:Spinning:

For my new fibre addiction — spinning and plying my own yarn

It’s All Love

Nicky16 Comments

Thank you all so much for your warm welcome back from the last post, it felt wonderful being back with my community.  ❤

“The greatest law is: love yourself first”
― Bangambiki Habyarimana, The Great Pearl of Wisdom

Today’s Valentine’s day — a day the world celebrates love and everyone who celebrates does it in his or her own way.   I don’t wait for Valentine’s day — as much as I enjoy it I try to show love to everyone in my tribe every day.    And when I say everyone, I mean everyone — including myself.  This week found me indulging in things that nourish my soul and having a wonderful time of it.

I spent some time with my favourite redhead … Anne (with an E), second name Shirley and it was an absolute delight to visit Green Gables/Avonlea after so many years.

Anne Shirley

I was also “persuaded” to spend some time reading  Persuasion from my favourite author.

Jane Austen

I also spent time doing crafty things I love aka picking out the first lot of fibers for my breed study — a Bond sheep and Corriedale mix I got at a small craft fair in Brooklyn last October.  This spin is going to have it’s own post though … by the end of the month, I’ll give you an update. Bond/Corriedale mix

I’ve finally gotten back to feeding myself well and made some homemade vegetarian pizza to start this Valentine Day weekend off right  😀

Homemade vegetarian pizza

Then to top all this love off, I got unexpected gifts from a friend.  My West Coast “sister” came to visit and she made me a lace cowl and some granola.  I made her a sugar scrub that she absolutely adores; that makes me happy since giving fills me with more love than receiving.

Denise

I’m hoping you all had a wonderful week and your Valentine’s Day is as loving as you need it to be — whether you celebrate solo or with your tribe.  Talk to me in the comments, let me know how you’re celebrating your love day.  ❤

Happy New Year … Again …

Nicky15 Comments

I said “Happy New Year” then fell off the radar.   Work’s been taking up too much of my time but I’m remedying that.  I figure with today being Chinese New Year, it was a good day to  start again and catch  you up on what I’ve been working on and some of my plans for 2016.

The most important creative goal for me this year is to work without pressure or deadlines.  Last year saw a lot of things being made with intense deadlines,  many of the items not posted on the blog or IG because it was pretty much “deadline, make, sent, repeat”.   While I do have some commitments this year, the pressure is not so intense; when I tell you that I’ve even stepped away from the Harry Potter Ravelry games, know that I’m serious about just enjoying making — just because.   I’m even going to add #thejoyofmaking hashtag to my projects on IG from today to celebrate my way of slow making this year.

Since I started crafting, most years I’ve had a yearlong project; in 2016 my project is going to be a fiber breed study.  Initially I was going to do it for three months but all the reading I’ve done encouraged a longer time-frame.  Of course, my obese fiber stash had 11 different types of fiber to choose from so I’m going to spin one braid per month and leave it either as a single or finish it with different plying techniques.  My basket is ready,  11 sweet fibers to spin and learn from, for the entire year.

Breed Study 2016

In the meantime, I’ve been working on a crochet blanket for my friend’s son.  I’m slogging through it now, but I’m determined not to put it on timeout.  I must finish it by the end of next weekend so I’ll be working on it hard this week.  I know … I said no deadlines but I’ve been working on this for much too long and I’m ready to finish it so I’m going to push myself … just a little harder.

J's Blanket

On a dare from my friend Elisa, I’ve also made  Youtube videos showing how I make rolags for spinning.  The videos are totally rough (absolutely no editing) but I had fun making them during the “snowmaggedon” blizzard we North Easterners had two weekends ago.   I’d post them but I’m going to condense the two videos into one and clean up the presentation.   As soon as I’m done, I’ll post the link here, but in the meantime, these are the rolags I made for that demonstration.    😀

I called the set “Blizzard”.  Appropriate don’t you think?

Blizzard

Then in preparation for my breed study, especially since I hadn’t spun for a few months due to my thumb injury, I got back in the saddle with what I thought was some random KnitPicks fiber, just to get a feel of the motions of spinning; it was like riding a bike.  I still have about 1.5 ozs of this practice fiber to finish but so far it’s been beautiful!

Back In The Saddle

Although it’s not part of the breed study, this fiber is definitely going to be a F.O. for 2016; it surpassed what I thought it was going to look like so I have to finish it.

I know you all have already come out the gate in January with your craft plans for the year so I’ll definitely be making my rounds to your blogs this week to see what you’ve all been up to so far for 2016.  Hope you all have been doing well and I can’t wait to start interacting with you in this space again!