Get Out of Your Own Way…and Let the Motions Flow

I’ve been playing catch up with the programs we’ve had at our Guild meetings. I am glad that we have equipment for rent through the Guild and that we get a whole month to try the equipment before returning it. I rented the hand carders, refreshed my memory with the photos I took from our meeting and after consulting a video on line. The carders are heavy and sometimes awkward to handle, but I’m certain that is a beginner handicap!

My next adventure is to try my hand at flicking. My husband found a nice piece of leather and I have a clean brush to use. The fiber I have for the flicking is a wonderfully beautiful Sheltand that I know will work well because one of our members used Sheltand for the flicking demonstration during out program in September. I hope to use the rolags I have made thus far with the drop spindle…and crossing my fingers that they will work out well. 

I have a bag of rolags now. And because the fiber is a creamy white, I can see a lot of “stuff” that I missed picking out as well! There are some little bits and pieces that didn’t fall out while I was carding. Argh!

I’m not sure hand carding is for me though as my hands bother me sometimes with my work on the computer. I found myself clenching the handles and trying to force the movement instead of letting it flow. At one point I stopped in mid-card and thought, “why am I struggling so badly?” That is when I realized that I was forcing my movements and that I was really stiff with tension. I remembered that I am not being judged or graded…I am learning and learning is comprised of both missteps and leaps. So I rolled my shoulders a few times, shook out my hands, took a few slow deep breaths and started again more slowly, with all the time in the world to complete the task.

What a difference in how the task flows along when you get out of your own way!

Sock It To Me!

Lovely socks!

There are many of our Guild members who know how to knit socks (see the Show and Tell page of our website). I have been lovingly envious of their sock knitting skills. I’m not an advanced knitter…I’ve done scarves and that is it. I’ve seen some of the socks in progress and, being a novice needle worker, I am somewhat intimidated with the numerous double pointed needles and terms like “turning the heel”. Eek!! However, I try to keep my head and heart open because I know, like all skills, everyone must start at the beginning and I’ve got a lot of skilled ladies nearby to pester with silly questions like “what in the world is sock-weight yarn?”

While eyeing these wonderful foot-comforting creations, I have thought many times about my wonderful husband and his problem with manufactured socks. It isn’t so much the socks themselves that are at issue, it is the seams that are usually stitched to run across the toes. They invariably cause ulcers on his skin due to the pressure of his work boots on the seams. So I have been thinking that I could try to knit some different types of socks and see which ones work best for him. I have to give him major kudos to act as my brave guinea pig!

I have a friend, Ms. B who has been traveling a rough patch of late. Well, we all have it seems. Since we were in the area, my husband and I stopped by to visit her and her family yesterday and bring her some homemade French bread. Ms. B knits socks and slippers every year for her kids and grandkids for Christmas. We have discussed socks several times and she assures me that even though I am a novice at knitting, socks are in fact pretty easy and she has offered to show me how. Yes!! She wants to plan a trip to get me needles and some yarn so we can get started. I can’t wait!

Aside from the socks, I had confessed to Ms. B that I didn’t know how to start a second row of crochet. I had been shown many years ago but forgot the steps. Yesterday after munching on French bread, veggies with dip, and other goodies, she had me plop down on the couch, with her mini dachshund asleep between us, and she showed me how to start a second row of crochet. This was a treat! Usually Ms. B is in perpetual motion, taking care of this or that, sometimes with great speed and always with efficiency in mind. I don’t know how she maintains the energy!

However, when she sat with me and her daughter, she was calm and patient, showing us both some of the techniques she uses in her own knitting and crocheting projects, guiding us without pushing, correcting us without criticizing. She is a wonderful teacher and I’m blessed that I get to have her as one of mine. These moments yesterday were pure relief, where the challenges we have all been facing slipped effortlessly to the side amid colorful strands of yarn, crochet hooks and our sometimes aching hands in the creation of something lovely, soft, warm and useful.

