Earlier this week, I got an e-mail from my son’s trumpet teacher advising me that he had some yarn for sale. He named the price, and, sight unseen, I accepted the terms.

I have purchased yarn from my son’s trumpet teacher before. His mother has Parkinson’s Disease and is no longer able to craft as she once did. The yarn and other accoutrements of crafting that she acquired over the years need a new home, and to the extent that it is possible, I have made room for some of it in my yarn empire.

The yarn is, without question, from another time and place. This is most obvious in the colors:

as well as the fiber content. Several skeins of the yarn date to a time when Coats and Clark Red Heart was made from wool.

Purchasing the vintage yarn offers two obvious opportunities.

One is that I have the raw materials needed to either make a period piece or add a genuine retro flair to work that is otherwise made from more contemporary yarns.

The other is that I can bring forward the vision of a fellow crafter who is no longer able to ply her trade.

One of the things I find so magical about crafting in general, and for me, crochet in particular, is that it helps to join the past to the present and creates communities of people who might not otherwise have the chance to exchange ideas.

Clearly the work of any crafter is never finished, but through my crochet, I can also ensure that it is never forgotten.