The Fates

I was thinking about how when you find something you really like, avenues seem to open up in your life that lead to more and more of where your heart lies.  It's neat when it happens.  It's like (going back to my former guitar days) when you hit a certain note which begets a harmonic vibration.  You're in tune to a certain frequency and things begin to line up in that frequency.  It doesn't have to be anything earth shaking . . . you just have little serendipitous happenings that lead to other happenings.

Not too long ago, I was in my favorite section of JoAnne Fabrics (yarn, of course) when a woman in the same isle  asked "Do you Knit?"  Another woman in the same isle took off (obviously not wanting to be bothered) but I answered, "Well, yes, but I'm not really that good at it."  And we were off . . . we got into such a wonderful conversation.  She was like a "Craft Angel".  This friendly stranger was just filling me with all kinds of ideas for ways to get my supplies (Salvation Army, thrift stores, etc.) and re-purposing cheaply gotten goods.  She took me by the hand and walked me through the store . . ."Look at this, I got a whole box of this quilt batting for $8.00 at a thrift store!", and "Look at this, these pattern are 25 cents on sale, I have fur from coats I got at the thrift store that I can use to make these hats" , and "Get yourself a knitting machine and then you can sell lots of stuff on Ebay & Etsy!  You can still hand knit, but in the meantime you can make a lot of stuff to sell", and "Look at these contests! Enter every contest!"   She encouraged me to not be intimidated and to let my creativity shine.  She was such a wonderful person!  Her name was Garnetta.  I am so sorry I didn't get more information about her.  I think about her all the time and look for her every time I go into JoAnne's, hoping I can find her again.

She was so inspirational.  I did enter a contest, the very one Garnetta pointed out to me.  Red Heart Yarn had a contest using their Eco-Ways yarn.  I got in just under the deadline, I'll let ya know how that goes.  I should be seeing contests results around the first two weeks of May.  Then I entered another contest I saw on my Facebook page, by Lion Yarn and the "Instructables" site.  I made an owl phone purse for my niece and entered him in the "Critter Contest" on that site (again, just under the wire!)  I also hope to enter the contest that the "Living Felt" site is having for felted Alice in Wonderland inspired creations.  I've found I like the contests because they spur my creativity and expose me to materials, ideas, and types of yarns I may have not tried otherwise.  Which lead to other ideas, or patterns that I tried that failed with one type of yarn that I know will work with the product I just used for a contest.   Not to mention, it would be soooo neat to win!