I'm so humbled lately at how much publicity I've been getting… I'm not used to it, and I'm very grateful for it! A few weeks ago, Mary Beth Temple invited me to join her on the Getting Loopy podcast. I have to admit that I was terrified. I'm not sure you know this, but I get social anxiety whenever it comes to being in public, or even on the phone… even posting on a blog was scary for me at first. So, when I first read the e-mail from Mary Beth asking me to be on the show my first reaction was to be scared! The voice in my head went something like: "AHhh! Oh my god… (heart racing, deep breathing)… wow… hmm, scary… Cool! Hmm… AHhh! Can I do it?" then I think I bookmarked the e-mail to respond once the initial frightened reaction had passed.
One of my favorite quotes is something one of my yoga instructors says frequently: "If you weren't afraid, what would you do?" I often ask myself this question. I can't allow fear to run my life. If it did, I wouldn't be living. So, when the opportunity comes for me to face fear, I try to be strong and brave and just do it, despite how afraid I am. I feel like fearful situations especially are ones that I can't allow myself to pass up. Just being afraid can't be enough to keep me from doing it.
So, on Monday I joined Mary Beth in a phone call. The whole day I was anxious… so I ate fruit, then after work I spent time with some good friends, spun some yarn, then spent a half hour meditating and cleansing with Reiki before the call. I shooed away my friends so I'd have some privacy, then called in to the show… deep breaths.
Mary Beth picked up about 10 minutes before the show began and chatted with me about what I might experience during the show. I'm quite thankful she did that. It was a little less scary having some sort of idea what might happen.
She did her intro, then we started talking. It was a LOT easier than I thought, and once the ball got rolling Mary Beth did a good job at keeping it in motion. Have a listen:
Faina Goberstein also contacted me some time ago inviting me to answer some interview questions for her Designer Studio series. This was much less frightening, as it wasn't live, and I could answer the questions in my own time, and edit edit edit! Still, a very humbling experience being invited to be included with all the great well-known designers who she features in her series.
Faina published my answers, as well as many of her own kind words in today's issue of the Designer Studio. You can read all about it here.
Much thanks to both Faina and Mary Beth for inviting me to join them in their ventures! I'm honored and truly grateful. Thank you, thank you! :D
There's a new crochet hat pattern available for sale in the pattern section—the Daisy Beret. It's written in 5 sizes, so people of all ages can enjoy it—baby, child, small adult, medium adult and large adult.
I wanted somthing new to talk about tonight on the Getting Loopy podcast, so this was created over the last few days. If you follow me on Facebook, you may have seen some in-progress pictures. It works up fast, and it's a super-versitile design! The hat can be embelished in so many different ways, it was difficult to decide what I wanted to do.
Yesterday, my friends and I wandered around through some canyon-lands here in Austin, TX. I brought Daisy and the camera, hoping to get some decent shots. I took quite a few photos of nature, friends and myself with Daisy. See more Daisy pics here, and below are some behind-the-scene shots of the photo-shoot.
First, I've gotta tell you—tomorrow at 9PM EST I'll be speaking with Mary Beth Temple on her Getting Loopy podcast! I'm not sure what will be said, but there will be a crochet pattern or two given away. It's bound to be lots of fun! Won't you join us?
Yesterday some friends and I went to Eeyore's Birthday party in downtown Austin. It was a great time! We spread out some blankets and relaxed amongst the intense drum beats and crazy costumes. Here's a video from last years festival that pretty much sums it up. We saw lots of interesting costumes, batman and Jesus were there… and tons of people were covered with body paint… We couldn't find our stash of body paints, it got burried when we moved. But, we had lots of fun none-the-less.
Of course I brought some yarn-related projects with me… the sleeves for the secret project I'm working on, a crochet hat, which you'll see soon, and my drop spindle.
The drop spindle got the most attention, as it's the most meditative act, and I can do it while people-watching—the same can't be said for hats and sleeves.
Around the time I began spinning the brown merino mentioned in my last post, a friend of mine, Cecily, generously gave me a gift of some multi-colored, alpaca, wool blend roving. Of course, after I finished spinning the brown roving, I was eager to start in on this roving.
I decided to spin it more loosely than I had spun the brown merino—just to see what would happen… There were many (MANY) parts of the yarn that were significantly thinner (almost thread-like) compared to other parts of the yarn—although I doubt that had anything to do with the tightness of the spin. To help with keeping the thickness consistent throughout the entirety of the hank, I decided to ply it. I'm thinking my yarns will be plied until I can figure out how tight to twist it, and how to make the yarn relatively the same thickness.
