Sorry, I am so late today. Mom and Dad just left. This morning Mom and I hit some of the fabric stores around Plano since she wanted to make some curtains and start a new quilt. It really makes me wish that I could sew. It looks like such fun but I never figured it out. Mom gave me one of her old sewing machines years ago, but it has never worked well enough to actually attempt making anything on. Since I am not sure what I am doing I always assumed that the problem was with my ability. But then several years ago, Mom tried to sew something on it and she couldn't use it either. She ended up taking the fabric home, sewing it there and then bringing it back here for me.
Today at Hancock's, while Mom looked at fabric, I looked at the sewing machines. I could get a cheap one there and figure out this sewing thing. But I hate to do that when I have this big old sewing machine in a cabinet in my guest room just taking up space. At the cash register there was a flier for a guy who comes to the store 3 days a week and does tune-ups on sewing machines. So, I picked one up. When we got home I asked Dad to take my machine out of the cabinet for me and I am going to take it to Hancock's on Friday to see if this guy can fix it. If he can and I can figure out this sewing thing, maybe I'll have two hobbies that will take up time and cause me to spend countless dollars on supplies that can then pile up in my closets because let's face it, planning the project is always the most exciting part!
After Hancock's, we went to Joann's. While Mom waited for her fabric to be cut, I meandered over the the yarn section. Yarn is my Achilles heel. I can never pass a yarn section in any store without browsing. I love it! Be it, wool, acrylic, cotton, heavy weight, finger weight or sock yarn, I can always think of a project that I need yarn for. I began my passion for yarn years ago when I was transferred to Tyler for the shortest 6 months of my life. My cousin, Midge lives in Tyler and as soon as I found out I was moving there I contacted her. After my first or second day at work there she and I decided to meet for dinner. During dinner she said something about knitting and I think I said something to the effect of, "I have always wanted to learn to knit". Those were my famous last words. It was as though she had thrown a perfectly tied fly into the water and I immediately went for the bait. I was hooked and she never let go.
Within 6 months, not only was I knitting everything I could, but I was also learning to spin my own yarn out of raw fiber. Spinning is without a doubt the most soothing past time I can imagine. It is best if done on a cold winter day in front of a fire while wearing hand knitted socks while the cat sits by and watches. Doesn't that sound cozy? That's not how it happens at my house. At my house, I either have to sneak out onto the patio with the spinning wheel, lock myself away in the guest room or lock the cats up in my bedroom in order to spin. All of those involve constant meowing at the door while I attempt to spin. You see the problem is that cats have a natural attraction to wool which is the easiest and cheapest fiber to spin with. It is like catnip for my cats. When they get hold of it, they go nuts and you can't get it away from them. They want to eat it. But if they do, it will kill them since when wool gets hot and is agitated it felts. A cats digestive system like their body temperature is hot and agitates whatever is in it to facilitate digestion. So, wool is lethal to cats.
Those sweet little pictures you see of kittens playing with a ball of yarn aren't so sweet if the cat actually ingests any of the yarn. And my cats will eat it if given any opportunity. I have sat on the patio many times in the fall and spring spinning. It is really nice. But this time of year, that is not really much of an option. I used to try to wait until Jingle was sleeping and then try to sneak my spinning wheel downstairs, but he always caught onto me before I could even get started. I don't think I have even had the spinning wheel out since I got Shiner although he has gotten into some raw fiber in the garage before that made him pretty sick.
Now that my air conditioner is fixed, it is the perfect time of year to knit when it is too hot to do much outside. With the AC running, you can sit inside with whatever sweater or blanket you are working on piled up on top of you and knit away. I have yarn sitting in a closet that I have bought over the last few years along with patterns just waiting to be knitted into something wonderful. Maybe I will start something today. Perhaps that will distract me and keep me from doing anything about this sewing bug that bit me earlier today.
