Alchemy is present in needlework and knitting--or at least in the materials that both require--in a fairy tale titled "Rumpelstiltskin" by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. In this story, the protagonist, aided by a goblin, impresses royalty by being able to spin gold out of straw.

Like medieval alchemy, which dwelt on the conversion of lead into gold, and which socio-anthropologist Carl Jung perceived as a metaphor for the purification of the soul, we, too, can convert our yarn into gold--by knitting works that are works are of art and that can transcend the functional and the utilitarian.