yarnporn.com

Since I am spinning the endless cotton I have had lots of time to contemplate this question.

At first it was because I knew I could purchase raw and processed fiber cheaper than finished yarn, and because I knew that I could spin yarn. Having more time than money, it seemed like a good idea. Just emerging from the infancy of my knitting habit and reeling from a little sticker shock of non-plastic yarn, I decided to revisit spinning.

Then there’s the warmth aspect. Not physical warmth, but emotional warmth. A batch of homemade cookies are inevitably yummier than store bought. Yarn is the same way. Yarn is yummier when it comes off of the spindle or wheel, it has a warmth that isn’t the attribute of physical properties.

Hand spun yarn is a little bohemian, a little earth child, and a little punk rock. The DIY ethic at large, instead of protesting commercialism or going anti-consumerism, hand spinning is doing something that is self sufficient and ends with obvious results. Don’t we all want to support something positive and see something from it instead of protesting anything negative with negligible results?

Smaller financial choices have larger personal impact. This is an odd one, when we choose to buy a fleece or send wool out for processing, or buy hand painted roving we are supporting small farms and cottage industries. In this way our cash is more valuable than merely another dollar to a large corporation, we’re helping a mom stay at home or keeping a rare breed of sheep in grain and care, or employing 5 people at the mini-mill and preserving a tradition while expanding the art. That feels like a better way to spend my dollar.

Hand spun yarn is unique, each different yarn has a personality of its own (especially for new spinners.) And hand spun, when it’s worked up, keeps that individuality.

Okay, enough contemplation for me. I have to stop typing and start spinning again. (That’s a good thing.)