Excavating in closets can be so much fun. I had no idea I had all this yarn left over from a sweater I knit decades ago. (The sweater has long since met its grave.)The yarn's been lurking in Massachusetts dark closets ever since, following me from Harvard (the town, not the university) to Swampscott to Leominster to Milton and finally to Canton exactly 15 years ago. (We celebrate 15 years in this house tomorrow.) And the yarn is beautiful! It's shetland wool in a sport weight--about 5 ounces all together. Will that do a striped hat maybe? I hope so!

Okay, here's the ancient sewing machine I was talking about. It's in remarkably good shape, considering its age. This is in large part because I did very little sewing after three years from the time I bought it. It has shared the same closet space with the yarn. It's working fine, all oiled up from its tune-up. But as I practiced using it today, refamiliarizing myself with all its features, I realized I don't have a clue what to make first. Nor do I have any idea how I'll proceed. I think I'd like to make a vest. A wild vest. Beyond this scrap of knowledge, I'm clueless. Maybe I should go to the Fabric Place next weekend and search for a pattern. To tell the truth, I'd really love to make a patchwork vest. Do I head for a quilting store or the fabric store?