Reflections

The little, ceramic yarn bowl shown here was damaged in shipping, but is very cute and still quite serviceable. It has become the container of all the scraps of skein ends and ties that we snip off as we prepare to wind skeins. It sits beside the store's ball winder and is emptied every day, sometimes more than once a day. Sometimes we save the scraps for a while, then use them to stuff toys. 

Recently, I was winding a bunch of yarn and the bowl's collection caught my eye. (Probably the bright pink.) As I looked at the bowl, I began to see, not just snippets of yarn, but also many customers and their projects. The bright pink is destined for shawls for a gorgeously colorful wedding in India. The robin's egg blue cotton now belongs to a member of our community who is always a joy to see (and her little dog too). I see some Hedgehog Fibres Sock in a colorfully speckled grey I love called "Salty Tales." The dark red is Malabrigo Rios in Cereza and is in the talented hands of a knitter who, at a young age has already taught and launched many new knitters. The ropey looking yellow on the left is a bit of a very unique yarn called Woodi, which is "extracted from the leaf stems of the abaca plant, a close relative of the banana plant." (Who knew!?). That yellow Woodi is now being knotted into macrame plant hangers. Perfect. The luminous loop of peachy-coral on the right is a bit of Fino, by Manos in the color "Chemise" and is destined to be worked with another skein of Fino in "Letter Opener," a warm ivory color, into a beautiful shawl. I remember the customer being instantly drawn to the especially beautiful Chemise color. 

This little bowl is just full of scraps of yarns, sure. Still, looking more closely, I see that, in a way, it is also full of thoughtfulness and caring, friendship and parenting, creativity and pure joy in color. This is our community. Pretty cool.