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| I admit it, I'm a craft junkie... I
think it must be genetic since my mom hardly ever found anything creative that she wasn't willing to at least try.
She paints, draws, quilts, crochets, sculpts, writes, gardens, etc. etc. etc. (To quote the King of Siam). When I was little, there were hardly any
coffee cups with handles in our kitchen cabinets since she would pull one out to use in a project, which would mean breaking the handle off.
However,
if the handle didn't break off right, she'd shove the dud back in the cabinet and try again. We had a cat that would walk on her drying paintings
and track paint all over the house. Mom also got lots of A's on school projects... papier mache teeth for my brother Dan and my blue ribbon science fair entry in 6th grade. She had some interesting duds too, such as the papier mache alamo for Tom that shrunk because she used toilet paper instead of newspaper. Creativity in some stripe was not only encouraged, but almost required... and my brothers and I still exhibit that in some form or another to this day. Tom works in wood, Dan is a photographer & woodworker, Mark writes music, Matt writes stuff for his church& does video production, and I do many things. I draw a little, knit, spin & dye wool for yarn, cross-stitch, create stuff on the computer, do house stuff, wrote poetry, and do other stuff as it strikes my fancy. |
| My latest passion is for the fiber arts.
I bought a drop spindle and some wool roving over Labor Day weekend at the Bethel (MO) Sheep & Wool Festival.
My first efforts were pretty thick and uneven, but practice and a spinning wheel have refined my efforts greatly. I found my wheel on eBay after asking for one as a combined birthday/christmas gift. It's a Dutch off-brand that nobody has ever heard of. But it works, and that is my main concern. I have since spun my way through another nearly 2 pounds of wool roving... and made a scarf for myself and socks for my daughter from my efforts... |
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 | To the left is the scarf I created from nearly 300 yards of yarn that I first spun. Some was done on a drop spindle, the rest on the wheel. The thicker stuff (green) is my earlier spinning and the thinnest, most even stuff (purple) was my later spinning. I hand-dyed all the colors using Procion dyes from Dharma Trading in California... these dyes are usually used for tie-dye, but with a little salt and vineagar and simmering, they work great on wool. |  |
These are the socks that I created for Madie out of single plies that I dyed different colors and then combined. The yarn can be seen below. |
| This process of taking wool and
turning it into clothing is wonderfully rewarding. It also gives you an appreciation of what people had to do in the
old days to clothe themselves. I feel lucky to be able to do this for fun, entertainment & relaxation, rather than to survive.
I'm sure there was a rhythm to it... such as when to shear, spin, knit/weave, create clothing. Here are some steps in the process I go through to create yarn and clothes... |
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| First you need some fiber, like this prepared roving: | Then you need a wheel or drop spindle: | This is "predrafted" roving... pulled out thin, before actual spinning: | This is spun single, still on the bobbin... "singles" is the term for one-ply yarn. |
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| This is 2-ply yarn, already dyed: | The dyeing process is lots of fun too... and sometimes it takes creativity to get stuff done! | This is my first attempt at variegated yarn: | Two colors done, one more simmering: |
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| Mark holding the finished product!! |  |
| The next great adventure will be to see how this stuff knits up! | |
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Click here to see my finished yarns! Click here to see some projects I have completed or that are in progress. |
| If you would like some more information
on spinning & crafting, here are some links I really like: Joy of Handspinning Handspinning Elaine Benfatto's Urban Spinner Homepage Supplies can be ordered in many places on the web, including: Hill Creek Fiber Studio (my local shop) |
| (c) 2002, Jennifer L. Schmidt. |
| -Index- -Nexus- -Heart- -Yarns- -Nursing- -Projects- -Family- -Me- -PaperMaking- |