Selfish Stitching

I have, to a certain extent, turned my hobby into a job. It's certainly not my full-time job, but it does have responsibilities and deadlines, etc. that knitting for oneself just doesn't has.

The danger of turning one's hobby into a job is losing the joy you had in that activity in the first place. Burn out for artists is nothing new, and it's nothing new to me. I watched myself go through it with theatre and it wasn't something I wanted to go through again with knitting. 

In the past six months, I have been working more intensely on my knit design work than I have since I started doing it back in 2010. It's been exciting and challenging, and at times frustrating. But the thing that has kept me grounded is selfish-stitching. Doing something just because I want to, with no deadline at the end of it, no need to sell anything, has been imperative. It doesn't even have to be something for me (for example, I knit Mr. Cleaver a pair of socks), it just has to be something I want (not need) to do. 

When I started selfish-stitching, I had thought to limit it to Sundays, but my methodology has shifted somewhat. It's now more about when I need it, or there's a found moment, rather than anything scheduled. Little moments of joy sprinkled throughout my week.

You can see the joyful fruit of my labors above. A beautiful embroidery of encouraging words stitched, in part, with my daughter; simple socks for a grateful recipient; less simple socks for me; a project bag in a fabric that always makes me smile; and a teeny tiny skein of yarn, spun just to feel fiber between my fingers. Things both useful and purely decorative.

I'm proud of all the other things I'm working on, the things I can't show you yet. They've expanded my skills as a knitter and a designer. They are beautiful and I can't wait to share them. Each one of my designs holds a special place in my heart, but each one of these little "just because" projects does too. 

Maine Fiber Frolic

Since I was either hip-holding or hand-holding a toddler for the majority of my time there, I didn't get many photos of this year's Maine Fiber Frolic, but I did have a great time. It's been a few years since I've been up to the Windsor Fairgrounds, (blog says 2012!) but it seemed like high time to return. 

I spent several days talking up the sheep and bunnies to Little Miss Cleaver and then picked up a few from my knitting group and we were on our way. The car ride was just long enough to have some good conversations about knitting and wardrobes and work and plans and lupine season in Maine always makes the highways so pretty. 

Doing anything with a small child is about expectations, so I knew that this visit would be pretty animal-centric. In any case, as I hardly need anymore yarn at the moment, my shopping list was brief. Bunnies were petted, and alpacas visited. I picked up a pretty shawl stick and some perfectly-matched vintage buttons for an upcoming sweater, ate a gyro and some fries and called myself content. That I got pie at the A-1 Diner and did some card-handing out/networking with local dyers/yarnies, was an excellent bonus.  

One of my favorite things about these types of events is seeing just how many crafters there are, and the variety of things they love. From the woman who weave masks, to the felters and rug hookers and spinners and knitters, there's a place for all. 

Did you make it up to the Fiber Frolic this year, or is there a great fiber festival in your area? 

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Rhinebeck Roundup

Sot it's been several weeks since Rhinebeck but I've finally got my act together to put pen to paper (as it were). The trip as a whole was a bit of mixed bag because of some hotel troubles, but the Festival itself, along with the excellent company, made it an overall win in my book.

We headed out early Friday morning to take a detour to Northampton and WEBS, and everyone managed to pick up copious amounts of yarn - even me! I got enough yarn to make myself a Wispy Cardigan, a Porom Hat, and a bag of worsted weight tweed for a Mr. Cleaver sweater. At Rhinebeck itself, I limited myself to two skeins of FoxFire Cormo/Alpaca which will likely end up as these. When I will have time to knit all these things I don't know, but a girl can dream right?

In our hotel room we entertained ourselves by reading the "naughty bits" of romance novels out loud and chowing down on snacks.

On the first day of the festival, we all got a good laugh when Bristol got recognized as the Winnowing designer about five seconds after we got into the long line at the front gate. After that there was more shopping (I got a Jennie the Potter bowl and a sheepskin), some apple cider doughnuts, and chatting with friends and fellow designers we saw along the way. After we tuckered out at the Festival, we headed to Poughkeepsie and saw the Walkway over the Hudson.  While just three of us walked the whole length and back (which admittedly was probably more walking than I should have done after walking all day), the views were definitely worth.

