pligrimage – Anna Woofenden

Throughout my travels, I have continued to collect yarn at each place I’ve been. At the end of June, I arrived directly back from the UK, via an extra 24 unwanted hours in Chicago due to weather. I found my car, a shower, and my pre-packed second suitcase of clothing at a friend’s in Indianapolis and then drove three hours to Urbana OH. Urbana held the Clergy Meetings and the Annual Convention of the Swedenborgian Church of North America, my denomination and the group that I am seeking ordination with.

After I had my ordination interview with the clergy I settled into the General Convention meetings and brought out my handwork. I sat next to my good friend Sage, who was knitting a sweater. She wanted to know the story of the project and when I told her, she offered a length of the soft, rich green yarn that she was knitting her sweater from for this leg of the journey. Lovely!

My next migration was driving West…to my half-way point on the move, Boulder Colorado. The next two weeks were spent with the joy of taking care of three dear children in my life. The eight year old is an avid knitter and he wanted to learn how to crochet, as did his younger sisters. So we all played with yarn a fair amount in the time we spent together. I added some strands from their projects into the mix…

My next stop was Almont Summer Camp, a Swedenborgian Church camp in Michigan. The lectures on the Seven Days of Creation each morning were prime handwork times. I was clear a day or so in that I’d need to find some red and white yarn for this section. The camp is swathed in red and white, the colors that have been flown over the camp since it’s inception, embodying Swedenborg’s teaching that red represents love and white wisdom, the essence of everything.

And then back in Colorado for a few weeks. I think I may have to use this as an excuse to go down to my favorite Boulder yarn store and find a little something….

What fun I had finding yarn in the United Kingdom.

I found most of it on my time on the Island of Iona. Two of the skeins I found in a little shop down in the village, one from England and one from Wales.

The third yarn I got was raised right there on Iona. I even got to meet the sheep and the woman who raises the sheep and sells the yarn. It was spun at a manufacture across the isle, but besides that short trip, born, harvested and sold on the island of Iona.

My final UK yarn came to me on our very last evening in the country. We were in Sheffield England with a group of incredibly kind and hospitable church groups. One of the women saw me working on the project during our workshop with John Bell and asked me about it afterwards. I told her about how I was gathering yarn along my way. Later that evening she came back with some red and blue yarn from a project she’d been working on.