My name is Alice and I am a yarn addict.
Wherever I travel (obviously we are talking pre-pandemic) I have to find a local yarn store and buy some locally dyed or spun yarn, it is something I have been doing since my 20's. Back then I used to travel a lot for my work as an actress, I was either filming something somewhere new or touring with a theatre show around multiple cities and regions.
Finding a local yarn store made the world feel homelier, wherever I was I could connect with similar, yarn obsessed, people even if just for an afternoon. Yarn feels comforting and inspiring and exciting. Chatting with the owner or whomever was working in each store about what was special in their stock always gave me an insight into where I had found myself. I was often invited to join knitting nights too but alas commonly my nights were spent either on stage or tucked up in bed (knitting) as I often had an early filming start each day.
I no longer travel as an actress but work as a voice actress and so my local yarn store adventures are left to holidays. Luckily my husband knows it is always part of the agenda and often enjoys searching them out with me.
I have favourite fibres and colourways of course, I go weak at the knees for some multicoloured hand-dyed Merino...as my stash can confirm. In general though, my tastes switched from bright colours to undyed, super soft, lanolin smelling Alpaca and Wensleydale. I love the possibilities each of them represent, the excitement and the pride of whatever the finished project they become over time.
I am actually on an unofficial yarn diet, until we can travel anywhere new, in an attempt to make myself knit some of the many pretties I have stacked up looking gorgeous. Some skeins I have had for years and as lovely as they look now, will look and feel even nicer once I knit them up.
Knitting calms me, comforts me and makes me feel productive even when nothing else seems in my control, in fact, especially when! I continuously feel so grateful I discovered it - I would be much the poorer in adventures if I hadn't...even if I would be financially richer!
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