Knitting and spinning are great because they are very quiet hobbies. If you are knitting something simple that doesn't require much counting, it is perfect for doing while you talk to someone or watch TV. When I lived in Tyler and Midge was teaching me to knit, she would invite a group of her friends over every week and we would all sit in her family room with music playing drinking tea and knitting while we chatted. It was so much fun! When I did it, I always felt like a pioneer woman after the "young'uns" went to bed. I know it sounds pretty lame and boring. But it really is fun and it is so nice to talk to the variety of people that come together when knitting is involved. And don't even get me started on spinning. My cousin and her spinning guild in Tyler host a fiber retreat there every year. It takes place on a small lake and is called the Wildflower Fiber Retreat. I have been many times, although I haven't been once in the last 8 years.
At Wildflower, about 60 to 70 women gather for a weekend each spring and the weekend is filled with nothing but spinning, craft making, eating and talking. It is wonderful! People come from all over the US to attend and a few from Europe and Australia have been known to arrive. It starts on a Friday evening with check in which is followed by a pot luck dinner. The people from Texas (which is the majority of the group) usually bring a dish. There is a big lodge hall where all of the spinning and meals take place. I used to help out in the kitchen and only had to pay part of the fee for attending in exchange. After dinner on Friday, there is always a beginner spinning class for all of the newbies. The nice thing about spinning is it only takes a short time to learn and then the rest of your life to perfect. A new spinner's first yarn is always amazing because it is rough and has lots of knobs in it. It gives it character and regardless of what you end up making with it, you can always look back at the knobs and say, "this was my first homespun"! The funny thing is that after you have become a good spinner and go back and try to make a knobby yarn, it is hard to do!
All of the other spinners have the entire evening to do nothing but spin and catch up with people you haven't seen in a year or to meet new friends. I can remember many Friday nights at Wildflower when I was in the lodge spinning until 2 or 3 a.m. It is just so nice because there are no interruptions, and there is nothing else that needs to be done except spinning. One year, I was helping to set up a flax workshop for Saturday in a barn on Friday evening, (we were going to take raw flax and process it and then spin it into linen) when a storm came up. We had to run to the lodge through the pouring rain. Once we were inside, the electricity went out. Several of us ended up spinning in the lodge until well after midnight by flashlight. And we had the best time ever!
Saturday's are always workshop intensive. I think I would enjoy it best if I could just spin all day, but I know that most people really enjoy the workshops. I enjoy them too, but with my spinning time being so limited at home, I always just wanted to keep spinning. But I can tell you that I have learned many remarkable things at Wildflower on a Saturday. I have learned everything from different spinning and knitting techniques to soap making and pine needle weaving to go around the mouth of a gourd. The year that we did that flax workshop, we started by taking flax plants that had been cut and beating them to get the fiber out of the stalk, then we got it wet which increased the pulp of the fiber so that it could be spun and hung it to dry. Later we made distaffs for our spinning wheels since spinning flax require a distaff and finally we spun it into linen. I gave up sometime during the distaff making class. It was just too much for me. But I did develop a strong appreciation for our female ancestors who went through this on a regular basis in order to make fabric and then sew it into clothing. I can't imagine what life must have been like when you lived on a prairie somewhere and couldn't just run to the store and buy a new dress... or at least fabric to make a dress with!
Finally, Sunday there is one more workshop and at noon a final meal before everyone packs up and leaves for another year. I think for me one of the best parts of Wildflower was always seeing what everyone brought with them on Friday evening. People always came in with tubs of fiber, at least one wheel and sometimes multiple wheels, examples of some of the amazing things they had crafted in the last year, all different types of chairs, tables and lights to make their spinning experience optimal and usually an empty plastic tub or two. You see, vendors also come to Wildflower. Then on Sunday everyone packed up all of their tubs, wheels, chairs, etc. At this point the previously empty tubs were filled with newly purchased fiber, dyes and equipment that they could play with in the coming year. Sometimes, they would leave with more spinning wheels than they arrived with and many times as we left tears were shed since most of us wouldn't get see one another again for another year.
I still get the notice every year for Wildflower and I keep thinking that one of these years, I will shock Midge and everyone else and show up again. But until then, I'll probably just go get a sack of yarn out of the closet and start a new project. If any of you with daughters are interested Midge's group also hosts a Knitting Camp for girls each summer. I can get information to you if you let me know.
Have a great afternoon!
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