My mother and I began a new super secret project while I was home for the Holiday season.  Any guesses?  We made some rather spectacular progress, if I do say so myself.  I enjoyed the way the colors looked arranged against the crisp white of my laptop.

There's something about sewing, and watching people sew that I just love.  It's one of those few arts that, as far as I know, has been done the same way for a long time.  Needle, thread, stitching.  Which is not to say that there haven't been obvious advances - but the basics seem timeless to me.  Something about pulling the thread, seeing the progress made, simply makes me happy.

By far, my favorite needle art is stamped cross stitch and embroidery.  Checking back and forth between a cross stitch chart and my canvas just drives me crazy, and needlepoint makes my fingers ache.  But stamped patterns can be so enjoyable - it's one of those arts that I can't understand why it's disappearing.  Like many cross stitch arts, the stamped patterns available at many stores are less than fashionable.  I see such beautiful patterns in my vintage magazines, that I do believe it's time for a revival.  Here's to the transfer!

So, say that you've just found that perfect new knitting pattern at some awesome website and you need the perfect yarn!  Most of the best patterns call for fingering weight yarn, which like all fine quality yarns, can get very expensive.  The best tool that I've found for getting high quality yarn at an affordable cost (which, as a grad student, is absolutely necessary!) is rip, reclaim, reuse.

There are many sites that will teach you how to take apart old sweaters and gently unravel them, but if you don't feel like scouring the thrift stores and spending an hour or so squinting with a pair of tiny scissors, please: allow me!   There's something about winding the yarn onto balls, seeing the colors enrich as each strand lays atop the other - it makes me realize that a good part of my desire to shop comes from my love of color and fabric.  This is an inexpensive way for me to sold my stash-hunger, and my shopping hunger in a way that I don't have to feel guilty about!

Well, except for the mess of fiber-bits that ends up on my living room floor, causing my sweet hubby-to-be no end of frustration, and my cat no end of glee.  Two with one stone.

I am now offering, through Ebay and Etsy, reclaimed yarns that I have selected myself.  These are all yarns that I would use for a project, and I can offer them to you at a price exponentially lower than you would pay for a yarn of similar quality and fiber content.

If you have any questions about how to reclaim your own yarn, or about my yarns, don't hesitate to shoot me an email!  I am working on my first project with reclaimed yarn as we speak - can't wait to share it and all the other things I've got on the burner with you!