Yarn

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A tapestry project for the holidays

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A tapestry project for the holidays

This time of year I start asking myself serious questions about the holidays.

Do I really want to spend half of my Thanksgiving vacation at Dallas/Fort Worth International potentially sleeping on the floor with thousands of other people who were trapped due to a freak snowstorm in New England and the resulting air traffic nightmare? 

Do I really need another stack of things to take care of in my life or could Christmas money go toward helping others or purchasing experiences? (I'm no saint. Santa already told me he is bringing me a drum carder. But he needn't bring anything else. I have plenty of fleece, thanks.)

The holidays are certainly a time where I love cozy time on the couch, good food, friends and family, twinkly lights, and a mug of hot chocolate that might just have a little cake vodka in it. In my head it feels like it should be a time of love, expansion, and joy.

But in reality, the holidays are often a time of tension and of unattainable expectations from others (and ourselves if we're honest).

I think we should use making and craft as a gift to ourselves. Sure, we can make things with the expectation that the final product will be a wonderful gift for someone we love. But make the process of creating it a time for you to experience the joy of making. Have you ever experienced that state your brain enters where you lose track of time and are just enjoying the thing you're focused on? Some people call it flow. Tapestry weaving is especially well suited to creating this state. And we all need a little bit of this in our lives every day and more so during the holidays. 

Some optimism remains

Some optimism remains

Spinzilla 2017 came and went and I didn't reach my goal but I did have a great time and my spinning improved.

I showed you my pile in the "An Optimism Problem" blog post so I thought I'd better fess up and show you how the week ended.

I made a rather random goal of spinning three miles, forgetting that in the past I had only spun a bit more than one mile in a week. I came a bit short of two miles and nowhere near three. Next year, in case you hear me say otherwise in which case you should remind me, my goal is two miles.

An optimism problem

An optimism problem

I signed up for Spinzilla this year. I'm on Team Shuttle Spinners. That is the team of my favorite weaving shop, Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins in Boulder, CO. It is owned by the marvelous Maggie Casey who, against all odds, has managed to make me a mediocre spinner and is working on making me an excellent one a little at a time (it would help if I practiced more, so don't blame Maggie--she has worked miracles already). Spinzilla is an opportunity for me to improve my skills. I am just a tad competitive, so having a challenge to spin as much as possible in one week does get me to spin when I might have otherwise opted for a glass of Pinot Grigio on the couch with a novel.

In case you've never heard of Spinzilla (and why would you have if you're reading a tapestry blog?), it is a week-long spinning challenge set up in teams all over the world. It is run by TNNA, The National NeedleArts Association, and the proceeds benefit youngsters learning fiber arts.

My goal this year was to spin three miles. There are 1760 yards in a mile and I thought certainly I could spin three times that... but my performance so far has not been as expected and because I'm trying to be more focused about goals and marking my daily "progress" through life, today I looked at last year's take to see what I was able to do. The truth was a little discouraging: less than a mile.

A return to Harrisville

A return to Harrisville

Many of the materials and tools I use for tapestry weaving are made by Harrisville Designs. So it is only natural that I wanted to visit this year when I was in Vermont. We flew in and out of Manchester, N.H. so we took a little different route back to the airport after the Vermont retreat and just had time to take the detour through Harrisville after a night in Keene.

Silkworms!

Silkworms!

I've read a bit about silkworms... and silk. It is a subject that could engross one for a lifetime I believe. Heather Winslow's pre-conference class at Midwest Weaver's Conference this year was about silk and one of her students raises silkworms. And she brought some to class! My classroom was just down the hall so I made a pest of myself and went to look.

How to make beautiful yarn out of poorly dyed singles

How to make beautiful yarn out of poorly dyed singles

Mistakes in dyeing can be messy... but sometimes there is a happy outcome even when you think it is all going to crap partway through.

I made a measuring error while dyeing a violet/blue yarn and as the dye was already in a jar with water in it, I couldn't easily save it. I wanted to use this large volume of dye so it seemed the right moment to try some overdyeing.

A friend recently gave me quite a lot of churro yarn that was dyed by someone else. The colors weren't quite what she wanted and she asked if I could use it. And not being able to say no to free high-quality yarn even when the colors were a little bold, it came to live in my studio.

Not afraid to dye

Not afraid to dye

On social media I often use this hashtag, #notafraidtodye

I've been waking up in the night the last few days with a lot of pain in my back. This is unusual for me and in my middle-of-the-night confusion I couldn't figure out how I could suddenly feel so old and creaky. In the morning I remembered. I've been dyeing yarn for almost two weeks now and that is enough to make anyone's back ache.

Maybe this visual will help.