A Good Yarn

A very young picture, about 1958 or so...

I learned how to crochet from my father when I was about 7 or 8. He had learned crochet  in the sanatorium when he was recovering from TB. He made wonderful purses for my mother from dark brown rayon cording, and as I recall, they were lined in satin and had a zipper close.
He showed me how to make a chain, single, double and treble crochet, using white string, probably butcher's twine. I learned it all one afternoon, and then not having any idea what to make other than doilies or huge afghans, my fresh knowledge just got filed in my memory banks. At the time there wasn't any yarn in the house.

Mom at about 30 years old

When I was 15 I had the opportunity to visit a classmate for a week in far away Pennsylvania, and while I was there, I met a boy and fell in love for the first time, hard. I had to come home and spend the rest of the summer heartsick, crying and being miserable knowing I would never see him again. I drove my mother nuts, I imagine, and one day she announced I would now learn how to knit.
It was meant as a distraction but it worked like a miracle cure. My first sweater was knit on big needles with only 400 yards of yarn, and as I recall was an 'old lady' cardigan. It took only a couple of days to finish and I was immediately interested in trying a more challenging pattern.
There were so many interesting stitches one could make just by varying the two basics, knit and purl. I learn cables and popcorns and felt confident enough to make an Aran Isle (fisherman's) sweater for my second project.
It was made from peach colored wool and my mother taught me to wash my finished products to clean the grubbiness from my hands, I guess, so I scrubbed my new fisherman knit in hot sudsy water, resulting in a much smaller felted mess. Again with the heartbrokeness...but not for long. Next I learn top down raglan knitting and made a really great orlon sayelle pink and royal blue striped pullover. I could say honestly that I designed it myself, and wore it quite a bit. That summer I made 13 sweaters, and probably never went outside at all. Summers were much longer back then.
In those years my family would visit my cousins almost weekly, and my Aunt Lucille, and her mother and grandmother would knit and crochet, after dinner, while the boys played with trains. Lucille's Grannie was in her late 80's and made a zillion afghans which were all over their house. I got to be part of the women's conversation then, since now I was a knitter. The one inspirational magazine we had was the Ladies' Home Journal Needlework and Crafts, and the fashion was all about ski sweaters. I made a bunch of those too, and wore them to school, so proudly.

Some of my hand dyed thread and yarns I used to sell

My favorite Christmas/birthday present of all time was a length of plaid wool fabric, and coordinating yarn to knit a matching sweater. It signified I was capable of making both sewn and knit garments of quality.
I'm telling you, that kind of encouragement meant a lot to me.