As I have mentioned previously, I make things. I make photographs, books, crafty things. I also make works with fiber–I knit and crochet. By no means am I an expert. Most of my works are constructed out of plain, basic stitched rectangles and tubes usually containing cheap acrylic yarns, and as fast as possible. As I learned these skills as a child, when extra change for yarn was scarce and patience even scarcer, a trip to Michaels with ten precious dollars meant several skeins and numerous possibilities. It’s a mindset that I held to until a few years ago, during a visit to my parents’ over holiday break.

At Christmas, my mom always built up many little gifts throughout the year when there were sales; so cute little lotions, candies, gloves, and some other piece of clothing were somewhat standard, all wrapped separately of course, as to have the maximum excitement of opening packages. Then we might have one special gift that stood out, that we had been waiting for. Dad was opposite. He braved the seas of frantic shoppers the week (or day) before, wildly searching for anything the receiver may appreciate.

This year was the same, but with every little thing I opened came a skein of yarn. Not any kind of thing you could find at the big box craft stores; this was Peruvian yarn made from Alpaca wool that Dad brought home from his most recent trip to Peru. See he works for a gold mining company that has mines all over the world…but more on that another time.

Anyways, I would open a box with a bunch of tissue paper and stuffed in the bottom was a skein. Later I would open a giftbag with a pile of candy…and below a layer of skeins. As you may have guessed, more easily than I did at the time, the final gift was in another room, a box filled with a couple dozen more skeins. That’s right. I laid them all on my bed and there were more than 60 skeins of this lovely, soft, precious material.

[Puchka pile, safe from Gus.]

Needless to say, I went nuts.

It took years to carve away at this stash, and even then there were so many I could not take back to school with me, so Mom dropped a couple of bags off to the knitting ladies at church. Even now, there are a few last skeins that I had trouble allowing myself to use, because they were part of this happy occasion. To use them, there had to be a special project, where they would be appreciated and valued. This and a flash of inspiration on Pinterest I am working on something that will do these things. But I needed more yarn that had the same value, lush color and softness.

One of the great things about yarn shops is that they have handcrafted products. This skein is from a fair trade company that gives economic and social opportunities to local artisans. And the yarn is so soft, extra fine marino wool, kettle dyed so the color shifts across rows, and of course I have a soft spot for this rich teal hue. I could not let myself pass it up.

Try not to misunderstand me, I do love a good sale and some projects work just fine with acrylic yarns. But if I will be spending many hours working with a material and I intend for the final product to be something precious, big box store brands just don’t cut it anymore.