Field Notes: What Will It Become?

Some yarn seems to arrive with a plan.

You can almost see the sweater or shawl before you've finished winding the skein.

Others leave the question open.

I've had Indian Paintbrush in the Copper Crow collection from the beginning, inspired by the Wyoming wildflower that scatters red, coral, orange and the occasional unexpected shade across hillsides and mountain meadows. But seeing those familiar colors on a bulky base changes them somehow.

They're bigger here. Warmer. Easier to follow from one stitch into the next.

And bulky yarn has a rhythm all its own. Cast on a few stitches and before long, something has begun.

A hat, perhaps. A cowl. A scarf for that first genuinely cold morning.

Maybe that's part of the pleasure of bringing home a skein before you've settled on the answer.

Sometimes it's enough to put the yarn on the table, open the notebook, and wonder what it might become.