Sisters

I've always wanted a sister. I have a brother who is two years younger than me, and we've been close for most of my life, but a brother is just not the same as a sister. With a sister, you can lay in your bed and talk til the sun comes up and share secrets you'd never tell anyone else.

This week, I discovered that I have more than 1,800 sisters.

It was a little strange at first to hear the women on stage call out to "sisters," but now hearing it makes me feel connected with these other women. At lunch today, three of us from my church sat at a table with women from other churches. Dessert was carrot cake, which I don't really like. I nibbled a little on it but didn't want to finish. A woman across the table, an older woman with a wonderful smile, called over to me and asked if I was going to finish my cake. I told her no, and she said she wanted it. She didn't care that I'd eaten it, because I was her sister. She's probably the same age as my grandmother, but in God's eyes, we are sisters. Small moments like that have made me smile.

End: Knitters Connection; Begin: Quadrennial

When you're used to doing something alone, and suddenly discover a group of others who also share the same love as you...wait, that sounds wrong.

I've been back from Knitters Connection for a few days now, but my favorite part of the experience is still the all-day class I took from Amy Tyler, Beginning Spinning on the Wheel. The only other spinners I've spun with were drop spindlers, and so suddenly walking into a room full of people with their own spinning wheels, who understand the love and obsession I have for the art of making yarn, is incredible.



Our class was a beginning class, but I taught myself how to spin, and so it worked well as a way to fill in the gaps of what I didn't teach myself. Such as, when you begin spinning a yarn, you should twist some of the singles back on themselves and make a sample to lay on your leg and match your singles and plied yarn to as you spin the whole bobbin.



All in all, Knitters Connection was thrilling. I took a photography class with Franklin Habit, and was thrilled with the pictures I managed to take by the end. This was taken in a light box with the museum setting, macro, on my camera. I didn't realize that the museum setting would be so useful for taking pictures of yarn. It doesn't flash, and apparently all the settings are just about right. This is handspun yarn purchased as roving at the Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival.


We went home for a few days, and today we were back on the road, this time with the women from my church. We headed through Kentucky to beautiful West Virginia and Virginia through the Appalachians to North Carolina, where we have settled into our hotel for the Disciples Women's Quadrennial. Events don't start til tomorrow evening, so for now we are relaxing after the day-long drive.

I'll post as the week goes along - I'm very excited to be here with other women and cannot wait to feel the spirit move amongst us as we worship tomorrow evening.