Labor of love

When I was young, about five or six, I asked my mom to show me how to knit. My first project was a scarf for my dad to wear to keep him warm while walking through NYC. Once I finished that long garter stitch scarf I did not pick up the needles until I was in the backseat being driven up for my first year away at college. This time the projects were a scarf for Scott and another scarf for me to keep us warm walking to class during the cold Binghamton winters. It wasn’t until the Harry Potter movie came out when I began lusting after the Gryffindor House scarf that I really thought about knitting as a hobby. The Gryffindor scarf then lead to a Ravenclaw Prisoner of Azkaban style scarf which then lead to socks. Honestly I think it was the socks that slowly made knitting such a large part of my life. The socks then lead to knitting blogs which alerted my attention to the New York Sheep and Wool festival which in turn lead to spinning. This hobby or obsession as some may call it has opened a wonderful new world to me that I have enjoyed immensely. Although I have surpassed anything my mom has and as she says could ever knit, this passion is because she one afternoon sat down and taught me two stitches. To honor her gift to me I have begun to create what I feel is the only way to repay her, a beautiful shawl knit by my hands, the same ones she guided as we made the knit stitch and purl stitch so many years ago. However I felt that this wasn’t enough to honor this gift, I needed to make it more special by spinning the yarn myself. So the long process of this gift begins slowly.



I have spun about 3oz and have plied about 2 of this beautiful merino hand dyed by Spunky Eclectic. I envision this becoming the Garden Party Shawl, hopefully done by Christmas.