Pragmatic or Artistic…Which World Do You Live In
I know another daycare mom named Heather who I hit it off with right away. She is just a fun, easy-going and pleasant person to be around. So when our boys were graduating at their respective classes at preschool together, we sat next to each other. That’s how I met her mother, Sharon. It just so turns out that Sharon is a spinner and even raises her own Llama and Alpaca! Heather and I wondered how we could have talked so much and yarn never came up. How was that possible?
Two Worlds of Yarn
So of course, we talked yarn for the next hour or so and I realized there are really two different worlds when it comes to yarn. There are the artists who spin their own yarn, hand paint it, and produce one of a kind creations of great value. Then there are those of us for whom the cost of such yarn is out of reach. We’re more practically minded. We just want to find yarn better than acrylic for a workable price to make winter garments for our kids. It’s sort of like the difference between an owner’s manual and a classic novel.
Artists Versus Pragmatists?
For a moment, it seemed the idea of taking apart garments to reuse the yarn might conflict with the ideals of this more artistic side of yarn. After all, Rewind is about saving money and those high-end yarns are often too expensive for many of us. Then I realized that the type of yarns used in garments with custom, hand-produced yarns are not going to be the kind we recycle. You won’t find alpaca in the Salvation Army store. You rarely find hand-made items at all. We’re not destroying works of art to reuse the yarn, nor would I ever condone that.
I don’t think our recycling is detracting from the work of yarn artists. We would never be able to afford that yarn anyway. What we do here is find the kind of yarn that is mass-produced in retail markets for at a fraction of the retail cost. I think I’m okay with that.
Where the Worlds Meet
Plus, the types of patterns that work well for recycled yarn make good small projects as well. This makes hand-spun yarn accessible for everyone by only requiring the more-affordable smaller lots. And you never know…some of the mass-produced yarns may help artists expand their creations. They may be able to find recycled cashmere to blend with their alpaca or unbleached cotton to dye or paint by hand. These are ways that Rewind techniques can benefit the higher-art of hand-made yarns.
