A Bagful of Sunbeams

This skein of yarn has been on my desk all week long. I just keep looking at it. It may be the most beautiful skein of yarn I’ve ever seen.

Not long ago, it arrived in a box of sample yarns from Manos del Uruguay. It’s as if all the sunshine in the world has been distilled in this one piece of yarn, 445 yards of sunshine.

The story of these yarn dyers in Uruguay stays with me.

Who dyed this? What was her day like? I don’t really believe in inanimate objects containing human energy, but I have to admit: this skein of yarn gets me thinking about where this yarn has been, how these colors were chosen, and how it came to land on my desk for me to contemplate.

And then I remember: one of the unique things about Manos yarn is that the tag tells me who made it.

Leticia made it. Leticia is Latin for gladness, happiness.

And the tag tells me she lives in Fraile Muerto, a town in eastern Uruguay. The name of this town, population 3,100, means “dead friar.” Kind of the opposite of leticia, but what is life if not a bunch of mashed-up opposites?

When I look on the Manos website to see if I can find more about Leticia or Fraile Muerto, I see this handmade map of Uruguay:

I can’t tell if Fraile Muerto is the orange squiggle or the green one, but this map reminds me that the yarn is dyed in a number of villages all over the country. I wonder if these women wonder where their yarn ends up.

I’m heading out to visit my boy at college, and I’m traveling light.

Taking this yarn with me, in one of Karen Templer’s Fringe Supply Co. Bento Bags, is one of those sublime moments. I feel so lucky, in about twelve ways, to have this bagful of sunbeams.

Traveling Light

I went with Shadow Shawl, designed by the Fairmount Fibers Design Team. I like the idea of a team designing a pattern. Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t not write an awesome knitting pattern. NOW GO IN THERE AND DESIGN STUFF!

It’s one of those triangle neck-napkin deals, and my gauge is so off that it’s going to be more like a neck doily than a shawl. Why all the tight knitting? I’m not usually a tight knitter. Whatever size it ends up, this little scarf makes the most of this shade-shifting sunshine yarn.