When Spinning Skills Evolve By Osmosis

My spinning skills get better little by little, usually by practice, but sometimes just by the mere proximity to spinners who are better at or more interested in something than I am.

That happened this weekend at the Michigan Fiber Festival. I was there taking a class with Esther Rogers. I wrote about that on the KnittyBlog this week. I took my friend Beth Smith along for the ride. She had deadline spinning she could do while I was in class and is always up for adventure.

My friend Beth Smith happens to be the Beth Smith that is one of the foremost experts on sheep breeds and hand prpcessing and spinning of different breeds. She wrote a book about it. She teaches classes all over the world about. She talks about breeds, processing and spinning ALL THE TIME.

I spin, I teach, I know a little about breeds. I know how to wash and hand prep fleece, I just am not too into it. I don't ever buy fleeces at shows or have a fleece stash beyond a few 1 or 2 ounce samples.

Part of the fun of any fiber festival is the shopping. Beth brought along her fleece-needs spreadsheet for her upcoming classes so she could shop without going crazy. When we shop together she usually paws all of the fleeces and I frolic in the dyed top and roving.

All of that listening to Beth talk about breeds and fleeces must have sunk deeply into my brain. I barely touched top and roving. I waded into the fleeces with Beth talking staple length, crimp and lock structure. I dragged bags of fleece around showing her things she might like. I was a woman possessed by fleece. I showed Beth Smith fleeces like I knew what I was talking about. I helped to convince her why she needed more than the 2 fleeces on her list (that part wasn't hard).

She went home with 7 fleeces and this is the one I'm proud of, a Romney/Corriedale/CVM cross. Beth doesn't buy cross fleeces, she buys and uses single breed fleeces almost exclusively. I picked out this fleece, discussed the merits of it in a bossy way and convinced her to buy it.

It looks like I'm turnng into a fleece person by osmosis, just becasue of hanging out with Beth. What's next, hand processing? the love of white fiber?

Choose your crafty friends wisely, what they know and love will reach out and become a part of you too. After all isn't that why we're friends in the first place?

This Is How to Start the Week: Shakespeare with Sheep

Cordelia by Nick Morris via The New York Times

Missouri Williams staged a 90-minute play called King Lear with Sheep in London this month. It souds quite good, plus all plays should have sheep. I can't believe Harvard turned it down.

Have a wonderful sheep-filled week!

When You Get Busy What Goes Off the Rails?

Our house has been crazy busy since March. We've had regular school (until summer) and girl 4x a week diving practices, lately the boy has picked up an instrument lesson and now practices his sport 3x a week instead of 1.

Kid busy we're mostly prepared for, but Andy and my work have both taken off. I've taught a bunch, prepped and filmed two videos, turned in my book manuscript and have been spinning samples like crazy. That's on top of my usual writing and Knitty work. Andy has inherited more book selling territory due to a retirement which means more travel and he's started an all new division at his work. All of it is excellent and exciting for us and our careers, but it is time consuming.

Those of you who know me in person know this isn't going to be one of those. "I'm so busy, but here are 15 Pinterest-worthy things I do every day to make my life complete" In fact, the busier I get the more the internet and it's fake sense of "it's all good, clean and organized AND creative" enrages me. I can't open Facebook without cussing.

I knew it would happen since we are messy folks to start with, but wow is our house a pit! There are a couple of pictures over there, I hope it makes the messy among you feel at home. Right now we have a train of 5 laundry baskets in our hallway, full of clean clothes. They have been there for months, we just wash the dirty and add a new clean clothes car at the end. The top picture is a corner of our living room, a.k.a my office, those are boxes of samples and boxes of fiber waiting to be samples. They were piled neater under a table, but the table was removed to make a fort/fingerboard skate park and I just haven't restacked. The kitchen gets done daily, but only in a half-assed way.

Cooking is the other thing. I dread our credit card bill every month just because I can't believe how much more we go out to eat. Packaged food has become a bigger thing too, it's the only thing I have a bit of guilt about. But I have zero guilt for the ginormous frozen lasagne I bought when an email came for food contributions for the high school swim and dive picnic.

