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Just recently, I took a beginning photography class. It was very basic and taught us how to better use our DSLR cameras. The teacher asked us to go around, say our names, and what we most liked to photograph. A few people said their kids, one lovely woman said nature and her new grandchild that is due in a few months, another said her miniature horse, and then it got to me.
“Hi! I’m Aimée and I like to take pictures of my yarn.”
Everyone stopped and the teacher simply said, “Oh…”
“And my kids. I like to take pictures of my kids, too, of course,” I back tracked.
Yeah…it’s pretty safe to say that I’m a bit yarn obsessed.
But isn’t it so easy to do?! If you think…no…it’s not…then I’m guessing that you don’t do much knitting or crocheting. I think if you ask anyone who is passionate about their craft, they will tell you that the tools in which they use to complete their pieces of art light a fire in them that they just can’t explain. It’s a source of inspiration. It brings an extreme amount of happiness and joy. It’s a tangible expression of feelings and emotions that you can’t put into words.
And this is how I feel about yarn.
My fascination began in the summer of 1999 just before my senior year in college. I had this great desire to play with yarn (no joke…that’s just what happened). So I headed to Hobby Lobby, the only place I could think of to buy yarn at the time, and bought a “teach yourself to crochet” book. I chose crochet because many of my grandmothers crocheted, especially my 94 year old Great-Grandmother. I read through the instructions and just couldn’t get it, no matter how hard I tried. Since these were the days before YouTube and I had no one near me who crocheted, I gave it up, went back to Hobby Lobby and bought myself the “teach yourself to knit” book.
I picked up the knit stitch immediately and was ready to go! Except…I couldn’t figure out how to purl. I made a garter stitch pillow, which had started out as a scarf but I cast on too many stitches and ran out of yarn. I didn’t know how to join yarn so a pillow it became! I had aspirations of making many blocks and stitching them together but I don’t think I made it through more than a couple squares.
Around the same time, a friend of mine had learned to crochet from her college roommate. She watched me knit and said, “man…you need to learn to crochet. Crocheting is much faster.” That winter, she taught me how to chain and single crochet. From that day forward, everything crochet made sense and I took to it like a duck to water.
As I said, I come from a very long line of crocheters and knitters: both of my grandmothers crocheted and knit; a few of my great-grandmothers; and one or two of my great-great-grandmothers. The only one that I was able to know, though, was my Great-Grandmother who passed away shortly after I learned to knit. She stopped crocheting by the time I was born due to arthritis but I grew up with her beautifully filet crocheted works in our home as well as my aunt and cousin’s houses. She was a thread crocheter making tablecloths and bedspreads. My mom even has a thread crocheted pair of high heels that were starched and still sit on her bookcase. But her most impressive pieces were the religious ones that were framed. If I remember correctly, her children received the massive Last Supper pieces while nieces and nephews received a Crucifixion and Godchildren received an Our Father. She was truly extraordinary and I was lucky to have her till I was 21. If she had still been crocheting, I’m sure she would have happily taught me.
I have more stories about this particular Great-Grandmother as well as others that I may share at some point. I joke saying that my extreme love for all things yarn and crochet and knit is their passion channeled through me. Who knows for sure if I’m actually right on this but I like to think that I carry each one of them with me in every stitch.
Over the years, I think I can safely say that I’ve completed hundreds of crochet projects and, in the past three years, a handful of knit projects. With social media, I’ve gotten better at documenting what I’ve made and I’ve acquired a finer taste in fiber. I’ve even started designing which has been fun and I’m hoping, with this blog, to be inspired and create more!
Wow…I did not plan for this first post to be so long!! Time for me to get stitching so I have more things to share with you.
Thanks for reading this first post and if you don’t already, please hit me up on social media! You can find me on Facebook and on Instagram under @yarngerie or @aheemai (the first is the official blog Instagram, the second is my personal which you may also find entertaining). I’m also on Ravelry under aheemai where you can view my crazy deep yarngerie stash. It’s proof that I may need an intervention soon!