learning to ply
I finally figured out how to do a 3 ply without doing the navaho ply. Yeah, I am that much of a dork that I just didn't think how to do it. It is a matter of not seeing the forest for the trees. I transferred two brown singles onto the two bobbins that I have for my norwegian and left the white singles on the kromski bobbin. Then I proceded to ply. Voila! Ragwool yarn.
Oh, and the most annoying thing. I hadn't touched my wheel since Wednesday when I came home from guild. Tonight I notice that the drive wheel on my Kromski is warped a little. Or more specifically, the axle seems to be out of kilter and wobbly. After guild it lost a leg while I was walking out, so I was re-adjusting my grip in order to bend over and pick up the lost leg and I dropped the whole wheel on the floor. The clunk was so loud that everyone thought I was the one who fell. I looked and thought nothing was damaged so I just marched on out to the car. Now tonight the pegs that hold the wheel steady were popping out constantly while I was plying. Grrr... I sat down to have some quality time with the treadles and noticed that the axle was wobbling. Maybe just dry air from the A/C running all the time. It needs a good coat of Wood Beams (I restocked last weekend) and should be good as new. Too bad there's not a good spinning wheel doctor near by.
I managed to get one more box of kitchen stuff unpacked and looked through some of my old crafy stuff with an eye to get rid of some of it. I have tons of embroidery floss that I have not touched in about 5 years. Maybe longer. I used to be as obsessed about embroidery as I currently am about knitting and spinning.
Now I want to weigh in about the art yarn thing for a moment. I am seriously of two minds about this. Well, no that is not true, but bear with me. (I can't believe I am saying anything at all).
I have recognized quite some time ago that art yarn does nothing for me. Some of the less outrageous stuff I could see woven into a tapestry (like I need a new hobby), but much of it I just don't see the point. That's why it's art yarn. I had this excersize not too long ago where I had to explain to my dear dear boyfriend what exactly the point of art is. The explanation that seemed to make the most sense to him was "art is an expression or interpretation of an idea, you might not have the same understanding of that idea as the artist, but it is the artist's viewpoint expressed and given form" That may be music, piercing, oil painting, water colors, sculpture, tatoos, and yes, yarn.
I am an artist. I create for pleasure. I love to make things and give them away. I also create to help process my deepest feelings, those that I have not found a way to express or process otherwise. If anybody else understands what it is that I create and why then we have a rare connection that I cherish. If you don't "get" my art, then well, you don't get it. That's just fine. My guy looked at the original drawing that is represented in my icon above and he understood immediately what I was feeling at the time. That is just really cool, especially from one who claims not to "get" art at all.