I'm not complaining, I'm definately not looking for advice. I'm just remarking on the hilarity of our life compared to what the internet usually shows and talks about. Our family could spend weekends cleaning, cooking and organizing or we could hire someone. I'd rather just hang out with my people or go camping, because there is one thing I'm not willing to budge on no matter what, our family time together.

None of it really bugs me. Would I rather it was picked up? Sure. Do I wish I had more time to cook? Yep. But it's not going to happen right now. I'm hoping for maybe the end of September.

A New Multicraft Newsletter for Us!

Just some of Miriam's tools

Miriam Felton who is crazy talented in just about every fiber art that exists has started a multicraft newsletter called CrossCraftual. Every fiber person I know, myself included, has been obsessing about combining their crafts lately. This inspirational newsletter is exactly what I need right now. You can sign up to get the newsletter, follow CrossCraftual on Twitter and take a 2-question survey to make sure your favorite crafts are represented.

Yay all the crafts!

We Went Camping and Just Hung Out

Every summer we try to take a vacation that doesn't have anything to do with 1) work 2) sports. Even if it's just a couple of days, we run away and are silly together.

This summer we went camping in Leelenau State Park. Tent camping with pit toilets, campfires and no electricty.

We swam in Lake Michigan, hiked sand dunes and woods, read, played games, whittled wood and made s'mores every night. It was the most relaxing vacation I've had in a long time.

Everyone had such a good time we're talking maybe a long weekend camping in October.

Anyone have suggestions for Fall camping in Michigan?

2016 is Going to Be Fun!

I've been asked to teach at the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat! Madrona is February 11-14, 2016 in Tacoma, Washington.

I'm teaching at Yarn Fest again! I had so much fun last year, I'm thrilled to be asked back. Yarn Fest is March 31 - April 1, 2016 in Loveland, Colorado.

I'll be teaching at the PLYAWAY inaugual retreat! This one has a special place in my spinning heart, since I've been with the magazine since the beginning. PLYAWAY is April 21-24, 2016 in Kansas City, Missouri.

The contracts haven't been signed, but there is a good chance I'll be teaching in Los Angeles in September.

I'll post what classes I'm teaching where as soon as they are set.

In the midst of all of that teaching, next summer, my spinning book is coming out!

That's a lot of exclaimation points for one post, but I am happy, a bit gobsmacked and so grateful to be a part of all of these things.

2016 already looks like a great year, I hope I get to see some of you in my classes.

What Are You Reading?

Tell me what you are reading and enjoying this summer?

This week I'm reading: The Star Side of Bird Hill, a gorgeous coming of age story about two sisters transplanted from Brooklyn to Barbados.

I'm listening to: Invasion of the Tearling, a YA fantasy, gritty-dystopian novel, the sequel to Queen of the Tearling. It's read by Davina Porter. I listened to the first book and tried to read the second, but Davina Porter's voice kept floating through my head, so I bought the audio and am happily listening while I spin and knit.

Spinning Texture for a Project

I have a special thing for spiral-ply yarn, the kind with one ply of thick and thin. So much so that I've decided to knit a sweater out of spiral-ply yarn. I know it will pill, especially since I fell in love with merino fiber beautifully dyed by Lisa Souza.

I knew I needed to sample, but I didn't want to over think the sampling part. I could spend forever sampling and tweaking and never get to the sweatering.

I spun a couple of samples. One just to have a starting place and one to correct what I didn't like about the original sample.

The first sample (on the left) was ok, it did the bubbly spiraly thing I like, but it definitely needed some adjusting. The things I changed in the second sample (on the right) change the look a little and help to make it a sounder yarn. I spun my core single with a lot more twist because I had a couple of spots that drifted apart when I plied with the tension I like in a spiral ply. I shortented the distance between the thick spots. In the original sample I made a thick spot and then two drafts of thin, in the second I made a thick spot and one draft of thin. Overall I the changes are small, but I like the yarn better.

The best part is the knitting. It's light and lumpy, bumpy with great squish. I can't wait to see a whole sweater out of this yarn!