Visiting Uncle Bob this weekend, we noticed a Granny Square quilt on the back of his rocker. He told the story of how his wife took it off a trash pile at a neighbor's house back in Illinois in the 1950s. The quilt was made in 1908, was considered old at the time, and was set to get tossed. My friend Belinda and I call this Textile Rescue. We are thinking about starting a foundation to support the cause.

Acrylic yarn has nearly destroyed afghans, coverlets, and throws for our entire generation. Brown and gold spun plastic knit in proportions that inspire feelings of shame, created fabric that squitches in a disturbing way when you squeeze it. We know we are supposed to treasure these proceeds of love and determination, this art. We understand we were meant to be warmed, but we've been left feeling cold. Its time to heal. Acrylic yarn is to blame, not the knitters, not the generation of blanket receivers who were supposed to feel grateful and warm, yet didn't, and certainly not the blankets themselves---sad eternal soldiers.

I had not even glanced at Uncle Bob's quilt. It was my husband who asked about it. Which might seem rather odd, as I'm the one who works with textiles, who sits with a string and sticks creating fabric to warm people I love. Textiles are my hobby and craft, I generally notice them. I suppose this is a testimony to the wound of acrylic. I've learned to skim past old wool-ish quilts, to avoid the pain.

I bent over Uncle Bob's quilt and lifted a corner. I buried my fingers in the loft of the wool. I noted no pilling in the fibers and no wear. Each tile was crisply shaped, the colors soft yet bright and distinct. Shetland wool, I whispered to myself, and untold years, hands, sheep, and soft sunny fields were suddenly known to me in a moment. Over a hundred years old, this quilt has been in open use on the back of a couch or chair for the last sixty three. We don't know how much it was used before that. Yet its in perfect condition. No threads have unraveled or yielded. This is why we treasure wool. This is the warmth, beauty, durability, sustainability, and even compostablity acrylic can never give.