Besides music, one of my biggest passions is anything relating to fibers. For me, that currently means spinning my own yarn and then knitting garments from that hand-spun yarn. My interest in wool started pretty early; when I was in second grade, my parents allowed me to obtain two Romney/s lambs for pets. At that age, I was convinced I would either be a farmer, a writer, or a veterinarian, and I was interested in farm animals (as well as all traditional living). Joey and Bes quickly made our lawn, and woods when they got out, their home. My dad and I built them a small barn, and it was always my dream to learn how to shear them by hand, wash and card the wool, and then spin it into yarn. Instead, we hired a shearer who did it in about a minute per sheep. Each year we sent the wool to Frankenmuth, Michigan where there is a woolen mill that over the years processed Joey and Bes’s wool into yarn, a wool blanket, and wool batting for comforters on all my family’s beds.

My Nana had taught me to knit when I was little, and a friend in college reminded me of the loops and twists. In return, I knit her a scarf. The traditional first-time-knitter’s project. I liked the feeling of creating fabric from yarn, and thus began my love affair with knitting. I knit many projects over the next few years including a sweater, more scarves, hats, and lots and lots of mittens.

I’m not sure what appeals to me so about mittens. Part of me is afraid of making up patterns, but with mittens I feel that I can go by feel a bit more than if I was trying to make up a sweater or something big like that. When I make mittens in this way, I have to remember to write down what I do on the first one, so I can repeat it on the second.

Last Christmas I received a beautiful Ashford spinning wheel for Christmas. Wow. That was perhaps the most useful and beautiful gift I have ever received. I got to work right away—I had also been given some chocolate colored Wensleydale roving (the carded wool that spinners use to make yarn). My first attempts were…interesting. It was later in a one-on-one lesson with a spinner in Howell, MI, that I learned about “pre-drafting??? which meant that you pull the fibers apart just a bit so that it’s easier to spin an even yarn.

Now I have a goal of only using my hand-spun yarn for knitting projects. I recently finished some sock yarn so that I can try my hand at knitting socks!
Fiber goals for the future include learning about natural dyes, weaving, and I am envisioning a giant wall hanging of birch bark and felted wool.