This Contest has ended.
Our Mothers’ Day Contest winners are Michelle of mmcmillen at macnet dot com and Vicky K. of ferretone1 at juno dot com
Both ladies each won a couple of Goats Milk Soap LOVE Bars in Almond Poppy. Their fiber booty includes a generous amount of Multicolor Corriedale in the Black Forest Truffle Colorway and Silk Latte Milk Protein Fiber. Congrats Michelle & Vicky K.!
We would also like to thank all contest participants for being such a great sport and sharing with everyone your greatest memories of your loved ones. Your eligibility for 20% discount off regular priced fiber is valid for your next one-time purchase till August 1st, 2007.
Keep a lookout for more fiber contests coming soon in the near future! Happy Mothers’ Day everyone!
Matahari Spinnery is giving away a special fiber and goats milk soap package to 2 lucky contest participants. All you have to do is write an entry on Moms and Yarns/ Fibers and you’ll be eligible for the drawing on Mothers’ Day. Please leave your email address so we have a way to contact you if you happen to be the lucky 2! All contest participants don’t leave empty-handed either, when you post your written entry you will automatically receive a 20% discount on your next purchase of regular priced in-stock fibers at Matahari Spinnery (fibers already on special do not apply). To take advantage of your 20% discount, all you have to do is mention which entry is yours and we will apply the discount to your invoice. The drawing will take place on 12th May on Mothers’ Day and we will announce the lucky winners here on our website. To leave your entry, scroll down to the bottom of this page and write under Comments. Good Luck and Have Fun!
Hey everyone, leave your entry here…good luck!
The love of yarn goes back several generations in my family. Some of my fondest memories of my mother involve sitting on the couch with her, untangling her yarns while she made holiday ornaments or fridgies on plastic canvas. My grandmother taught me to crochet when I was 8 and in her last days (when I was 24) she was unable to speak but I could see her hands moving as if she was crocheting. When my father and I went to say “goodbye” before she was cremated, I tucked a ball of my handspun wool and a wooden crochet hook into her hands. As a mother ofa 2 year old, I am counting the days until Rowan is old enough to hold her own needles or hooks. She already has her own drop spindle. Rowan, named after the yarn, will hopefully carry on the fiber arts tradition.
I am the first generation of fiber fanatics! I taught my self to crochet, took spinning and knitting classes, and now have pass the love of all things fiber to my three daughters. They range in age from 16 to 8 and all of them love to knit and spin on either my wheel or a drop spindle. We are always talking about what our next project will be and do we have the right fiber or yarn in our stash. I neat thing is when we don’t have the right fiber and we have search for the right fiber for the perfect project.
Growing up, my own mother ingrained a love of crafty-ness upon me. She still participates in crafts, though mostly machine embroidery and quilting. I, however, choose to follow the craft of my foremother’s and although I do dabble in some basic sewing and quilting, I delved into the fiber arts with vigor! I am a spinner (both on a wheel and drop spindle) and a knitter. I have read much about my American foremothers and the necessity of fiber, fiber production, etc. I think it is those women and mothers, as well as our own mothers, whom we need to remember as fiber artists on this Mothers Day.
Thanks!
I am celebrating the wonderful woman who taught me to knit. Ms. M. lived across the street from me when I was a child. She always seemed to have a baby on her hip and knitting needles in her hands. She knit with one needle firmly tucked under her left arm and she seemed to be the master of multi-tasking. I remember her stirring her pot on the stove while knitting and tending to her children. She was a marvel to watch and I was completely fascinated with the flying needles. I was 8.
I asked her if she would teach me to knit and her answer of “yes” started me on a life-long love of knitting (and, much later, spinning and weaving). I learned to knit with my needle under my arm, too. I knit this way for several years until, unlike my tiny Portugese neighbor, my arms grew too long to comfortably knit this way any longer.
Ms. M. was most kind and patient as I ran across the street every time I made a mistake. She would quietly fix it and never complain about my frequent interruptions to her busy life. After a time, I decided I was being pretty pesty so I started learning to repair my own errors.
I’m nearly 60 now and am still knitting every day. I still think about this kind lady who so graciously gave of herself when she herself was so very busy. Thank you Ms. M. I hope that I can do the same for others along the way, too. Happy Mother’s Day to you, wherever you may be.
My mom was not really domestic at all, she cooked because she needed to, but she worked full time outside of the home, and back then it more the norm for the woman to be at home and not work outside the home. But even tho she was not really domestic, she loved to knit and taught herself to knit. She use to busy herself making us sweaters etc and, hehe, at first she didnt really check the gauge (she got better at this as time went on
), and we kinda ewww’d when she would make something for us (one of the sleeves might be a tad longer than the other 
), so she would tease us that if we didnt do our chores she would make us a sweater. 