On the second day of the Festival I took a "drafting methods" spinning class, along with Maggie and Bristol from Beth Smith, It was my first spinning class and I found it highly enjoyable and educational and would recommend Beth as a teacher. After our class, the whole gang got together to photograph our matching sheep heids, before hitting up a few more booths and heading home, suitcases full of yarn.

Just Spinning Along

I did get that spinning wheel of my own, and am loving it!

Also, contented pooch:

Be back with more substantial posts soon!

Skirting Party

This weekend Lynn held a skirting party at her place to process a lovely fleece she had purchased at the Maine Fiber Frolic about a month ago.

As usual Bristol was our resident expert on this kind of thing, but the fleece was clean there was about 2 minutes worth of "skirting" or picking off the icky bits, so we instead turned our attentions to Tour de Fleece spinning and eating the fabulous potluck lunch. Lynn's dog Porter, turned his attention to rolling in the yummy smelling sheep water.

It was such a hot day that the washed fleece dried super quickly, and we were able to spin up a sample, and boy is it going to be a beauty!

The 4th in Four

I finished up so many projects in the past week, but haven't had the time to really photograph them. It's been a full week: Monday was Steinbeck's "Gotcha Day" - one year since we first brought him home, Tuesday was Mr. Cleaver's birthday and we enjoyed stuffed deep dish pizza straight from Giordano's in Chicago. On the fourth, Mother Nature outdid any fireworks with an intense thunderstorm, so we stayed inside and watched the last three episodes of Freaks and Geeks instead.

Yesterday, we took the day off and ran errands, bought a Johnny Cash CD, and checked out a bunch of comic books (the Runaways, where have you been all my life?) and the first season of Arrested Development from the library. In the interim, I've been chugging away at my tour de fleece spinning including the yellow lace-weight, which Mr. Cleaver termed "a lot of yarn." I finished my cookie-monster cardigan and I've been swatching like crazy for new projects. I even managed to sew on the bias binding on my second sorbetto.

I'm back to work today, but it's been a fun few days off. Even better, I'm just hours away from the weekend!

Can I keep it*??

Look what followed me home this weekend:

A nice little Lendrum wheel.

Now, I didn't buy it, it's a rental, but we've already had a very productive relationship in the five days we've known each other.

I think I may be in love.

*As this particular wheel belongs to someone, I can't actually keep it, but I'd happily take another in the same "breed"

Fiber Fun

I just wrapped up a two-week knitting hiatus, but that doesn't mean I didn't have fun with fiber in the interim, in fact you could say I was rather productive:

I spindle spun 6 oz of fiber, which included my hand-dyed fiber from last year's dying workshop, and half a braid I picked up at this year's Fiber Frolic.

I also pulled out a kit I purchased at Fiber Frolic 2011 and made a pair of needle-felted gnomes (though there is some debate as to whether the male gnome is holding a shovel or a spear -the intention was shovel).

I also did a major piece of sewing, but I'll save that for another post.

For now, it's back to working on my long-neglected cookie-monster cardigan.

Maine Fiber Frolic 2012

Last week I shipped off a hefty bit deadline knitting, breathed a big sigh of relief and decided to take a mini-break from knitting for the past week. In the interim, I've been doing a fair bit of spinning, just in time to enable a fresh batch of fiber purchases at the 2012 Maine Fiber Frolic.

While I didn't come home with a full fleece (though Lynn did!), I did pick up two hand-dyed 4 oz braids and sweater kit I regretted not picking up last year.

In addition to checking out the vendors, we chatted with the lady running the great wheel demo and snorgled (or got nibbled on by) some furry creatures.

After we got our fill of fiber, and just as the rain starting falling, we headed into Gardiner and stopped for desert and tea at the A-1 Diner.

Friends, fiber, and food - what more could a girl ask for??

All Spun Up

So I may have made negative progress on my Taos sweater this weekend, but I did finish spinning all my yarn for my sheep heid hat! I'm not 100% in love with the dark brown color, mostly because it and the black are the only dyed fibers and I feel like it sticks out like a sore thumb.

That said, I have a huge knitting backlog of projects to get through, so I probably won't get to knitting the hat itself for a while, so there's nothing to stop me from spinning up something else if I come across something I like.