The Journey

A friend of mine was talking about how satisfying it was to repair a tool he uses very occasionally for woodworking.  I pointed out that working on your tools is a separate hobby from working with your tools.  And this morning I read an article from Mason Dixon about how having a secret hobby is good for the soul.  

This blog would be my secret hobby, I guess and yes it is good for my soul.  It is certainly an important part of my day, giving structure and order to my life.  But if you are reading this, you know this secret, and what I would rather talk about today is my hobby of collecting yarn.  Because I dearly do love to collect yarn.

There is always a parade of yarns coming through this blog. I don't show all of them here unless it has been part of my adventures  in other ways, or like yesterday, where I didn't really have anything else to say.

With a stash the size of mine, you would think I wouldn't need any yarn but sometimes, I buy just for the sheer joy of having that particular colour and fibre, of being able to sit back and hold it in my lap, and run my fingers through the pile of skeins.

Looking at the yarn sitting on a shelf in the cabinet gives me a sense of satisfaction.  It isn't that I own it.  It is not about ownership at all.  It's about the possibilities it lets me dream about.  If I have yarn, I can dream endlessly about where it might take me and what paths it will lead me down. That all I have to do to go on that journey, is to pick it up and start to play.  The hobby of collecting yarn is about the journey before it becomes a usable thing.  

When I look at all the things I love to do, reading, knitting, music, watching movies even,  I love each because of where they take me, what adventures I go on through them, and with them.  It isn't a revelation to me at all that this is so, but it might be to someone far down the road, who happens on this blog, and wonders about the person who wrote so faithfully and so long about small things.