I’m sure she figured with 4 children and 2 of them daughters that one of us would want to learn, but to her dismay when we were younger we werent interested. However after I had my first child I wanted to learn so I could knit him a sweater. She patiently sat down with me and taught me to knit. It has been a passion with me ever since. My mom passed away in 2000 and I was given several projects she hadnt finished that I am working on finishing. Everytime I pick up my needles I “spend a little time” with her and soon will have projects that are done partly by her and partly by me to give my children as keepsakes. What a blessing knitting has been in my life.
My Mom has always had some fiber project in the works. She taught me to knit and crochet and those are the fiber crafts she shared with me but she also instilled a love of creativity. She and I also share the love of painting, she with acrylics and myself with oils. Mom was a quilter, sewer, needlepointer, macramer and numerous other crafts. Mom is in her mid 80s now and has not been able to continue her crafts but she continues to take an interest in what I do and is fascinated how there is a community of us that have gone back to spinning and weaving in such a devoted way. I salute my Mom for her wonderful talent and I am grateful that I was lucky enough to inherit that talent from her.
My mom isn’t into fiber – I only recently learned that she was taught to knit or crochet a bit as a child. So was I, by my step-mother. Then, after a 25-year hiatus, I re-taught myself how to knit, and then to spin, after getting a tiny flock of Shetland sheep. What a blast! But I need a few more lifetimes to fit everything in. Having one’s only child at 40 doesn’t help; I’ll be a busy mommy until I’m 60, at least!
I remember when I was in highschool and learned to knit at 4H. I couldn’t figure out how to purl, and my mother said “Do it like this” and showed me how. My mother knew how to knit? I was shocked.
Several years later, my daughter was home from college, and I was trying to do a lace pattern and couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong, when my daughter said “Do it like this” and show me how. My daughter knew how to knit? Again, I was shocked.
Somehow, we became three generations of knitters (and now spinners) independently, but united.
My mama was always impressed by my crafts. She treasured everything I made her. She was an artist and a musician, but never crafty.
My mother was amazingly talented(which, of course, I never appreciated until she was gone!), she sewed glorious clothes(made my wedding dress), did needlepoint, painted and knit. She also loved a bargain. The strangest thing I remember about mom’s knitting was a small herd of green sweaters, knit with a sport weight hard, itchy yarn. Everyone got one and we all hated them. I suspect she found a real buy in some cones of yarn and took the lot! Then, of course, she had to use it up…. and she did! Let that be a “stash” warning to one and all!
Ever since I was a child I loved fiber. As a teenager I even tried spinning dog hair with the crudest of spindles and tracked down a special kind of cotton to grow north of the Mason-Dixon line.
I crocheted throughout my young adulthood, and when the time came for marriage, I crocheted my wedding dress. Then came motherhood, and I thought I did not have time any more. Every fall I would knit some kind of Christmas present, but that was it.
Then, this past December, three weeks before they were born, I discovered that we were adding twins to our burgeoning family. I knitted, and somehow my knitting entwined itself with all of my thoughts and prayers for the little ones. The babies were born, and I kept knitting. I knit while I nursed them, propped up on pillows. I ordered a real spindle and spun yarn, and felt the dreams of my youth rekindle. Now the twins are three months old, and still every day from my hands stream beautiful things. Beautiful.
I learned to knit and crochet one summer when I was about 13. My mom wanted to keep me from being bored and that was her answer. From the time I learned to knit and crochet, until the time my mom passed away, she always helped me with my knitting. My mom was amazing. She never used patterns. All she had to do was look at a picture and she was able to duplicate it. When I had my children she always made blankets and sweaters. I remember when Henny, my oldest was born, she made a minty green sweater set for her. It was a green cabled sweater, pants with covered feet, and a hat that had little ears on in with a pom pom in the center of the ears. I had gone out with Henny one day and another child saw her and said to her mom “Look at the green bunny rabbit.” Whenever I wanted to knit something I would call mom and she would design the pattern for me and tell me what to do. When to start decreasing, how many decreases to do, when to start the neck shaping etc. When she died I had an awful time trying to learn how to read patterns but the foundation was there and the love of everything fibre related has never left me.
My Mom inspired me to crochet and knit. She was left handed and I’m right handed and do not remember how she taught me. She always had something going on her needles, beautiful sweaters with a deer scene, dish cloths. She actually was a manager in a fabrics department in a store for many years so her closets were full of yarn that she brought home. I remember the first blanket I made after she taught me to crochet. A easy old granny square blanket and my dog got ahold of it and tore it up. And now I spin yarn. I got a spinning wheel on lay a way, taught myself and I thank my Mom for passing along her talents and I miss her very much.
kathy
I can’t remember a time when my mother didn’t have something fibery in her hands, whether she was making Raggedy Ann dolls, or, most recently, going through her plastic canvas stage. I must have inherited my love of fibery things from her. Oddly enough, although she learned to knit in grad school (and knit several sweaters, including one that my father always wore when I was growing up), I didn’t learn to knit until I went to grad school myself. It was funny to discover that my mom learned to knit because her friends did, and they would sit around and talk and knit (an early s’nb?
