How I Get Over the Last Big Hump in a Big Project

I'm hitting that spot in my book project, the last big push. There will be more work to do after this part, but there's this sticky spot in every big project at about 80% where I always second guess myself.

"What am I doing?" "I should just quit." "I should scrap everything and start again." "This is terrible." You know that spot - it's too late to start again and it's time to dig in for one last push. The problem is, the more I care about a project the more I doubt myself and become hesitant, looking for ways to trip myself up.

There's the warring of the voices, the critical one telling me that it's all crap and to just give up, daring me to do the work - that one is espeically loud at this stage. I know it's just fear, but some days that doesn't help to drown out the barrage of doubt-instilling words.

The other voice is the hopeful one, it's not as loud, but she is insistent. This one is the pride I feel when I work on the project, the deep down feeling of how the project is right and good and true to what I want to say.

My tactic with those voices is to not squash the critic, but to fan hope. I look for her, listen harder to her, some days she just whispers. I try to look at my critic as the fear she is and that helps. I don't mind doing something that scares me, there's that edge of adrenaline that spurs me on.

Part of the fear for me is looking at any project as the be-all and end-all, this is it, the only thing I'll ever do. That makes the project, every aspect of it, seem huge and daunting, oppressive.

My trick for getting over that big hurdle in a project is to plan for what's next. What will I write next? What will I learn next? What will I teach next? What's my next vacation? What fun will I have when I have some hours back in my day? Big things, little things, I make lists and sign up for classes; I shop a little.

Giving myself something to look forward to, to plan and work for takes the big and scary out of the finishing of projects, it gets me over that last hump. It dials back something that seems monumental and duanting to something that is just a step, one of many things I'll do in my life.

How do you push through big projects?

Batt Questions Answered and a Kitchen Update

Polwarth/Tussah batt from Into the Whirled. Photo by Into the Whirled

Interweave sent out an email blast on Wednesday about my video 12 (Plus!) Ways to Spin Batts, that included a photo of a sexy, sexy batt. I got quite a few emails from spinners wanting to know, Where can I get one? How did you make it? What kind of drum carder did you use?

First off, I didn't make the batt! The genius and creative minds of Cris and James at Into the Whirled made that batt. It's Polwarth and silk. They make such fantastic batts that they have a batt club to help fill the demand.

They use a Strauch Double Wide Electric Carder to make all of their batts. I've used one and it makes wonderfully smooth batts.

Rhinebeck is the next time to get batts from Into the Whirled, for the last few years they've been in building C, but check the vendor map before you go on your batt shopping spree.

Here's a quick kitchen update: I win. Heh, can you tell I'm an only child? Actually, we compromised. Light cabinets and dark counters. A huge thanks to everyone that gave suggestions and told me their kitchen stories, it helps a lot.

Now the discussions move on to flooring. So tell me about your kitchen floors! We'll be replacing the flooring on the whole first floor. We're finally getting rid of the gross brown carpeting in our living and dining room and some impossible to clean white, textured vinyl in the kitchen.

[1]: http://www.interweavestore.com/12-plus-ways-to-spin-batts-dvd(Plus!) Ways to Spin Batts

Summer May be Done

School started yesterday for my kids which officially marks the end of summer for us. It was both a busy summer and a lazy summer. There were sports, sleeping in, the teen got her driver's license and Andy and I did our usual work-from-home-in-the-summer dance. We tried hard to get our paycheck work done with time every day to hang out with those kids of ours. We really like them as people; they're smart and they're funny. Each stage is entertaining and enlightening and we soak it up.

We didn't go on a big vacation this summer, but we went camping up north. This photo pretty much sums up our summer and our goofy family.

How was your summer?

How I Organize My Work and My A-ha for August

Right now in my life I have lots of smaller jobs that make up my paycheck work. I teach spinning classes, I write for PLY and Spin Off, I do consulting, I write newsletters, and I have several jobs for Knitty. This year I'm also writing a spinning book.

It may seem a little crazy making (and some days it is) but no matter how deadline crazy it gets, I have nothing but gratitude for everyone who is involved in hiring me and supporting me. This is the job I dreamed of when I sat behind a desk in a corporate cubicle.

People have asked me how I stay (mostly) on top of things. The short answer is: Lists. I make and keep a lot of lists. I also never stop tweaking how I organize my work. I'm always asking people, reading books and blogs and listening to podcasts. There is a huge industry built around organizing and I pick and choose what works for me.

Right now I use a system that's a little GTD, Bullet Journal, Daily Journal, with a helping of Google Cal and Things for Mac.

What works for me is to have an electronic calendar, big and repeating projects in a computer program and weekly and daily tasks written in a paper journal, with fancy pens.

I learned after fighting it for a long time that I still need paper. I love the act of writing and the fancy pens. I love checking things off of lists. I am that person who will write something on a list after I've done it just to check it off.

I also learned that as I fill up a work journal, I don't want to copy the whole flow of ongoing projects into the new book, that's where the electronic project system comes in handy.

There are lots of things I've learned over time that have helped me and I'll share them here every month or so and maybe they'll spark something for you.

Something I like is to try something for a month and see if it works for me. I can pretend something works for a day or a week, but hanging in there for a month means it has helped with my work, it's become an A-ha for my work system.

