The LJ knitting community was debating whether it was worth going out to Hobby Lobby for this week’s Lion Brand sale. I offer as exhibit A this Wool-ease sock, washed and worn numerous times with no special effort, and still as nice and cozy as the day it was knitted. It has enough wool to feel good and enough artificial fiber to be happy in the washing machine and dryer. There is also Homespun, which knits up into something that looks much like the wall of a cave — an interesting effect now and then. You could certainly do worse.

At work, we have gotten in a bunch of silkworm farms. I have watched the sheep-to-shawl process, I have carded and picked over cotton, but I have never had the chance to witness the process that makes silk. With the silkworm farm, the box assures us, we can harvest and spin silk. I am greatly tempted.

The reason that I have had the chance to get to know fibers so intimately, when I am not a farmer or a spinner, is my involvement with museums. #1 daughter went to NYC with Son in Law’s family, and discovered the sad truth: not everyone attends museums in the same way. The first year of marriage requires many adjustments, from different holiday customs to different ideas about food and drink, but no one warns you about the museum mismatch.

Son in Law’s family breezes through the main parts of museums, chatting, rarely breaking stride. Our family stops and reads all the interpretive information, tries out the interactive exhibits, questions the docents. We do not miss the pig de-snooter. We grind the corn, pack the wagon, try out the bed in the jail cell, sort out the world events that must have been taking place when the picture was painted. We are out to learn something.

If there is, somewhere, a museum devoted to the process of turning the fruits of the acrylic tree into yarn, I will someday see it.