).
My Mom and Grandmother are long gone now,,, but I remember the days when I was little. The two of them teaching me together how to knit and crochet when I was around 5 years old. I had the basics down,,,but always made small items (doll clothes, toys etc). Crocheting was always in the center stage for the most part, I had knitting basics down, just that it took so long for me to do. My mom had passed away first, in the 80’s,,, so there was many a day I would stay with my Nana and knit or crochet the day away with her. After my Nana passed away in 2000, something just clicked,,,(maybe as a rememberance to her?) and all I ended up doing was just knitting. In/around 2005 the fiber bug hit, and I started with a wheel,,,, and spindles shortly after. I’ve been happily spinning away in one form or the other and wish that things were different,,,that my mom and grandmother could be with me now as I spin. Then again, in its own way,,, as I spin, I think they are.
My love of fiber came from my Grandmother all though my Mother cross stitched, did needlepoint and then fell totally in love with plastic canvas it was my MaMa who taught the love of fiber. She always had yarn rolled in balls in a huge basket and even though I do not remember her knitting, I do recall her doing crochet. As a little girl she would give me a coat hanger and let me pick out a ball of yarn and I would cover the hanger in little slip knots. I think every hanger in her house must have been covered. She also taught me to hook rugs and of course crochet. I always wanted to learn to knit as a teenager but she was much to old to teach me and it just fell along the wayside. It was not until 2 years ago that I have taught myself to knit and then spin on a spindle and now I have a beautiful wheel. I to have a basket full of yarn rolled into balls that my Granddaughters love to sit and play with and my little Hannah is trying so hard to knit and now even spin. It is my hope that one day she will come across a website like this and have the wonderful memories of me as I do my Grandmother and Mother. Thanks for rekindling those warm fuzzy memories for me and to you MaMa and Mother you are and will always be such a blessing to me. Happy Mothers Day
Fiber skipped a generation in my family. My mother was the least domestic mother I knew, especially among non-working moms. She couldn’t cook or sew or knit, and she had “help” to cook, clean house, do laundry, and pretty much raise her kids! She was a civic crusader and taught me that women can do anything men could.
My grandmother–my father’s mother–lived with us for the last seventeen years of her life and disliked (and disdained) my mother. However, she adored me and taught me how to knit, crochet, hemstitch with drawn threads and linen, tat lace, embroider, and play the piano by ear. I loved knitting and rediscovered it at college, where I knit sweaters with cables and gros-grain button bands with perfectly matched wool fabric for skirts (which I had made by people who could sew–never learned that).
I knitted basic sweaters when my daughters were little, and lots of hats and scarves and vests for gifts, but my heart was always drawn to weaving and spinning, as though I had one foot in another life, a life of 20,000 years of women making stuff out of nothing. I used to stop and pick cotton while driving through Texas and spin it on my jeans’ leg and wind it up as it became string. I used to make little cardboard looms. Finally, when my older daughter was about 20, she gave me a gift–a rigid heddle weaving class at the LYS for both of us–and it was the beginning of the rest of my life! I wove and wove and discovered floor looms and got one and wove some more. Then we took spinning together and we both still spin and knit and weave and dye, although separated by many miles. She sends me pictures of her latest yarn and I tell her about my current UFO’s. We both make presents for my other daughter, who neither spins nor knits, but she does crochet–so I give her yarn!
Fibers join us together in my family, but they also join us to something ineffable, something almost eternal–to the women who have gone before us in this amazing prayer, meditation, creation, whatever it is–making something absolutely beautiful from almost nothing at all! Isn’t it amazing?
My mom has never been a spinner, but she can knit and crochet wonderfully. She taught me how to knit (which stuck) and how to crochet (didn’t). I remember when she was teaching me that I was trying to do a knitted square, but what I ended up with was a square with a pocket! Don’t know for the life of me what happened there!
Since I’ve taken up spinning, I went home to show my mom how I spin with my wheel (was plying some wool) and she said that it was very calming looking as she was almost falling asleep from watching! She’s been very supportive of me through the years.
It is actually my mother in law who taught me to knit. She has been a life long knitter and 16 years ago, she taught me. I had never done anything with fiber arts before as my mom was not at all crafty. My MIL opened up a whole new world of creativity for me. Through the years, we have shared our fiber interests. We often stop together at her local fiber stores. I have started to spin recently and she has shown much interest and enthusiasm for my new endeavor. It is wonderful to be able to share this obsession with her. It is nice to have someone who understands how wonderful it is just to fondle some fiber!