On taking up crochet, one thing in particular starts
happening very quickly: an obsession
with yarn.
I’m not sure how it is for others – maybe some people start
trawling patterns first, and then make a shopping list of what they need. But I seem to be always on some driven,
never-ending hunt for colours, textures, fibres. In the early days, I crocheted some
snowflakes in different colours and weights, which led to a natural conclusion
of what was and wasn’t snowflakey. I
didn’t even bother blocking this one.
And this improvised shape turned out to be… a wonky swatch of sorts.
Then I had to keep finding more suitable yarns for
snowflakes, some worked better than others.
Finer weights
...or wool
and alternative cold colours.
It wasn’t that I got bored with snowflakes, but the new
crochet spark ignited the next phase very quickly. I now wanted to crochet in my favourite
fibres: hemp, cotton. Maybe try flax or ramie.
Of course wool presented an array of possibilities and then
there were acrylics with their vibrant colours.
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Yarn could also be something I conjured myself, or
re-purposed.
I love the idea of reclaimed yarn and yarn made from plastic
bags – a great tutorial here.
With charity projects lining up, I got my hands on anything
I could, often buying out stock in charity shops, or finding forgotten balls of musty old yarn
And bringing home bags of frogged yarn (the old Grace Bros bag a find in itself!)
The next thing you know, you have yarn tumbling out of every
crevice.
The next job would be to think about storage and organisation. So far, I am going to use old suitcases. Here is the start of the cotton stash in a 60's beauty case.
These days I can completely
relate to those who refer to ‘never having enough’ yarn. And mind-boggled onlookers who say in disbelief
“…but I thought you just bought some yarn.
Do you really need more?” I know
many of you out there know exactly what I’m talking about.
