Aloha (it means goodby and hello)

A few years ago, I took a Tai Chi class. I didn't stick with it, but something the instructor said stuck with me. He said that a move in one direction first requires a slight move in the opposite direction. This is true in the specific arena of Tai Chi movements, but also in life in general. Runners gain momentum by drawing their bodies back before they bolt forward. A cat nap or 10 minutes with a cup of tea and some relaxing music helps you be more productive on a busy day. I think too of the worm that enters its cocoon in order that it can become a butterfly. Sometimes you have to go backward so that you can go forward.

So, with that in mind, I am taking the summer off. I will be back with a vengeance on September 19th. If anyone needs to get a hold of me, I will be checking emails and Etsy convos.

When I set up Ahimsa Fibers last summer, I named it Ahimsa FIBERS and not Ahimsa YARNS because I had a lot of ideas for other fiber and textile items that I wanted to offer. Part of the reason I am taking time off is to delve into some of those ideas. So, when I open back up in September, I hope to have a wider variety of eco-friendly and animal-friendly fiber and textile items. So, please do swing back by as summer starts to fade.

Have a wonderful summer!

Peace

Quick, hide the fleece!

So, I'm just looking for a little reassurance here. Everyone has a laundry room that looks like this on any given day, right? I mean, it's perfectly normal to have fleece laying around everywhere, isn't it. Hmmm....

A couple of years ago a friend of my husbands was back home visiting family and called us up to see if he could stop by. "Sure, we'd love to have you. Ten minutes? No problem. See you soon." As it happens I had run out of space in the laundry room on that day and had taken over the dining room table. So, in a flurry of fiber we stashed the evidence and made our home look like any other. However, I was delighted to find that when the person in question showed up he was wearing handspun thrum mittens. So of course I told him about our mad dash moments before and we all had a good laugh. The next year he was back for a visit and stopped by again. "So, did you stash the wool before I came." I looked down sheepishly. "Yes....it was everywhere."

(yes, the pun was intended. thank ewe, thank ewe very much)

Enough silliness. I'm dyeing to show ewe what just came off the needles. (tee, hee)












I still have to stitch up the edges of the ribbon, as you can see.


So, I'm mostly a spinner. I knit some and crochet a little. I start with raw fiber, wash it, dye it, card it and spin it. When it's spun, I'm done. I give it away or sell it. But, if a yarn happens to sit in my stash for an extended period of time waiting for it's next phase of existence, it starts to get antsy. This particular yarn, which is worsted weight alpaca dyed in madder root, was listed on my etsy site as "peachy keen". Unfortunately, no one was too keen on it, so it sat...and sat. Poor thing got board. It started to whisper to me, then whine, then throw little tantrums every time I passed by. "Fine, what do you want to be?"


It had a real vintage look to it, so at first I thought crochet, but no, that wasn't right. Then lace. Nah, too refined. Dropped stitch pattern....hmmmm, perhaps. I rolled it into a ball on a airplane ride out to see my family. I had the skein around my sleeping husbands knees and tried not to make eye contact with the businessman on the other side of me. I started with this stitch pattern as a thin scarf, but something wasn't right. Ah, ha! A little granny style shoulder shawl! That's it!


Then it told me that it needed a nice strong vintage sage green silk ribbon as a closure. It was
very specific. Cream would not do. Neither would synthetic fibers, no sir. I found just what I needed at PheobeDelia.etsy.com. The ribbon had a date stamp of 1931 on it and was in perfect condition. What can I say? Sometimes the stars align.


Since I was such a dear and helped this skein out, it decided to stick with me for a while. So, this creation is NFS. I think I will tinker with the pattern and offer that as some point, though.


Enjoy the rest of your weekend!


Peace

Mission Accomplished!

I've been trying to figure out what to do for tags since I started selling yarn last July. I had only been selling online, so tags weren't really necessary. A couple weeks ago, Kate and Pam of Yin Yarn (http://www.yinyarn.com/) offered to let me sell my yarns in their shop. Today was the deadline I gave myself to get my yarns ready. It is 6:24 PM Central Time, my chest is sticking out past my nose, and I've been looping the Chariots of Fire theme song through my head for the past half hour. In other words, I DID IT!

Here are some pics:

Yes, that is a recycle logo on the back of the tags, and , no, they really couldn't be any cuter.

Have a great week everyone! Listen to your breath, follow your heart and give out lots of hugs!

Peace

When I grow up

Well, if you are reading this you haven't completely given up on me. Thanks.

Mark Twain said that life it what happens while we are busy making other plans.

I'm a "to do" list person. I scheme. I plan. I organize. I make resolutions. I'm still trying to decide what I'm doing with my life, what I want to be when I grow up.

I'm going to be 28 in a little over a week. My Mom told me she is still trying to figure out what she wants to be when she grows up. (I won't tell you how old she is but she was 20 when I was born) Somehow I think my grandmother might still ponder that, too (she was 40 - cool, huh).

I'm still trying to figure out what Ahmisa Fibers is, what I want it to be. Maybe you noticed that I went back and deleted some posts. I decided to weed out ones that were too personal or philosophical or just generally not about yarn. But I'm torn because personal is what makes handmade special. It's what gives it energy and life. It's its prana, its chi, its blood.

And, in case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a philosophical person. My yarn was born from philosophy. It moved from my head to my heart to my hands, instead of the other way around.

My yarns are fairly traditional but in a couple months I'm going to Camp Pluckyfluff to learn to make art yarns. So, what is my style? What will be the "look" of Ahimsa Fibers?

A couple weeks ago someone asked my why I started spinning and I said that it just sort of grabbed ahold of me. I think that is the most honest answer I've come up with. I never meant to get so into it. In fact, I'm constantly making lists of other crafts I want to try when I'm ready for something different.

Then I put down my pen and thoughts and sit down at my wheel.

So, I'm in the process of trying to figure out what Ahimsa Fibers is and is going to be. While I'm busy trying to figure things out, it, like life, is going along just fine and not waiting for me to finish my plans.

Peace

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

New Listings

I have a few new listings on Esty. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6059496

I am so frustrated, though. My pictures for my listings are terrible. You would not believe how hard natural light is to come by in Wisconsin in December. I built a light box, but can't seem to get enough light in that either.

I guess I'll be spending some quality time with my camera manual today.


Here is me in a poncho I just finished out of "Ocelot" with the cat doing what he does best, coming between me and yarn.

And a close up of the poncho:


Peace