Spirited

I had my 30-something-th birthday this past week!

Unfortunately, I spent it nursing a cold. Reaching for some cough drops as I write this entry, actually. I have been popping them two at a time for the past two days. Ugh. In spite of that though, I had a great birthday! So great, I figured I would let you all in on a little secret project I have going on now…

But first, I have to show you my latest skeins.

These are my treasures from the fluff Laurel traded with me. They're so sunny! Much more my speed. Left to right, I made a 2-ply, a small chain-ply and I left the rest as singles.

Still having to adjust to my RB's Lazy Kate. But what was great about using the wheel this time was that even though I had something on each of its bobbins, I was able to borrow some bobbins from my Joy to finish this spin since the Joy's bobbins will work for the flyer on the RB as well. Now, the larger Joy bobbins won't be a great fit for plying on the RB Lazy Kate because the bases are so large. You would run into trouble trying to ply from more than one bobbin with the large Joy versions. But, otherwise, they work fine.

I spun on this wherever I found time during the move. I finished it up yesterday. There were a couple times where I was treadling so fast, my singles spun right on up into the orifice! There were other times where the tension was so tight, the singles snapped. I was a little rusty. With this milk fiber sometimes it would separate or break at a spot where both ends wouldn't fray so that I could add fluff to fluff (for non-spinners, you can't join spun to spun). But even that's fixable. I would get a little bit of unspun from the fiber supply, spin that onto the broken end from the orifice, spin it down to where I could then add the other broken end waiting, and like magic, it was like no break ever happened! I love spinning! It's so forgiving.

Well, back to my revelation. This one is a little different…brace yourself.

As I once wrote, everyone has their own way of dealing with pain. Apparently, I like building on old skills while learning new things. That's where this blog came from. I suppose lightning can always strike the same place twice, right?

Ta da!

What do you think?

Backstory here: I was an art student once. I had a lot of potential, but I also had a relationship and children that generally always came before that somehow. At one point in time, due to the nature of the relationship, I realized I had to give up one for the other. Probably shouldn't have happened that way, so I don't recommend that for all of you out there. In supportive atmospheres, there's room for everyone to grow. Always remember that. Nevertheless, now, minus the marriage, I find I have more time and more energy to put into that dream I buried.

Did you know some gardeners and dyers keep notebooks? It's true. Carol and Linda do (OMG, do they!). Even spinners do. Generally, a good rule of thumb is, if you're serious about something, you take notes. For awhile now, I have been keeping a sketchbook. It started while teaching art last year. I used to keep a sketchbook when I was a student all the time. Having to do demonstrations for my students brought back the itch to do my own projects again. With all that was going on, I would often just pull it out-if only for fifteen minutes. It didn't matter, as long as I did something. And although I consider it wholly separate from my spinning and knitting, I find some of these things tend to overlap in unsuspected ways.

I have been teaching myself watercolor with some prior knowledge of painting, some online vids, and some kindle books. This past week, I figured, I might take some artistic notes on handspinning using watercolor as a medium.

These sketches make my spindle spinning go a little slower than I ordinarily like, lol. But, it's all in fun.

The spindle is my Birdseye Maple Bosworth Midi spindle that you see in the leading photo. The wood is pretty distinctive, as all Bosworth's are. This paper doesn't allow a lot of re-working, but I think I captured something of it.

I'm learning that I may not have been the kind of artist that approaches galleries to put up my work. Although I have shown and sold in gallery settings before, it was for reasons like I was a student and it was part of the grad process…or I was part of staff that had to have an annual show…or it was at another's request. It just never felt like me though. Maybe I never got to the n-th time when it wouldn't feel like I was the only one at the show in nothing but my undies. But, I am learning I am a spirited sort. :) I don't give up easily and I love showing work…just in a different kind of way right now.

Here's one thing that I found can be done with these drawings.

Postcards! Yes, postcards, posters, prints, t-shirts, mugs, books, etc. I'm working the kinks out of this little number, and I intend to add a couple more drawings to this before I'm done with it. I'm hoping to use this as part of a blog giveaway when I hit my 500th subscriber any second now…(thanks everyone!). If you like, you can follow my progress on this project and my quest to pursue a dream here (apparently, I start blogs too, lol).

But, I'm finding my way back into living life like I want to…and I like it!