On Saturday, I left home with my family to visit the beautiful mountains of Colorado. This was a tradition every summer when I was growing up, though for the last seven years everyone's been too busy with college and work to make it. Well, here we are! You see above some lovely mountains . . . and some lovely yarn! Here's the story:I brought my knitting, of course. It's nice to have something to do with my hands while hanging out with my family, because they like to talk. So as I was sitting in the airport, working away at the neck of my green sweater, I suddenly hear a man say "That's some fine knitting there!"
It turns out that we were seated next to David Gentzsch and his wife, respectively the artisan and business manager behind Ozark Handspuns, a home-grown Missouri business (they operate out of our capital, Jeff City) that sells rather delicious hand-dyed and handspun wool and mohair yarns. They were on their way to a trade show in Phoenix. I was very impressed to find fellow knit-enthusiasts - David pulled out an entire shopping bag full of in-progress hats, and he was able to recognize my sweater as an EZ pattern.
Well, we got to talking, and it turns out that his shopping bag also held a whole bunch of balls of yarn: nubbly, fluffy, thick-n-thin yarn in dramatic and subtle colorways. And bless their hearts, they gave me three free samples! Dream come true! I can't wait to figure out the proper way to display these yarns. I didn't remember to ask the fiber composition, but it seems to be a combination of a long-haired wool and something a little smoother with some definite kinks and curls in it. It's got a lovely shine to it. And one of the most interesting things about it is that it appears to have been spun from pre-dyed roving; I'm much more used to seeing hand-painted yarns, and I look forward to seeing the colors pop when knitted!
Folks, good luck at the trade show! I'll be sure to post the finished product!
Be sure to click the picture below to check out the crazy fiber detail.
2 comments:
Strangers are awesome sometimes, the wool looks really neat and primitive, I am just learning about this knitting stuff. Hope you find what you need
Serendipity! It's funny how these things happen. I, too, am in love with beautiful,natural fibers and you're right, they don't come cheap but are well worth the price! There are not many things finer than fingering a beautiful yarn while dreaming of the art you will be creating from it. Knitting is most definitely a fine art, it reminds me of a sculpter contemplating a piece of marble and helping it become what it was meant to be.
Your family sounds wonderful, cherish every precious moment you share with them! (But I'm sure you already know that!)
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