Getting to Here: My Fiber Arts Journey
Art has always been in my veins. I took amazing courses in ceramics, metal working and photography in high school. If I’m honest, I think I initially hoped I would go to college for art. The scholarship money however led me to Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA where I ended up majoring in Astrophysics (yes you read that right). Little did I know, my fiber journey was beginning. I was lucky to be placed with with the best 1st year roommate anyone could hope to have. All these years later, Catherine and I are still close. Our first fall living together, we were preparing to go see the opening of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Wanting to truly geek out for the opening, a group of us decided to knit Gryffindor scarves. Lucky for me, Catherine knew how to knit. She really was a great teacher, but like ALL first time knitting projects, it was rough going. I set it aside because I wanted my Gryffindor scarf to be great and tried using a fuzzy blue acrylic art yarn to make a scarf. As you can imagine, that was a crazy mistake filled with dropped stitches and random increases and decreases all over the place. But I was proud of my muppetesque looking scarf and wore it around campus. My Gryffindor scarf didn’t get finished till after the opening and it was HUGE (like floor length) and had one ridge where I confused the stockinette stitch rows.
Throughout college, I had random projects: knitting baby socks randomly, making a full knit Where’s Waldo costume for a boyfriend (who later fell victim to the boyfriend knit sweater curse), random eyelash yarn scarves (because that was all the rage). Despite all these things, I never felt like an accomplished knitter. I could knit and purl and make ribbing, but following patterns was hard for me and interesting stitches were just out of the question.
Duck, my first knitting toy has been well loved by my daughter for 9 years. Brack the brachiosaurus was my first crocheted toy and has been well loved by my son for almost 7 years. On the back of the chair, you can see my first crocheted blanket, a granny square for my daughter.
Fast forward a few years and I wanted to knit some things for my first born. I got brave and bought a book on knitting stuffed animals and knit her a toy duck. It wasn’t until my daughter was toddling around and I was pregnant with my 2nd that I realized that for me, knitting and babies don’t mix. I had a baby cardigan on the needles and my little girl yanked the project off the needles and stumbled into the kitchen to give me my needles. Like any normal mom, I freaked out and put my knitting needles away. Lucky for me, my mother-in-law’s good friend, Cindy, knew how to crochet and offered to teach me. One hook that I could put away and only one loop being worked at a time seemed safer. I crocheted my daughter a blanket and made booties, mitts and a hat and toy dino for my brand new son and I was off to the crochet races for the next 4 years.
My daughter seen here with a 1lb 8.7 oz pineapple tomato we grew. It was DELISH!
Before spinning comes into the picture, I became deeply interested in teaching my kids to garden so that they could understand that food comes from someone’s hard work and doesn’t just magically appear in grocery stores. I started squarefoot gardening and blogging at https://lovinglygrown.wordpress.com/. That is where the name for this journey began. I wanted to offer healthy food, affordably and sustainably to my family, the people I love most. I wanted to start creating a smaller waste footprint for our family and teach my kids to be good stewards of the earth. This idea of wanting to do more for ourselves made me dive deep into the study of homesteading. As I suddenly had 2 mobile children in an urban neighborhood and no fence to keep them with me at the time, my gardens and that blog did fall by the wayside. However, my desire to work towards homesteading, generating less waste and making more things for ourselves, did not.
In Fall of 2017, my friend April shared a picture of her spinning wheel. I was awestruck by this skill she had. Furthermore, I wanted to start working with higher quality natural fibers … but the price tags, while I fully understand, was unapproachable to me. A shawl or sweater that started by costing me $150-250 in yarn was flat out! The idea of making yarn affordably really appealed to me. April showed me what a drop spindle was and helped me find DIY videos for making one. She even went so far as to send me a gorgeous bag of white wool and an art batt from Hobbledehoy. A quick trip to the craft store to grab a dowel, a cup hook screw, and a wooden toy wheel and I was off to spin. As all my first time fiber crafts, it was a hot mess. So I set it aside for a few months. Around May of 2018, I was ready to try again. My husband got me a lovely wooden turkish spindle from ScottsMountainCrafts and some beautiful natural wools from BeesyBee, both on Etsy. This time was VERY different. In fact, I finally realized how much I could learn about spinning and knitting and crochet on YouTube. Now, the addiction was real! Starting in September of 2018, I spun and knit the wool for 10 Christmas presents (7 hats, 1 pair of fingerless mitts and 2 cowls). My family was so aware of my passion that they all pitched in and got me a Spinolution Pollywog for my Christmas present.
Between September 2018-January 2019, I spindle spun and knit nearly 36 oz of wool for presents for my family.
So now, it’s 2019. I’m fully addicted to spinning and feel so much pride when I create a finished product with my own yarn. My children are old enough to start learning to knit themselves. I’ve joined a local spinning guild called the Peachtree Handspinners Guild. I’m working on having a community with my crafts, something which I had never done before. Earlier this year, because of working on finding that fiber community, I came across the Livestock Conservancy’s program, Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em. This program brings awareness to sheep breeds who are in various states of becoming endangered species. It instantly rekindles my homesteading urges and desire to do better for our environment and all the creatures in it. SE2SE combined with my own gardening days draws me to want support small scale farmers and shepherds and mill owners that are striving to keep the wool industry diverse and thriving in America. I’m passionate about helping others learn about all the many different wools out there, especially sheep breeds that are endangered or a breed that come from America.
My Spinolution Pollywog.
So my desire for art in my life came back to me. My science education makes me passionate about studying all the depths of layers to the fiber arts. Spinning, knitting and crochet bring me peace and keep me connected to my dream of fully homesteading one day. For now, I keep on creating and growing myself as a fiber artist, openly sharing my knowledge and connecting with the great people who love this craft as much as I do.
How did your fiber journey start? Let me know what got you started in the comments below!