This hank isn't perfect… but what ever is? I'm happy with it!
The result was 94 yards of a beautifully colored, relatively consistent weight, 2-ply, alpaca and wool blend yarn—what to make with it?
I must have cast on and frogged 3 or 4 different projects before settling on some fingerless mitts. I'm not usually one to work with such a small amount of yarn. I'm typically more of a sweater knitter, so coming up with a project that used 94 yards was a bit of a challenge. It didn't seem like enough to knit a hat, nor a scarf…
I wound the ball into a center pull ball, and cast on stitches for both mitts onto one needle, each from a separate end of the ball. I then began knitting, and didn't stop until there wasn't any yarn left. Not even an inch was wasted!
I'm really happy with them… too bad it's 80º outside. I'm eager to wear them.
So, what's on the drop spindle now, you're wondering… Well, Rachel from OnTheRound send me an inspiring care package, complete with stickers, to keep me motivated and on the spinning path! Thank you so much Rachel, it's working!
The Ashford Kiwi wheel that I was hoping to get a really good deal on… well that didn't work out. For now, I'm saving my money, in hopes that a nice used one will come my way. In the mean time, I'm continuing to enjoy my drop spindle with the batts that Rachel sent. I'm so thankful she did ~ otherwise I'd be out of fiber! I'm sure these will keep me busy for a little while. By the way, OnTheRound is having a 20% off moving sale! I'm not sure what (if anything) is left, but it's a great deal and Rachel is awesome, so go buy something.
I'm beginning with the pink batt, and hoping I might get something spun up in time for Mother's Day… I think my mom would love some pinkish handspun wool. But, Shhh, don't tell her.
Way back in September, 2006 my sister got married. And for her bachelorette party, she, a group of her friends and I all went to a Renaissance fair in New York. There, I found a small booth which was selling yarn, fiber and drop spindles! At that time, I didn't even know drop spindles existed. Of course I bought one, and 8 oz of merino, and walked around the fair for the rest of the weekend spinning yarn.
I've been working on the same roving since then… off and on, mostly off. But something the other day made me pull out the drop spindle and roving and get working on it again. I was outside in the yard, just sitting there, and the urge to spin yarn came over me like a big WOOSH. I didn't think much of it, and continued on with my day as I normally would. Then later when I was poking around online, one of my Twitter friends, Rachel, was talking about how much yarn she had spun recently, and about updating her Etsy store. So, I wandered into her store and began looking around. OMG! Pretty!
I wanted some! But of course, being the way I am, I couldn't be satisfied buying some of hers… no, I have to make my own. I started chatting with her a bit about how long she's been spinning, and she suggested a good spinning wheel for beginners, and it just began to feel more and more RIGHT, that NOW is the time to learn to spin.
To be honest, I've been avoiding it—RESISTING the urge to learn. At TNNA last year, someone in the Louet booth asked if I'd like to try spinning on a wheel, and I recoiled. Oh, don't get me wrong… I TOTALLY wanted to, but there was a part of me telling me it wasn't the right time yet, and that if I had sat down in that chair with the roving running through my fingers, there would be no going back. So instead, I wandered away from the booth with a small piece of colored roving the woman gave me to encourage and motivate me to do it in the future.
My quest this week has been to search for an Ashford Kiwi spinning wheel. At first I began searching for a used one, but they seem to hold their value, so used ones aren't *much* cheaper than new, nor are they easy to find. They seem to get snatched up pretty quickly.
I think I've come up with a solution, but I'm not going to go into any details until I have the wheel in my hands, just in case something doesn't work out. In the mean-time, I'll enjoy the roving and drop spindle that I do have.
I did a little YouTube research to learn more about how to spin with a drop spindle and found some great videos!
After watching the videos I felt a lot more confident, so I continued working with the brown merino. Eventually I decided that it looked far too different from what I had already on the spindle, so I decided to stop, and use the rest of the merino at another time. I wound the spun yarn around a chair, tied it off, wet it and hung the hank to dry. Today after work, I went through a grouling, circulation restricting process (see video #3) of winding it into a ball, then used the drop spindle to ply it.
Here are the results! It's still a bit damp from it's first round of wetness—which in retrospect I think I could have skipped until after plying. Ah well, live and learn.
I totally love it. There are 86 yards, although I swear it looks like more. I think I'll make a hat or a garter stitch scarf with it. I haven't decided yet… I've got time.
The drop spindle is finally free, and ready to begin something new! I'm wandering away now to do some more spinning…
