the circle game

This post may appear to be random stream of consciousness, but it's about how knitting and the the fiber world bring joy and enriching experiences into our lives and allow us to pass kindness on to others. The circle game, karma, whatever you want to call it.

Outgoing: A friend recuperating from cancer surgery decided he wanted to learn to knit and his family needed a boost with a few household tasks that were off limits post-op, so we were able to lend a hand and they were able to host us for a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon. He's working on a garter dishcloth and a stockinette swatch now, looking forward to knitting himself a hat next. :-)

Incoming: At the farmers' market Fiber Twist last summer, I have no idea how the conversation started, but a knitter told us about a local used clothing sale that we weren't familiar with. We bumped into her there on Friday and all had a festive time updating our wardrobes for a wee fraction of the original cost of the items. (Gap and Abercrombie shirts, still with tags on them, $1 = score! Hiking boots in like-new condition, $2 = score! Beefy Ts in great shape, 50¢ = score!)

Outgoing: Scott spun some singles and I worked on plying them. The three colorful skeins are experiments with different plying techniques. Beginning with the left-most skein, I plied three singles but didn't like how it muddied the colors. The second skein is my feeble attempt at Navajo plying. This improved the colors by keeping them more separated, but my Navajo plying was awful. I had only done it once before, so I turned to The Joy of Handspinning for a quick video tutorial and did much better on the third skein. All will probably be used for knitting hats for charity.

Incoming: Better spinning skills.

Outgoing: The last skein is some lovely alpaca spun for a charity project. I spun the singles and made a 2-ply worsted weight yarn. I did a fairly consistent job on it and am happy with the results. This skein and a little more will be donated to a church group and...

Incoming: we will receive a nice supply of alpaca roving for our stash in exchange.

Outgoing: I had a long wait to donate blood the other day, so I got a lot of knitting done. Scott was donating plasma (apheresis) this morning and finally remembered to take his beads along, after repeated requests from the phlebotomists at his past donations. They loved the fruit loop stitch marker thingies as Pandora beads and some of them are knitters, so out went a few more sheep too.

Incoming: Couple o' bucks from the phlebotomists, brownies they sent home for the kids, and the knowledge that our donations to the Red Cross could be helping people who need it.

Outgoing: I packaged up a box of soap, beads, and buttons yesterday in exchange for...

Incoming: Enough deep teal merino roving to knit myself a sweater.

Outgoing: Leah and I are currently working on gift knitting.

Incoming: Good news that Etsy's photo upload glitch has been fixed, so I'm off to list some glass goodies in the store!