It's All About the Wool

For some time now, I've been thinking I needed a blog to link to my website. I have so many brilliant ideas about new lines to carry, things my customers are up to, upcoming fiber arts events ... perhaps the blog will be a new form of communication. Actually, when I first started my website, I had a blog but someone posted a list of filthy words and I couldn't figure out how to delete them!

People write me about their lives when they buy yarn. One person told me about how she learned to knit at her father's knee. He had been young during World War II and his family lived in Scotland. All the children had to learn to make rope as part of the war effort, and he learned to make rope and to knit, and taught his daughter how to knit. What a wonderful introduction to knitting!

Another talked about having cancer. I had written about knitting chemo caps for the local hospital, and she wrote back that she longed for the day when chemo caps would no longer be needed. Another customer had a familiar address, and turns out to be a neighbor of my favorite Italian cousin and even uses Cousin Shirley's flower shop as a landmark when giving directions to her house. Small world!

I am learning that many people who buy yarn from Wool2Dye4 are dyeing it and selling or trading it on the Internet. Some have eBay stores, some use Etsy, many are involved in the swaps. Everyone has a different 'take' on what is the perfect yarn for them and how they imagine that yarn dyed up. I used to dye and knit with mostly smooth yarns, but am now getting into textures (Bolero, from Henry's Attic, is my current favorite). One of these days I am going to knit that sweater to replace my old and worn favorite which was in a small boucle, and I'll use Bolero and a size 5 needle to get the texture that feels so comfy.