A big part of the reason I love fiber arts so much is that it is so metaphorical for bigger things in life. It seems many areas within textiles have metaphors, weaving with the intersection of fibers creating a fabric that is the foundation for so many other things to follow. Knitting is a series of intersecting loops that create fabric. There is texture, hand and color of the fabrics that we create. But the thing that I’m thinking about right now are those intersections, the joining together of individual strands, the connections.
I want to share a story of those connections. A few years ago we started taking our yarn shop on the road to big knitting and yarn shows. The shows are a ton of fun, but also a ton of work. If you’ve ever been to one as a customer you know how frenzied they can get, it is inspiring, rewarding, overwhelming. So much sensory information to take in at once.
At our first BIG show 300 miles from home I was helping people in the check out line and processing credit cards. There was a woman that I interacted with a bit about a yarn she was thinking about purchasing. She came back a couple times to look at it, and would leave for a while to think about it. It was the kind of yarn you don’t buy without some thought, cobweb lace weight, pure silk 1200 yds in a skein, not for the faint of heart. She decided to buy it and patiently stood in line, when she handed me her credit card I noticed her last name was the same last name as one of my Father’s childhood friends. A man that I remembered playing cards with, once visiting in Canada waaaay up north, and who brought back a carved figure from Africa that I now have custody of. It turned out that he is the brother of this woman who was buying yarn from me. She had last seen my Dad around 1953 when she left for college. I remember feeling moved that she knew my Grandparents, just something that doesn’t happen much in my world where I live over 500 miles and 6 states away from the town I grew up in.
We have become friends, she has kindly welcomed me into her home when I am on the road and need a stopping place for the night, we see each other at different fiber events, and my Dad has reunited with her as well.
I think it’s amazing to make these connections, it really makes me wonder though, how often does it happen that our lives intersect with someone who is part of the fabric of our life and we don’t realize it. 
Here is a photo of us last weekend in Freeport, Maine at a knitting event. I’m glad I found you again Marion!
And Happy Birthday Grandma!
