I have not done any art yarn spinning in months. Seriously…months. And it is not that I do not love making yarn, I just got distracted with more profitable areas of my business. But ironically it is my handspan that I felt truly expressed my art the most. I am finalizing details of an exciting workshop that I am teaching early 2016 (details coming soon, I promise). So getting back in touch with this part of my work is even more important.

Dusting off the wheel, puling out the languishing braids of roving, I decided to start with just a simple 2 ply yarn. Nothing fancy, just a warm up with one of my favorite yarns to spin. I love watching the colors change inch by inch as I spin a single. And the barber polling as I ply? I am in the LOVE IT camp.

As I sat down, I realized just how rusty I am. Not with the muscle memory of  spinning a yarn, but the outright uncertainty of my color choices was surprising. If you know my work, I am pretty bold with my colors. But spinning yarn? Why am I feeling “meh” about my colors?

I remember when I was first spinning art yarn. I was in the zone, cranking out new yarns, so many ideas. I was fearlessly making the mistakes and finding all my favorite techniques. That is where I want to be as I reemerge with my yarn spinning. The creative zone.

My articles normally have some definitive steps and secrets for you. But this week I am sharing my hopes and plans.

Get okay with making the mistakes.

I have written a lot about this here and here. It is not easy to make the mistakes. But some of my more brilliant ideas were born out of big mistakes, so this step is huge. Like put a post-it note on my wheel huge.

Start exactly where I am.

And that may be with some ugly yarn. I have a huge stash of languishing rovings and fiber bits. I have no need to make more. Some of my best work involved limiting myself to what I have on hand.

Consistancy. Make that body of work.

Another thing I have written about a good bit. Just doing the work. Showing up consistently, diving deep into making a lot of the same thing, tweeting tiny bits until my heart sings.

Art Journaling.

I am guilty of letting my journal practice lapse the last few months. I like using my journal to keep my daily creative practice fresh is very small simple baby steps. So I have my space ready to go.

And finally, do some much needed wheel maintenance.

I suppose this is something I should do more regularly. And because I don’t right now my main wheel is super wobbly and needs a bit of rehab. It has truly been one of the main things that keeps me from doing the work. So, it is super important to nip that excuse in the bud.

Do have a practice you are wanting to come back to?

Lace knitting? Socks? Spinning? Leave me a comment below, post it on the Facebook page or shoot me an email