlepoint, sculpting, quilting, ceramics - which all became boring to me once I understood the basics and accumulated the required tools & equipment.  I have a kiln in my basement to this day, which I'm sure I'll use again...  But I digress.  All of the former dabbling finally led me to where I am today: knitting and spinning.  And now blogging about it.

In the mid-1970s, my mother knitted me this wonderful, cream, knee-length cardigan/coat.  It was covered with seed stitch, buttoned up the front, had fitted cuffs and these full poet/leg-o-mutton sleeves.  The sweater had a fitted waist that Mom had lined with an ivory satin ribbon to hold its shape.  I remember wearing that sweater to work and feeling so chic at the time.  Note:  I was living in the Midwest, working in Elkhart, IN at a bank in 1978 - this was considered chic.  Anyway, I didn't really do much with knitting at that time, just scarves and simple accessory items...really just scarves.

My first project of any substance was a baby blanket I crocheted for my first child.  I was married and living in Heilbronn, West Germany, attached to the 237th Engr. Battalion.  I went to the library on base where I found a book, Learn to Crochet, bought some yarn and a hook at the Post Exchange and proceeded to create. The blanket was supposed to be square and after several failed attempts to achieve squareness, I resigned myself to the rectangularity of the finished piece.  Upon returning home to the US several months later, I showed my Grandmother the pattern (NO, I did not steal the book! I had made a handwritten copy - it was before the age of downloading & printing remember!) and asked for her advice.  Grandma worked up the pattern a couple times then called me with the verdict.  I had done the pattern correctly she said, however "the pattern is written wrong!" Where were the tech editors and test knitters that I have come to rely so heavily upon today!?  That blanket was the last thing I worked with yarn and hook for many years. 

Childrearing and housekeeping took over my life for several decades.  It wasn't until sometime in 2005 that I became aware of the new wave of fiber enthusiasts which had emerged while I was otherwise occupied.  My dear friend, Gayle, introduced me to "novelty" yarns (she was a beginner knitter herself at that time, obsessed with scarves as we all are in the beginning) and a new-to-me yarn shop which had opened up in our community called "A Stitch In Time".  One visit and I was hooked! one might say.  (Thank you Gayle for your expert enabling.)

Things had certainly changed in the retail world of fiber craft.  So many fiber bases, blends, colors, textures...so many projects and ideas just waiting to be born!  I became a regular visitor to the shop and was devastated when it closed its doors after ten years in business.  I had only just found them!!! What was I going to do?  I needed to find other supply sources and in my search for LYSs in the area, I began running across postings for retreats, fiber festivals and workshops.  I had no idea this sub-culture existed!  A whole new world had opened up for me.

Some time ago my husband was watching me frog back a section of a sweater I was working on, for the  THIRD TIME that evening!! He couldn't understand why I would put myself through the stress and frustration.  Why didn't just go out and buy that sweater??  I explained it to my husband like this:

"You know how you go out on your boat and fish for Salmon/Grouper/Bass when you could just buy it at the Market?  Well, that's how it is with me and knitting - I could go buy that hat/scarf/shawl/sweater at the Mall, but it is the act of creating (or catching if you will) that is what I need.  Not the "thing" that I've ended up with... it's the process of seeing the item come to life that keeps me motivated."  He totally understood it.

So here I am in the present, writing to you about what I love best - knitting and spinning and all that goes along with it.  I love the colors, the textures, the peacefulness I get when I place fiber in my hands.  I love the community that has welcomed me so generously and made me feel part of something bigger than myself.  I love the relationships that are formed at gatherings like retreats and informal knit groups.  I am finally content, happy and finding my way in the creative world with a confidence I have not known in other mediums.  I wanted to share my experiences with you hoping that maybe something I have written about will help guide you along your fiber journey.

I hope you will join me on the next Fiber Junket as I share with you my most recent fiber retreat: Virginia Beach Yarn Getaway.  If you're on Instagram, you can see pictures from the retreat by searching:  #VBYG2014

                                                                        

Till next time,

Julia