A Fabulous Fiber Year

Coming to the end of the year there are always a ton of wrap-ups, count downs and lists. Lots of lists. Since it’s the thing to do, I thought I would do one myself.

This has been a year of spinning for me. I’ve done more spinning this year than all the other years previous put together. Of course, the biggest reason for that was the acquisition of my beautiful Kromski Minstrel spinning wheel.

Not long after I got my wheel on the road, there was a cotton spinning workshop put on by the Prairie Weavers Guild. A whole weekend of spinning almost every possible variety of cotton. It was a fantastic weekend. Not long after that there was another spinning weekend, this time sponsored and hosted by the New Salem Fiber Guild out at Lincoln’s New Salem. Again, a fantastic weekend with a bunch of history thrown in.

So, with all of this spinning, I’ve experimented with more fibers than I even knew existed a few years ago. Here’s my list of fibers I’ve spun this year:

• Cotton
  * seed
  * acala
  * pima
  * naturally colored
  * SuPima
• Mohair
• Camel
• Yak/merino
• Merino
• Border Leicester
• Blue-faced Leicester
• Navajo-Churro
• Silk hankies
• Silk roving
• Lincoln/Corriedale
• Generic wool
• Alpaca
• Llama
• Shetland
• Coopworth
• Alpaca/wool
• Angora
• Angora/Camel
• Alpaca/silk/merino

Now, what for next year.  There are some fibers that I haven't yet tried, like linen, soy and raimie, but I think what I'm going to focus on is gaining proficiency in various drafting styles and experimenting more with twist and plying techniques.  There's a lot still to learn but I feel very satisfied with the progress made this year.  It's fulfilling a long-held dream to become a Spinner.  It doesn't get better than that.

Amish Afghan Progress

The Amish Center Diamond Quilt afghan is really starting to come to life.  It's amazing how color combinations bring out a design.  Here's a photo of it with the first short border of chocolate brown garter stitch.

The darker color is going to frame this nicely, I think.  There will also be a small diamond-shaped motif that will be added to the middle of the white diamond.  It's certainly going to be big enough!