So here is to Ms. B and all those who knit and crochet, who guide the yarn through young (and older) newly learning fingers, and who create a space amid the frantic and stressful events of our lives to breathe in peace and beauty. A Votre Santé! 

 

Spinning Yarn on a Drop Spindle - Tutorial

Next Monday at the monthly Guild meeting, we will be getting a demonstration on drop spindles. I have one that I got when I joined the Guild and even though I read a description of how to use it, I was at a loss. This is clearly something that must be seen to be done!

I was thrilled to find several videos on YouTube that show how to use a drop spindle. My favorite is one by Megan at http://www.theartofmegan.com/. I’ve added it to this blog spot. Megan has several other videos as well from pre-drafting to finishing.

I have seen several different types of drop spindles.  I am particularly enamored of those made from nice hardwoods with perhaps a bit of carving or inlay. Some drop spindles are practical and made from inexpensive or recycled materials; many are clearly works of art in and of themselves. That they are a lovely tool used to create lovely yarn which is then used to create other lovely things is wonderful!

I’ve heard several viewpoints from those who are masters at the spinning wheel. Some say they never learned to use a drop spindle before they learned to use the wheel and feel they missed a step in the process, others don’t seem to mind this “missed” step. Well, I wanted to experience the cradle-to-grave process of this form of fiber art, so the drop spindle will be part of my skill set. I also like the portability of a drop spindle. Wherever you can take your knitting, you can take and use a drop spindle—clearly not so with a spinning wheel, even those that fold down for ease in transport.

I’m excited to see the program on Monday. Learning something new is always fun. Now if I could just talk my husband into working on some drop spindle designs for me… 

Thank you Grandma!

I have always been fascinated by folks who create with their hands—I can sit for hours and watch. I love it all, but I have a particular passion for handcrafts that involve textiles. It started with my grandma teaching me how to embroider when I was 7 years old or so. How simple and yet how incredibly special, this process of adding colored thread (and sometimes beads) in different shapes and patterns, that can take a simple white pillowcase and transform it into a uniquely beautiful space on which to lay one’s head. I still embroider a pillowcase from time to time, although I’ve added cross-stitch and Japanese embroidery to my skill set. But I always remember how this passion started and I say in the most heart-felt way I can in print “Thank you Grandma!”

I’m not an expert knitter by any stretch, but I have seen some beautiful pieces that inspire me to get better. I can knit a scarf and have taught my daughter the basics. What I was really itching to know was how the whole process worked, from raising a fiber animal to spinning the fiber, to knitting a beautiful shawl or sweater. I had grand dreams of owning alpacas or llamas, shearing them and using their fiber to spin and then knit wonderful creations. Today, I am the proud owner of two twin hair sheep ewes that I believe are St. Croix (Penelope who is white)/St. Thomas (Petunia who is white and black)…and they have rubbed their itchy wool off onto the fence that encloses their area. Ah well, they are young and haven’t been tamed down to much human handling. While at a Celtic festival last year, I fell in love with Shetland fiber—I bought a ball of soft roving that was a beautiful oatmeal color, and most importantly, it didn’t make my husband itch. So I talked to folks on how to raise them in a healthy environment and decided to give them a try—I have twin gals that will be coming to the farm in late November.

Now I have the task of getting up to speed on how to take the fiber and knit it into a wearable item. Lo and behold, I found an actual spinning and weaving guild in the town near where I live. I contacted them, was invited to attend a monthly meeting, and during that meeting I ended up becoming the web mistress for the Guild’s website!

In addition to revamping and updating the Guild web site, I decided to add a journal blog that chronicles my experiences as a beginning spinner and weaver. I know there are folks out there that are in the same place I was in a few years ago: desperate to express themselves in a creative way but having no time to even learn how to go about it. Now I do have the time and I have found folks that will point me in the right direction and give me sound hard-won guidance as well as a husband who doesn’t mind the times when I’m obsessively picking sticks and hay out of a freshly washed and dried fleece.