Digging into the past .. just a little

(Another couple of the current crop of postcards, these with Mother Goose themes: Humpty-Dumpty and the Knave of Hearts].

This morning I saw on my swap-bot page that I need to send some yarn to a woman who won a "Winner Take All" drawing. Problem! Yarn isn't a part of my life. When I was 6 or 7 a neighbor lady taught me to knit and gave me a ball of dark blue yarn. It was to become a scarf. I used it up and didn't know what to do to finish or continue and didn't really care. No more knitting in my whole life. I thought at first I'll have to find one of the knitting shops in the city, I had some ideas but they're not on my beaten path. Then I had a bit of a brain wave. I remembered having, once upon a time, for a reason I don't remember, a ball of white yarn. If I still had it -- I know I didn't use it -- it would be in the large hamper where I keep quilting UFOs, embroidery floss ["Maybe I'll do that again, someday" I think occasionally.] And other odds and ends. So I cleaned all the detritus off the top of the hamper and opened it with more foresight and trepidation than Pandora had when she opened her box.

Oh my, oh my! Yes, I had given away one or two of the UFOs I remember last seeing in there. And near the top were boxes and plastic bags of floss, including a lot of crewel yarn - but that wouldn't do for a knitter, would it? No ball of white yarn, must have given it to someone, perhaps to the "share" table at our quilt guild. But ah-ha! What's this? Three skeins of "Persian wool yarn"! Where did they come from? Why would I have bought them? Did they materialize from outer space? They look usable and surely are the right sort of thing. Wow -- you never know what you've pack-ratted away until you go searching.

I found a big bag of strips of fabric -- no, no selvages as I hoped at first. Some I recognized but what wss I thinking? Maybe "Log Cabin"? Should I chuck them or save them? They could be part of a log cabin quilt, but a very labor intensive one as most were only 1 to 2 inches wide. Still, nice and neatly divided by color group. Might as well save them. I've done several log cabins, I love the good old pattern. These are kind of dull lights and darks, they'd need an infusion of color with oomph to please my current taste. But .., quien sabe? I might use them. Back they went.

There was another layer [or two?] but I'd seen enough for one day. I neatened the floss, put other stuff back, and got ready to mail off the yarn. A good morning, something I don't need out of the house to someone who might be glad to have it. Enough of a look into my -- yes, I can say it! "Frugalista" ways. What a chorus of frugal housewives I hear singing in harmony, "You never know when it might come in handy." Many a pack rat's mantra.