This is Platinum in its raw state. It is fantastically beautiful…. marled and imperfectly beautiful.

Here is my Platinum. This is a 50% superwash merino/ 50% tencel blend. It is a DREAM to spin.

It looks just like those beautiful brushed platinum men’s wedding bands. It spins like liquid metal right out of your fingers. I am in love…. this fiber is BY FAR my new favorite. Hands down. Just for the shimmer… the lights and darks drift in and out in subtle shifts. I am mesmerized. Completely enamoured…. sigh…..

Hey Cruisers and Future Cruisers!

There are only 12 spots left on the cruise. That’s it. 12 and gone! Go see Patricia today and get yours! 200.00 reserves your cabin. C’mon…. you know you wanna come! There will be workshops. Shore excursions, SNB’s with all of us (we are close to 75 knitters!)… and did you see the swag list. Yup… you GET STUFF for coming.

GO.GET.YOUR.RESERVATION.TODAY!

The last foray of dyeing produced a new colorway named Flora. I tend to think in terms of pictures… and there is this marshy spot on my uncle’s property in Maine. It was early afternoon with the sun peeking through the trees…. I spent hours there with my two friends sketching and thinking… and that picture has not faded from my memory in 12 years.

Meet Flora….

Here she is in the early stages of being single.

Here she is with her twin single.

Plied together … all 4 oz of her.

In her finished state….

A close up…

This is the first handspun that I am truly proud of. It is between DK and worsted (depending on where you look at it!) and is 4 oz. There was no waste.

I love long weekends. I started spinning her on Sunday and finished her tonight (these pictures are pre- setting the twist). She is hanging with a little weight on her as we speak. I feel like I truly did some things right. I split the roving lengthwise in quarters… took my time with the draft and preparation. I know that I still have a long way to go in learning the craft… but this is the first effort worthy of becoming a finished knit piece.

The flora colorway has made it into the C*EYE*BER Sock line.

This is a handwash. I am sure that a superwash would be a little more vibrant. I am thinking she will become a laceweight too…. and…I think she is here to stay.

Tonight was the Baltimore Spinners group at my LYS. What a great night and a great group of spinners. I love learning from you all…. and yes… me and the long draw are trying to come to terms with each other.

I am pleased to announce that CLOVERHILL YARNS is carrying C*EYE*BER FIBER Sock and Roving. I dropped of 20 skeins tonight (including a Cloverhill signature) and 11- 4oz bundles of fiber. Go check them out of you are local.

PIF is in motion…. some have found their merry way to their intended recipients…. if you got one… go map yourself and start thinking of your intended (s)….

Pictures of spinning tomorrow… promise! Maybe zoo pictures too…

Oh! 4 open spaces in the Fall Sock Club….

My dearest friend Fiona,

I am so very touched by the gift that you and Amie sent to Me and Mama-E.

I feel the need to paraphrase the card enclosed in the gift:

Joy,

When I came to live with Amie, someone sent a huge box of new fibers so we could play together. To “pay it forward”, she and I are giving you:

• blue Ashland Bay wool
• natural linen
• beige cotton
• white Suri Alpaca
• Brown QIVIUT

Love,

Fiona

OH, FIONA! I am so incredibly honored to receive such a generous gift. The time we spend together will benefit Mama-E’s spinning skills, and more importantly, her spirit.

Fiona, even though we have not known each other long, we are kindred in spirit. I promise that I will pay this kindness forward many, many times in honor of our friendship and in honor of keeping the craft alive and well.

Much love and friendship!

Namaste,

Wendy Joy

PS:

Mama-E chimes in… this week…. knitters and spinners… in honor of the craft and the teachers…lets “PAY IT FORWARD”. I want you to randomly select someone in your cyber-fiber village and send them some fiber love. Bust a piece of your stash and mail it off to someone with a kind note.

I will…. and you never know…. you might be getting something from me. Leave me a comment when you do….. I want to see the ripples in the water.

Let the kindness commence!

PPS:

Love you Spin Diva!

I am here… in the midst of my work/home/fiber lives and managing the fallout from trading worktime for nursing the cowboy back to health. (He is fine.. just a nasty stomach bug hit him hard for the better portion of last week.)

Whatever time that I have had away from the offspring this week was dedicated to soothing my nerves with spinning/dyeing/knitting.

At the beginning of the week, the day I picked Wendy up (her name is Wendy… like BOB and Wendy… I asked the cowboy what her name should be and WENDY it is.)…

So the day that I picked Wendy up I got some pretty sad news about the person who taught me how to spin. She is ill… very ill…. and it startled me so. I went and sat down with Wendy and tried to work out some of my feelings about this.

As I spun I started to realize how amazing this gift is.

I joke around about my addiction to fiber. I know that I am weak when I see unspun fiber, or that perfect colourway, or the new book that just blows my mind.

For me, this fiber thing has gone way, way deeper and struck a chord on the strings of my soul. I realized, in my ever-present and obsessive brain, that the fiber is a representation of a connection between humanness and art. I realized that every time I take a class or teach a class… I am keeping the gift alive. When I meet with my knitting group, my friends, I know that they are my kind. They share the gift and the passion for fiber that I have. With every stitch, or draft as that may be, we unravel our historys and our lives while ooh-ing and ahh-ing over each other’s current WIP’s. We offer each other that haven where you can just be. The pressures and woes of our lives are suspended for a brief period of time by escaping into the fiber.

I have realized, like the millions that have come before me, I have now taken on her legacy and am responsible for her wellbeing.

The cowboy has crawled up on my lap a couple times this week when I was sneaking in some spare moments with Wendy. He holds the fiber a few inches from Wendy’s oraface and lets it go on to the bobbin. Excitedly he exclaims ” I LIKE it! I LIKE it!” I can’t discourage this behavior. I am hoping he wants to learn to spin. Selfishly, I realize, he is a huge part of my legacy and I want him to cherish this gift as much as I do. I think, by the way he tends to gravitate to every fiber tool I have ( it helps that all of my tools are so cool looking to an almost 3 year-old) he has it.

So, this week, it is inevitable that I think of my teacher when I am spinning. The spinning has become my prayer for a fellow fiber artist. A prayer if thanks for the craft. Thanks for first unlocking the mysteries of spinning and the history (herstory?) of the fiber arts to me. A prayer for peace and rest and recovery.

If you happen to be at your wheel/spindle/knitting this week and you think about this post or your connection to the fiber arts… maybe you could think about my teacher and send her some positive thoughts/prayers. She sure could use them.

(EDIT: July 18th, 2006 Sadly, Jane passed away on Friday morning. Maybe… thiose spinning/knitting thoughts could be passed on to her family…. beacuse they sure could use them now.)
Thanks friends. I mean that in the most heartfelt of ways. Namaste.