I am grateful today for knitting! (my one true passion, along with sewing, and baking and card making and...well, you get the idea.) I like knitting best, it's portable.
Knitting brings me such a sense of peace and solitude. And I am able to make beautiful things for the people who mean the most to me. 
LOVE IT!!!!
I was talking to Beth; a friend and owner of the coolest spinning shop in Michigan, The Spinning Loft; yesterday. I stopped in to check things out and check in with her as she just returned from Peru.
So, we were sitting there talking as she unpacked her treasures. She brought back the most amazing and beautifully worked bags and scarves. Alpaca that is cleaned, dyed, spun and then woven into beautiful bags, scarves and clothes. Truly renewable products = alpaca and llama and sheep wool.
Beth was telling me how The people of Peru do beautiful work and the real shame is that they work SO hard and make so little money doing it, because people now-a-days do no treasure handmade textiles (or handmade anything) as they should. She commented that the MACHINES that make sweaters were invented to imitate what HUMAN HANDS have been doing for hundreds of years. And she is right.
She also commented that that same mass marketed sweater (or shirt, or anything) is disposable. We go to the store, buy it wear it, it wears out and we throw it away in the trash. Then she told me about a bag from Peru, she has been carrying for three years and it isn’t worn at all, because it is made to last and last.
The whole conversation came to a fun conclusion. Beth unfolded a weaving loom that is typically used by the people of Peru. If you “Google” LOOM,
you will see pictures of a large and boxy thing that takes up LOTS of space on the floor.
This is NOT what Beth brought back.
THIS is what the people she learned about use to make amazing products. THIS is what Beth brought back.
It’s called a back strap loom
(Do you SEE the woven goods hanging there! They are made on what is essentially a few sticks. I have tears in my eyes.) AMAZING!!!! (If you happen to be near the shop, stop in. and of course, Beth is posting the bags online as well, go check it out!.)
What a gift it is that we, as sons and daughters of God, can learn such things as knitting and weaving and sewing.
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