Organised?

Yesterday was a good day for spinning. It was cool and I had the whole day at home. I got three samples done--bulky worsted spinning and medium woollen. Both techniques that predictably were quicker than the fine worsted spinning which I'd attempted earlier in the week. Even so, it felt good to tick off three items on my list. I got as far as skeining up and washing the samples and left them to dry overnight.

That's all very well, but this morning I had the task of labelling and presenting the work I'd done yesterday:
Would you believe it's taken me the whole morning? I did have a couple of other samples to paste up and just finding all the stuff I need and a bit of space on the table was quite a task in itself, but still, I'd hoped to be further along by now. On the other hand I've learned my lesson and don't want to be repeating work because I failed to get it organised properly. OK, the clock's just about to tick over to midday, I have a fair bit of the afternoon set aside for spinning. I think I can manage to stay organised and keep making progress . . . I think I can . . . I think I can . . .

Uh Oh!

I declared in yesterday's post that my next task was to sort the Spinning Certificate box. This big box of spinning stuff had been lurking under my weaving bench. In it were a variety of fleece samples, skeins and swatches from the early months of the Spinning Certificate course. Problem: like most neglected piles of stuff it had become a bit of a monster in my mind.

Well, I tackled the box. Here's some of what I found: The good news: a lot of the bags and skeins were nicely labelled. I can tick those straight off my list of requirements.

The bad news: there are a couple of skeins there of lovely spinning that I didn't label at the time. I can just imagine that after working on them for hours I would have been so familiar with the work, that the thought of ever confusing it with anything else was incredible. Incredible, but true! I had no idea at the time how the skeins would multiply over the months until one day's work is hard to recall amongst the many days of concentrated spinning I've done over the year. After doing a bit of detective work: matching fleece samples and skeins; I think I've come pretty close to identifying most of what's there. Some of it I'll have to just write off or use for sampling. Uh Oh!

Today's going to be another scorcher. Thankfully it cooled down enough overnight that I've been able to enjoy a couple of hours of knitting this morning. This afternoon I'm planning to retreat to the Brunswick Library. It's in the old Town Hall building, with great thick stone walls. I'm hoping they do a good job of keeping out the heat. The library doesn't open until 1.00 pm. Between now and then, I'm going to tackle the pile of stuff that came out of the box. I'd like to get as much of it as I can into it's final state for presentation. Then I can tuck it away safely and reclaim my big table.

Oh, So Soft; Oh, So Scientific!

My professional background is in medical science--among other things--that's a long story. Now as a textile artist, I love to experiment--and play. In the textile field, sampling is a great way of trying out ideas, techniques and materials. "Sample, sample, sample! is a textile art mantra, so I'm right at home there. I do sometimes drive my friends and collegues nuts, though, with my desire to change just one variable at a time, and label my results.

So, one of the things I'm looking forward to in this Spinning Certificate at the Guild, is the satisfaction of developing a folio full of labelled samples. Here is the first one: This is the worsted spinning sample from last week's class--knitted up, labelled and ready to go. And it was such a pleasure to work with beautiful soft wool, rather than some of the nasties I've encountered in the medical field.