Anamneses

I can scarcely pronounce that title. It refers to a memory, probably of another lifetime. This is about such a memory; I am now so far removed from most of my past, it seems like another life time.

For many years I was a prolific knitter; the art I learned from my mother. I started in college, age 18, and truly stopped only a couple years ago, when I bequeathed the last of my yarn, all my patterns and needle stash to Caroline, the last grandchild.

Even before Jan and I left our "civilian" jobs to form a weaving studio, I was waist deep in yarn. Basically I had come to dislike most synthetic yarns available in the seventies and not able to afford the beautiful wools out there.

What to do? Make it yourself, I concluded. I bought a wheel and figured it out. Actually, I bought several wheels before I settled on my favorite, a wheel made by a weaving friend's son-in-law. Beside being a practical tool, it was a woodworking bit of art. This is the only picture I can find of me and that wheel, spinning at a show in Boston.

After we ended our weaving careers in 2003 Jan and I took separate artistic directions. She became an accomplished and acclaimed quilter and I became a dabbler, a dilettante. There were pounds and pounds of carded wool in the studio that needed spun, a neat task while watching TV. So, I spun and spun.

What to do with the yarn, except knit it. So, I knit it and sold the garments in a local gallery. 

But I could spin faster than knit, so why not sell it! I explained what an electric wheel would look like to my brother Walt, and he made one. Here's a picture of it.

You can see the bobbin with some yarn in the middle and the unit around it is called the flyer. It distributes the spun yarn onto the bobbin. A typical flyer uses hooks to distribute the yarn along; you must stop the wheel and move the yarn to the next hook. 

This flyer had something I discovered shortly after I began spinning, a travelling screw. A continuous screw in that black tube carried the yarn constantly. I'm notorious for cutting to the chase and it took me no time to find a fellow who made travelling flyers.

My wholesale yarn business was off to a great start with the addition of Walt's electric wheel, comprised of parts from my old mechanical wheels and a sewing machine motor. I sold to knitting shops all over Ohio and Wisconsin.

That is the whole lead-in to my anamneses moment today. Beth had asked to come visit and at once sat us down and opened her tablet (the electronic one). Pretty soon we were on a face time (I think that's the name) with Caroline, who had a mystery box from her mother to open.

Out came two great bundles of yarn.

"OMG, that's my old label!"

Beth is a great fan of Facebook Marketplace and one day, unsolicited, this yarn for sale came up. Probably because she occasionally searched for yarn. I suspect it came from a yarn shop in Columbus. The owner was so delightful I even shared my Aran Aran pattern with her. If I can find a picture, I'll post it.

So Caroline has enough yarn to make a lovely sweater. It's in good hands.

I made and sold yarn for about a year. Then we took in three grandchildren. They take up a lot of room, and the wheels had to find a new home. I sold them all, in one fell swoop.