The Creative Spark

On the second Saturday of most every month, I head over to the Greater Birmingham Fiber Guild for our regular meetings. I know I’ve said it before and I probably will again but I love getting together with people who share this passion for fiber and art and knitting and making. It sets off this happy little creative spark in my brain. Plus, it’s just fun.

At this month’s meeting, we had a visit from the lovely Gale Evans of Gale’s Art and her also lovely fiber. The topic was fiber and handspun yarn. What can you use it for? Anything. What’s the best fiber to learn to spin with? Blue Faced Leicester was a favorite. How many yards can you get from 4 oz. of fiber? It depends on the weight and the spinner.

Along with the usual knitting in public component of the meetings, people also brought their wheels and were happily spinning along. There goes that creative spark.  

Besides from a variety of different wools, alpaca, and blends, Gale also brought a colorful bunch of silk hankies. I’d heard of silk hankies before and the fact that can actually knit straight from them but I didn’t give it much thought at the time. Just filed it away in my brain for later. It wasn’t until Gale demonstrated how to pull them apart, stretch them out, and cast on that my eyes got all big and round. Creative spark number two. 

Of course, I couldn’t leave without picking up a few supplies. How could I resist the silk, the colors, and a name like ‘Velvet Elvis’?

Next month’s meeting is going to focus on spinning yarn with a spindle and I am so excited. I’ve been meaning to get back to my spinning for months and this is just the push I needed. I’ve already started practicing. Creative spark number three.

Priorities?

There's been a few changes here at Chez Strategos. The biggest change? I got a job. I officially started over a week ago and everything besides from eating, and falling asleep in front of the television slowly dropped off. I was so tired that didn't even feel like knitting once I got home after long days. Spinning? Reading? Drawing? Didn't happen at all. I just didn't have the energy to put into them. It seems like an age since I spun up this green and white beauty. Haven't picked up my spindle since. Bah.

Happily, I didn't have to go into work today and I'm catching up on everything from banal chores to belated birthday socks. There's a problem with this though. I don't want to play catch up and constantly worry about what's falling through the cracks. So, I'm munching through the leftover Halloween candy* and trying to figure out my top priorities. I've got this wild list going in my head of everything I want to do. Even when all of my time was my own, I could never cross everything off. It's definitely time to pare down to the important stuff. Still not sure how I'm going to do it. Any suggestions?

*Pomegranate Tootsie Pops are actually pretty good.

Recently...

Over the past 2 weeks or so, I've been spending a fair amount of time with my new spindle, a 3" and 2.2 oz Schacht Hi-Lo. It's so much better than my old spindle and I'm really enjoying it. So far, my forays into spinning have included lots of youtube videos and two awesome books: Spinning in the Old Way by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts and Respect the Spindle by Abby Franquemont. Both cover spindle spinning and, while there is a bit of overlap, come at the subject from very different directions. I've been reading and referring to both of them a lot in the past few weeks and they've been very helpful.

In Respect the Spindle, one of the tips, when trying to learn how to use a spindle, is to spend 15-30 minutes a day spinning. I've managed to stick with it pretty well and, at this point, I've spun about 140 yards. Most of it has been thick and thin singles which I'm totally in love with and completely in awe of. It's hard for me to believe that I made this awesome, mostly cushy stuff.  It's even usable and I've been racking my brain trying to come up with a way to use it. Especially that brown skein. It's 54 yards of awesome.

All this this practice spinning seems to working. My hands are better at drafting the fiber and my singles are much more consistent. I'm even moving beyond "park and draft" if only for a few seconds at a time. I can't wait to see how this will progress over the next 2 weeks.

A Long Time Ago...

 ...I caught the spinning bug. I got a book, a spindle, and some wool. I even managed to clumsily spin a pair of singles and ply them together. Unfortunately, school took over my free time so the spindle and the yarn went back into their box. I didn't even set the twist. I wish I could tell you how long ago that was but...I really don't know. Maybe it was 3 years. Maybe it was 4. I have no idea.

Recently, the spinning bug bit again and I remembered that poor, lonely bit of yarn wrapped around that spindle. I couldn't care less about the spindle but the yarn should definitely see the light of day. So, I skeined it, gave it a bath, a good twack, and let it dry. I ended up with 3 yards of yarn that ranges from bulky to far beyond super bulky. Seriously, parts of this yarn are thicker than my fingers.  

Maybe it's just because it's my first skein of handspun, but I find this yarn and all of its inconsistencies intolerably cute. I love to hold it in my hands and look at it from every angle noticing every detail. I look at it with wonder and think, "I made this." It just seems so right. I haven't had the feeling from knitting in awhile. I make a pair of socks and I think, "Woot! A new pair of socks. What next?" Making this yarn is different though. Still, I have to wonder how long this feeling with last. Not long enough in any case.