Yarn, Not an Addiction, Just Therapy

For last year's A-Z Challenge I also posted about yarn for the letter Y in which I shared my growing addiction to yarn.

I now have three plastic bins filled with yarn and a basketful of yarn in my bedroom. Robyn, the owner of my favorite yarn store, and I have become even better friends. When my son bought me a gift certificate for her store for a Christmas present (perfect gift), Robyn told him that she loved me.

I'm not here to talk about addictions this year, but hobbies. Knitting and now crocheting are two hobbies I thoroughly enjoy. I gain so much satisfaction producing a beautiful and useful item with my hands.

Hobbies are therapeutic and beneficial. They can

• help us relax
• take our mind off our problems
• enable us to make new friends
• teach us new skills
• keep us physically fit (depending on the hobby, baking might be a problem hobby)
• develop us into more interesting people as we learn new things
• give us something to look forward to
• possibly stave off dementia
• provide endless fun and entertainment.

For me, buying yarn, knitting, and crocheting are not addictions, they are hobbies . . . and therapy.

Can you add anything to the list? What are your hobbies?

Image: debspoons/freedigitalphotos.net

Transitional Woman's Excellent Adventure

The plane flew low over the flatlands neatly marked into individual fields where crops had grown this summer.  I was feeling a little nervous, but not due to flying (which I love) but because I was going to spend five days with a group of women I'd never met.

I was venturing into the unimaginable.  I was going on an internet meet up.  My sons thought it was a little crazy and when I asked why, they responded, "What would you say if we told you that we were going to meet up with strangers we met on the internet?"

Point taken.

This past spring I wrote about virtual friendships, wondering if they were as real as flesh and blood friendships.  I was about to find out.

Drawn together by our common faith in Christ and love of fiber arts, we met in the middle of the country to laugh, pray, play with our yarn, eat, eat some more, and finally put a face to the name, a voice to the words we see on screen and  find out if these women are really like the women we've learned to know from online chatting.

I could bore you with all sorts of anecdotes about Brenda or Peggy or Joanne how they were like or unlike what I imagined, but the real point is virtual friends can be real friends.

Meeting them face to face only cemented the friendships formed online.  We already know so much about each others lives that we weren't strangers, just friends who hadn't met yet.

We were a mixed bag of women though, from 20s to 50s (our group has women from their teens to 70s, but. sadly, many couldn't come) from all over the country (our European sisters couldn't make it either), with lifetimes of vastly different experiences.

But did we have fun?  I do not have the words.  Did we laugh?  Harder then ever in our lives.  Did our bonds grow stronger and tighter?  More than I could have imagined.

So my excellent adventure was all I could have hoped for and more and I was sorrier than I can say when it was time to head for home.  However, there's always next year and I plan to be the first to sign up.

The Y Addiction

I keep putting off writing this because once I put it out here in blogland, I'll have to own up to a burgeoning problem.  Like most addictions, it started slowly.  It made me feel good.  I only did it sometimes.  No one was getting hurt.  It wasn't affecting my life negatively.  The rich, vibrant colors, the incredible, sensual textures were mind blowing.  I could control it.

I think I'm addicted to yarn.

Image source

At first, I only bought yarn when I needed it.  New project, new yarn.  Then I started needing more, a lot more.  New projects beckoned - a couple of sweaters, hats, learning to knit socks so I had to buy sock yarn, and anyway the yarn was on sale and I'm going to use it eventually and the color is so perfect for me and if I order $60 worth I'll get free shipping.

I have two plastic bins where I store my stash.  They're in my closet, in the back.  I'm not hiding them, just keeping them out of everyone's way.  Besides, the yarn in one of them was given to me by a friend who had more yarn than she could use in a lifetime, I was just helping her by taking it off her hands.

Then my local yarn store had a winter clearance and yarn I needed to make a blanket was on sale.  I had to buy it, I'd be saving a ton of money.  And while I was there I spied a peacock blue, soft, fuzzy mohair that would knit up into a gorgeous wrap.  But they didn't have a color that would work for the blanket's border.  So I had to go online and order that because I can't make a blanket without a border and if I order $60 worth, I get free shipping.

Two weeks ago the yarn store owner, Robyn (we're on first name basis now), sent an email announcing that she was carrying cotton sock yarn which isn't easy to find and it was produced by a local company and the media keeps urging everyone to buy local, so actually I am supporting to two local businesses by buying the yarn.  The colors are beautiful.  I'm not hurting anyone.  It makes me feel good ....

Approaching the finish line for the Blogging A to Z Challenge, today we have Y.

From Pianos to Yarn

I paid a visit to my local yarn store last week, not because I needed anything, but because it just makes me happy to be there, and because yarn stores aren't usually very busy, I had a nice long conversation with the owner.

I am relatively new to knitting so only discovered this tiny, little shop tucked into the corner of a plaza about a year ago.  The previous owner, who was expecting her third child, decided she needed to be home to raise her young family and made the transition from business owner to stay at home mom.

The new owner, recently retired from a 33-year career with the federal government, but still young and with no desire to actually retire yet, thought it was the perfect business opportunity for her.  We started talking about life transitions.  I shared with her about the pivotal place I am in my life (ending a homeschooling career, facing an emptying nest, but still with a lot of good years ahead of me).  And she shared some of her story with me.

In addition to an exciting career with the government, she was also a concert pianist and had a music studio in her home where she taught piano.  After doing this for many years, she began having problems with her wrists and wasn't able to play piano anymore.  A friend of hers apparently sensing her need for a new creative outlet, taught her how to paint.  She had one of her lovely paintings in the shop.

She also shared that in the midst of a life she has loved and found fulfilling and exciting, she also endured the death of her 23-year-old son from a heart attack.

And now, here she is the owner of a yarn shop.  The next step, she said, will be to sell the shop in about five years when her husband retires and spend their time together enjoying each other and life.

I'm sure when she was a brand new college graduate she never envisioned the places life would take her and the varied careers she would have.  This is the exciting part about transitions.  Things we could never dream of sometimes happen.


Image source
Image source