by: Jennifer Worth
I now have 200 yards of single ply Peruvian highland wool yarn. Nicely stored in this great basket my neighbor purchased for me at the local garden store. She said it had yarn stored in it at the store and she immediately thought I needed it. How sweet is that?
I've always plied my handspun until this bunch. I just really wanted more yarn that I was able to spin when I plied the yarn. I've finished the yarn and let it "rest" so hopefully the singles will not be so energetic. We will see. I have a bit more roving to spin and then I am thinking of dyeing it with my walnut dye in gradient color before knitting a shawl. Still deciding on what that shawl will look like. I've spent way too much time studying shawl shaping lately. I like this visual image of shawl shapes done by Holly Chayes. She has written simple instructions for this crescent shaped shawl that I might use with my handspun. I am just a little concerned with knitting stockinette stitch with singles. I don't necessarily want it to lean to one side. Any advice?
I love the show Call the Midwives, on PBS. It was only recently that I realized it was based on a book, really three books, memoirs by Jennifer Worth. I've finished this first book and two things really stood out to me.
1. In the late 1950's the midwives were delivering 80 to 100 births a month. The birth control pill was introduced in the 1960's. In 1963 the number of babies delivered by the midwives had dropped to four or five a month. That pill brought on some serious social change! My husband thinks that when ever you get a group of women together there is always talk of birthing. I've not sure it is every time but it is pretty frequent. I cannot imagine what it must have been like back then, when some women had 24 birth stories to share!!
2. I love this conversation that was shared.
What had impelled Sister Monica Joan to abandon a privileged life for one of hardship, working in the slums of London's Docklands? "Was it love of people?" I [Jennifer Worth] asked her.
"Of course not," she snapped sharply. "How can you love ignorant, brutish people whom you don't even know? Can anyone love filth and squalor? Or lice and rats? Who can love aching weariness, and carry on working, in spite of it? One cannot love these things. One can only love God, and through His grace come to love His people."
I love the truth and honesty in that statement. I am a selfish, judgmental person. It comes really naturally to me. :) As I allow Him to, God is changing my heart. When we love God and pray for His love to fill our hearts we come to love His other children, no matter how different their lives may be from ours. I've felt that happen in my life and know it is true.
Labels: spinning, Work-in-Progress
