The Yarn Barn, Pt. I

I had been planning to head up to Middletown this weekend to use the Wesleyan woodshop to start building Yesenia's birthday present - a thing I've taken to calling a 'yarn barn' (a name I'm certain I did not coin for this).  Basically, a wall-mounted diamond-bin rack that will store all of her yarn in an attractive and useful way.  This is important, because right now, the yarn storage system is spread out over many rooms, in bins and on furniture and on the floor.

Bear in mind, this is not me pointing fingers - my crap from any given hobby is strewn all over the house, on any available surface.  The impetus for the yarn barn came from me wanting to honor Yesenia's serious talent and dedication to the crafts of crochet and knitting.  I'm continually blown away by her creations, and wanted to reflect it in building something for her with my own hands.  

The artist modeling her shawl, 2012

A major epiphany for me in our relationship was that for years, I thought of myself as the artist with the need to create.  And one day, I realized that, well, I've written some nice songs and drawn some nice pictures here and there, but - truth be told - what Yesenia does is real art.  And it's art that actually brings people happiness.  From the simplest scarf to the most deviously complicated pieces she's done, someone is loving one of her beautiful, heart-felt and hand-crafted objet d'arts.  

I wish the recipient of these was me more often, true - I've got two awesome scarves in hand and a sweater coming down the pike.  But a genuine Yesenia is in high demand, and I can always console myself that I at least get to watch her make them.  Admittedly, everyone who shares her commute on the Hudson River Line also gets to watch her make them, but I'm the only one that gets to watch her make them in her pajamas.  I hope.

So, anyway, Winter Storm Electra - gah, why are they naming snowstorms, now? - has put the trip on hold until next weekend.  And I am champing at the bit to build this thing, in a way that's actually kind of surprising to me.  But I'll post photos as things progress.

D.