A little of this and a little of that

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I recently purchased a drumcarder. It took me forever to decide which brand and model I wanted and where to buy it but at last I settled on a Strauch Standard from fellow etsian Art Club http://www.artclub.etsy.com. I am so exceedingly pleased with my purchase. If you are contemplating taking the leap from handcards to a drumcarder, do it. Buy a Strauch. Buy it from Art Club. They give you this 2 pound box (1 pound if you buy the Petite) of mixed fibers, every kind of fiber you can imagine. I got to try some funky glittery synthetic fibers that little earthy hippie me had never dreamed of trying. I think I'm in love with Firestar. It will have to be a closet romance, of course.

Anywho, after hours of giddy batt making I was left with a pile of odds and ends that really didn't go together. So, I packed them away with all the other odds and ends of fiber left over from projects and sent to me as samples with fiber orders. The other day I got this idea to through everything I know about color and fiber out the door and just mix it all up. All of it. I shredded up rovings and teased up locks and threw it all in a paper grocery bag and kneaded it up with my fists to get it good and mixed.

I threw the fibers by fist fulls onto the drumcarder making a concerted effort not to interfere with the randomness of it. The part of me that plays by the rules kept saying "oh, look, you are ruining perfectly good fiber. You are going to feel sick about this tomorrow" and the part of me that is hooked up to the universal flow of creative energy would reply "Just sit down and shut up for a minute. Trust me. This is going to be great"

Aren't they pretty? Honestly, I think they are prettier than my intentional batts with perfectly placed texture and planned out colorways. Funny how that works, isn't it.

Also, I finally had a camera man handy when I demonstrated my spinning with a cat on my lap technique.

I know it looks cute, but it's really getting annoying. He runs up to my side and waits till I pull back for a long draw and then jumps up and settles down without waiting for me to stop. I didn't see him coming today and it scared me half to death when he landed on my lap. I try to explain to him that I really have to get some more yarn spun up for my shop, but he doesn't care. Sigh.

Well, I'm off to watch the Eagles pummel Arizona.

Peace

Flow

The knitting resurgence took this world by storm. Now the trend is to take up spinning your own yarn. It's a natural trend. It flows like the gentle spiral of twist flowing up into a lofty, airy batt of fiber.

Flow. That is the perfect word. That is why I love what I do. I love watching all those fibers, fibers once worn on a living being, lovingly petted by their human caretakers, shorn by skilled hands, painstakingly washed by my own two hands, flowing gently through my fingers.

Even when the skein is finished, it's still in motion. I hold it in my hands for only a moment, and like a divining rod, it naturally moves with the invisible currents of destiny. I know instantly, this is a gift for my friend, this is for me to wear against my skin, this needs to go out into the unknown world.

How does the sonnet go? "Eyes to be my being shall rehearse" Fingers to be my yarn shall caress. Someone I will never meet will glide their fingers over each inch of the yarn I spun. Those fingers will be guided by the same flow. Their handy work will move on to a infants feet, or a grandma's shoulders. Those feet will grow and those shoulders will raise with one final inhale. A loved ones hands will sort mementos. A treasure will be found at the local Good Will. A tattered fragment will be reborn as a felted purse.

Eventually, it will flow back to the earth, as everything does.

That is why I am in love with handspun.

Peace