My August A-ha was to write all of my blog posts on one day. I've always struggled to fit in all of my blog writing and found it hard to shift back and forth between other work and writing as the week progresses. Some weeks I write 5 blog posts and knowing I have a whole day to just write takes the stress out of finding the time.

Here's something I'm struggling with and maybe you have suggestions for me. It is hard for me to take the time for the making part of my job. Spinning and knitting samples is important to my job, without that work I wouldn't have things to teach or write. I struggle with carving out the time to do it, so that part of my work is always more rushed than I'd like. How do you, if part of your job is making things, carve out the time to do it?

Here's Why I Haven't Started My Weaving

I should have started weaving already. I'm doing some for fun and some for a project to be revealed soon. I have a bunch of stuff piled on my loom, but I haven't started. I figured out why today. Ego.

I used to weave. I had an 8-harness floor loom. I wove my way through Handwoven Laces by Donna Muller and took a ton of classes and workshops. That was 20+ years ago. I was sure I would remember everything about weaving and just jump right back in. Big Fat Ego.

The truth is I don't even remember how to calculate the warp I need for a scarf. Big Fat Ego Check. Somewhere in between the Big Fat Ego and the Big Fat Ego Check I got paralysed. I think I knew deep down I had no idea how to start, but didn't want to admit it.

Once I was honest with myself, that I wasn't going to remember any of it, I was embaressed, but then I relaxed about it all. A big chunk of stress I felt about the whole project fell away.

I got out my weaving books and started from the beginning. I've already learned that floor loom weaving and rigid-heddle weaving are different beasts. Which is excellent because I never much liked weaving on a floor loom. I did it and kept doing it because I liked working with yarn and I liked the other weavers.

So far I can see rigid-heddle weaving is less fiddly and takes less time. I have to sacrifce intricate woven patterns, but it's a trade I'll happily make.

I'm still a little embaressed to think I could remember math calculations from 20 years ago when I can't remember things I learned last week.

Kitchen Planning

Andy and I are planning a new kitchen for our house and hope not to kill each other. We live in a 1970's vingtage 2-level with one of the ugliest kitchens I've ever seen. As a family we love to cook and eat, and we've had it with this kitchen.

The ugliest cabinets in all the land

There's not enough counter space, the storage space is weird and 1970's sized and the cabinets have at least 10 coats of varnish on them.

As a family we took a quick trip to a big box home store to look briefly at cabinets, counters and flooring.The whole trip took 30 minutes and it was soul crushing.

My great horror was, no one but me likes maple cabinets, they all veer to cherry. What? Do I take you to Ikea for nothing? Maple is fabulous, if not maple then oak, something light. Cherry is so dark and heavy, Voldemort would have cherry cabinets.

I'm not ready to discuss what happened with counters and flooring. It was not good.

We're just starting the process and I'd love to hear from those of you who have remodeled and survived with marriage, family and checkbook intact.

Getting Ready to Weave

As a matter of fact you did read that right, I'm getting ready to weave. Beth and I have a project we're doing together that involves weaving and spinning.

Easy weaving, weaving on a rigid heddle loom, mine is a 15" Cricket from Schacht. We're both going to weave on a rigid heddle loom with handspun to make something to wear, and that's where the similarity stops. We'll both do our own very different thing.

First I have to remember how to weave and even before that I have to build my loom. Right now it looks like a box.

I have a project I know I want to do, but the middle part is still murky and there is math standing between me and the weaving.

I'm going to assemble the loom today and weave a quick scarf to warm up my weaving skills, then a plan with math.

Are any of you weaving on a rigid heddle? What are you making?

Sheepspot Fiber Club: My First Shipment

I got my first month of the first Sheepspot Fiber Club and, well, just look at it up there! It's a whole lot of excellent.

The fiber this month is Dorset Down roving. I am getting dyed fiber (of course) and the coloway is Boardwalk.

The fiber is grabby gogeous and the rest of package is loaded with information.
There are sheets on the following:

July Club information, including why this breed was picked and a quick fiber description, and the explaination of our Special Something for this month which is an excellent Spinning Record Card download.

Breed School Notes, a history of the breed and it's current aviaiblilty and standing (a minority breed by RBST standards), a quick look at the particulars of Dorset Down fleece, and an explaination of this month's locks and the time/date for our monthly club chat.

Spinning Notes, a brief detailing of the ways that Sasha sampled this fiber (6 ways!) with reccomendations on places to start your own sampling.

Raw and Washed Locks, since Dorset Down is such a rare fiber, Sasha substituded Southdown (for similar lock structure) and Polled Dorset (to show how different Dorsets can be).

A Spinner's Worksheet, a guided worksheet for sampling.

Spinning Record Card, a printed version of the Special Something download.

I haven't spun my fiber yet, but know exactly how I will draft it - woolen. I'm not sure how I want the colors to play out and I'd like enough yardage to make a lttle something. I wonder how a singles of this would hold up, especially since Downs are resistant to fulling?

For those spinners lusting over this club, it won't open again until June 2016. But Sasha has a nice slelction of fiber in her shop, right now Shetland, Cheviot, Polwarth, Targhee and Cormo.

Sasha also hosts a monthly chat about all things fiber and yarn, particularly breed talk. You can find all of the particulars on her website.