Cure for the Crud: Swatching

The crud has hit our house. It's some kind of chesty, gooey thing that causes lots of coughing (espeically at night) and leaves you feeling wrung out and limp. Some days three naps aren't enough.

It's working it's way through the house person by person. One of us is done, one nearly so, I'm finally on the upswung and the last one of us never got really sick, but isn't getting any better. He goes to school for a day then is down for two. Some famlies in town say the rements of this ick hang around for three weeks.

Welcome fall.

I'm treating my ills the way any good fiber person does, by liberally applying televison and swatches. Really, swatching is my cure for nearly everything that gets me down, physical, emotional, spiritual, psychological. There is something in the finite structure of a swatch, something in the possibility of a swatch that sets me right every time. I will admit that sometimes I'm too sick to do the knitting and I just sit with my stitch dictionaires marking patterns I want to try with sticky notes.

I've swatched Anzula Cole 70% silk/ 30% camel, just in rib. I'm making a hat for the husband, who is newly allergic to wool (I know!). This yarn is gorgeous but has zero spring. I also swatched Freia super bulky with lace patterns out of my favorite Japanese stitch dictionary. A super bulky lace cowl is what I'l eventually make, but I'm on my 8th pattern and enjoying the swatching of this one so much, I have no intention of stopping anytime soon.

Do you swatch when you're sick?

2016 - Come Take A Class with Me!

My 2016 teaching schedule filled up fast!

I have one class left to teach in 2015:

November 14th I'm teaching the spinning half of a day-long Fractal Fusion workshop. It's in Grass Lake, Michigan.

My 2016 looks like this:

February 11-14: Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat, Tacoma, Washington.

March 30-April 3: Interweave Yarn Fest, Loveland, Colorado.

April 20-25: PLY AWAY, Kansas City, Missouri.

September 22-25: Greater Los Angeles Spinning Guild, Los Angeles California.

November 4-6: The Gathering, Northeast Handspinners Association, New York.

I'm still waiting to hear from a couple of events, so there may be another class or two added. I'm feeling the need to go to Rhinebeck next year, even if I don't teach.

You might notice that I have no teaching during the summer months for 2016. I have a high school senior to-be and we'll be prowling college campuses throughout the summer.

I won't be absent from the spining world because my book comes out in July! I can't wait for everyone to see it!

I Made It! What's Next?

Whew! That was a wild few weeks. Now I'm 90% done on my book and can take a few very deep breaths. I had a couple of weeks that I'm sure more than few of you will recognize. Those special times when you've missed a deadline and are racing to catch up, but you've accepted other deadlines based on meeting the first deadline and they all jam together like a bumper car snarl? Yes, that. Take that and sprinkle liberally with illness, travel and general kid busyness and that was my past few weeks.

Now it's less busy with regular deadlines and I can start thinking about what's next. What's next, is my favorite part of all things. I was the kid during storytime (and after storytime), tugging on a sleeve asking, "Then what happens?".

I have some big dreams and maybe-plans that I'm not quite ready to share that are bubbling away. I have more immediate things coming right up including our kitchen remodel, teaching at Madrona, starting a spinning newsletter, making plans for college with my girl, who's a junior this year. But right now I have a few days to catch up on email and shepherd forward my regular work that got sidelined during my last scramble.

I have plans for things that are fibery, but not work. Anyone who does paycheck work in the same place that they find their personal relaxation and creativity will tell you it's hard to make time for the fun and relaxing part. It's easy for me to keep putting it at the end of the list, even if it's just swatching a new yarn that I'm excited about. Two biggies for me are, knitting a Lopi sweater (I bought the yarn when I visited WEBS last month) and taking an online tapestry weaving class with tapestry guru Rebecca Mezoff. I am determined to make time for both, wish me luck!

How do you depressurized after a big project?

A Peek Into My Photo Shoot

A couple of weeks ago I went to Storey Publishing in North Adams, Massachusetts to do part of the photoshoot for my upcoming book. After months and months of writing and revising and spinning and spinning, this made the book feel absolutely real!

I have an amazing team working on my book, my editor Gwen, my art director Carolyn and my photographer John, who also did the gorgeous photography for Beth Smith's A Spinner's Book of Fleece.

I filled my car and drove to Massachusetts then we shot for 3 days. I demonstrated techniques and we did a lot of sample shooting. We shot at a eclectic hotel called The Porches that used to be mill worker housing in this historic mill town. I got to visit the Storey offices and meet so many smart publishing folks.

Even though we shot for several days, I left many, many samples behind. I probably brought more than 100 samples to shoot for the book and sent more to them after I got home. I don't know if I've ever been so excited and nervous about a project, I love it and I want everyone else to love it too. The book isn't due out until next July, but you can be sure that I'll be showing sneak peeks along the way.

Interweave Yarn Fest Registration Is Open!

Are you planning on coming to Yarn Fest in April? Registration for classes is now open. I'm lucky to be teaching again this year!

This year I'm teaching:

• Batts in the Belfry: Spinning Batts
• Cheaper by the Dozen: Twelve Ways to Spin Variegated Top
• I like Big Yarn and I Cannot Lie: Spinning Big and Lofty Yarns
• Twist and Ply: The Difference Ply and Twist Direction Make to Your Knitting
• Yarnitecture : Building Exactly the Yarn You Want
• Spin a Funky Chicken: Beginning Texture and Art Yarn Spinning

There are lots of new instructors and classes this year including lots of weaving, even tapestry. Come and play in Colorado and let me know if you sign up for one of my classes!

Spinning and Weaving with Schacht

Yesterday on the Schacht blog, Beth Smith and I launched a series about weaving with handspun. It's less of a how-to and more of a follow-along-as-we-learn type of series. Both of us have recently felt the siren song of weaving with our handspun on a rigid heddle loom. Beth wants to make skirts and I want to make accessories.

We are having a great time. We love fiber equally, but approach it differently. Beth prefers to work with specific breeds, prepped herself, undyed. She's working with finer yarns and is looking forward to creating something cut and sewn. I'd rather have something on and done in a weekend with lots of color and texture. Cut and sew? Not me, but I'd like to explore hand sewing for joining pieces and embellishment.

We'll be on the Schacht blog about twice a month for four months, come see what spinning and weaving fun we have.

If you have tips about weaving with handspun, I'd love to hear them.

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