Back to basics

A few weeks ago when I showed up at the knitting group in Vacaville, someone noted that the soon-to-open yarn shop down the street was giving away free yarn for people who were willing to knit things for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. My knitting mom and I looked at each other, our eyes brightened, and off we scurried with a few other newly arrived members of the group to check it out.

They weren’t kidding. There were boxes and boxes of yarn in every color and texture imaginable, all of it luxury yarn, and all of it free. My friend and I immediately picked out a few balls of ribbon yarn and some sparkly fluffy stuff because we figured even though we will never, ever buy this sort of thing for ourselves (not only would we never wear it, no one we know would be caught dead in it either), this would give us the opportunity to play with yarns we would otherwise never have touched. We also put our names down for the soon-to-be-open store’s mailing list, and I casually mentioned that if they were looking for people to do swatches, we would be more than interested (because the last time was a lot of fun). There seemed to be some interest, so we added ‘will swatch’ to the contact info, and we’ll see if anything comes of that.

So since I finished the messenger bag for Richard, I’ve pretty much been focused on working with the free yarn (along with the sock that lives in my purse so I have something to do while waiting for my allergy shot each week). I tried a few different things with some of the yarns, and it took a little while for inspiration to strike. So far I’ve managed to do two garter stitch scarves from the ribbon yarn, which is black with multicolored metallic threads woven in. I’m toying with a few ideas for a tweedy green wool, and there is a ball of the softest skinny pink stuff that I think might work for one of those simple lace scarf patterns I’ve been pondering.

I find it a little amusing, myself, to be back to knitting something as basic as scarves – and garter stitch scarves, no less. They’re not something I’d ever really wear, but they do look pretty and my hope is that they’ll give someone who has lost everything in the hurricane something to smile about.

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