#Spinning & Weaving

[anxiousangerball]

I don't know who needs to hear this, but

YOU DO NOT NEED TO START A NEW HOBBY!

STEP AWAY FROM THE TEXTILES!

YOU DON'T NEED MORE YARN!

THAT FABRIC IS NOT CALLING TO YOU! LEAVE IT ALONE!

[butchersmiles]

not to sound corny but the textile arts make me feel connected to the world around me. it's so intentional and deliberate and when i sit and do it, i think a lot about how many other women that came before me used to do it, how many hands have used the same supplies i am using, and how many other people might be doing the same thing as me all across the world right now

[saja-star]

One of the things I like about spinning is that it feels like looking closely. Take a t-shirt from your closet. Look closely. It's probably knitted. You can see the tiny chevrons. You can see the way those interlocking loops stretch when you pull on the fabric. Look closer. Each chevron is made up of fine thread. Look closer. You probably can't even see this level of detail, but each thread is plied from finer strands. Look closer (you would need a microscope). Each strand is twisted from smaller fibers. When I spin, this recursive structure becomes obvious. Each level of structure its own long, slow stage of creation. I work from part to whole. Fiber, spun into a single, plied into a yarn, knitted into a fabric. Now when I'm lying in bed in the morning, I look closely at where the light catches the individual threads in my pillowcase, and instead of a shape, I see a structure.

[rathenarts]

A poll, because I'm curious to know if I'm alone in my feelings about all these colourful artisan yarns I keep seeing posted on here:

(Note, this is specifically about projects where you're picking the yarn to your own taste, not gifts or commissions where you're constrained by what the eventual recipient would like! I'm interested in your personal feelings in particular.)

[homesweetgoodneighbor]

Alright, my babies, as it is now officially October, it is not only Halloween month, but it is the start of the annual FIBER ARTS FRENZY, A time when we fiber artists have to officially acknowledge the holidays have just hitched a ride on the Spaceball 1 and is coming at us at Ludicrous Speed. (If you don't get the reference your parents did not raise you right, and you have my sympathies.)

And, when I say holidays, I mean ALL of them. Why so many cultures and religions were so inconsiderate as to bunch them all up at the same time of year so we fiber artists have to scramble, wail, and curse the heavens, I'll never know.

At least we have each other.

So, to my fellow fiber artists I say: Y'ALL START YOUR ENGINES.

To the people in fiber artists' lives during this frantic time: You best have comfort, understanding, support, and a sturdy sense of survival ready, because your loved one is about to try to Make All The Things.

[speedwagons-glorious-mane]

PSA for all the people who have a pet Fibre Artist, whether you have a Knitter, a Crocheter or perhaps one of the more rare breeds like Spinners and Lace-Makers, make sure that they take frequent breaks from their craft by playing with them and taking them on walks since Fibre Artists are prone to giving themselves RSIs and Carpal Tunnel when left to their own devices for too long!

[thesilicontribesman]

Iron Age Crafts And Trade, The Scottish Crannog Centre, Loch Tay, Scotland

[sunshineandrosesnoraincamemyway]

thinking today about how much I love literally all fiber arts. I am hopeless at almost every other kind of art, but as soon as there is thread, yarn, or string I can figure it out fairly quickly.

I learned how to knit when i was eight, started sewing at nine, my dad taught me rock climbing knots around that age, I figured out from a book how to make friendship bracelets, I've made my own drop spindle to make yarn with, and more recently I've picked up visible mending. I've learned embroidery through fixing my overalls, and this year I've learned how to darn and how to do sashiko (which I did for the first time today). After years of being unable to crochet I finally figured it out last night and made seven granny squares in just a few hours.

I want to learn every fiber art that I can. I want to quilt, I want to use a spinning wheel, I want to weave, I want to learn tatting, I want to learn how to weave a basket, I want to learn them all. If I could travel through time and meet anyone in the Bible, high on my list are the craftsmen who made the Tabernacle.

I want to travel the world and learn the fiber arts of every culture, from the gorgeous Mayan weaving in Guatemala, to the stunning batik of Java, to Kente in Ghana. I want to sit at the feet of experienced men and women and watch them do their craft expertly and learn from them.

Of every art form I've seen, it's fiber arts that tug most at my heartstrings.

[their-we-go]

Tri-coloured scarf woven on a rigid heddle loom from yarn I spun myself. This took around three weeks of work start to finish, and I couldn’t be happier with the result :-)

[leafatlaw]

Belonging, Being, and Bugs, a Rolan Deep webweave

JRWI Blood in the Bayou, Epsiode 3 // Quora response // Shinya Arimoto: Tokyo Debugger (2019) // The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, T. S Elliot // Rolan Deep by @s0up1ta // Tumblr post by @/adrenoceptor // JRWI Blood in the Bayou, Episode 3 // Unknown // Richard Silken, A Portrait of Fryderyk // The Illawarra Flame // The Magnus Archives, Episode 78, Cicada Life Cycle, Purdue University // Grandmas House, Body // The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka // Marlena, Julia Bunton // JRWI Blood in the Bayou, Episode 4

[milkweedman]

Saw a post where someone talked about only having one project going at a time, and it baffled me--I always have like 3-5 projects going at any given time with no problem. So I'm curious:

[crookedtines]

Just finished spinning my first little skein of Rambouillet! It's a completely different beast than Corriedale. It's so bouncy, spongy, and soft. You can see the Rambouillet and Corriedale side by side in what I decided is their ideal form.

The Corriedale (white) is itchy scratchy but spins very nicely into fine yarn. This is about as fine as I can easily go with my spindle, but I have a lighter spindle on the way! The ideal use case is a finely woven band/ribbon. To be dyed as needed.

The Rambouillet (green and white) is just screaming knitting yarn. I gave it my first attempt at chain plying and love the result. It looks like yarn! Like the yarn I've been buying since I was a kid! So cool. Guess I gotta (re)learn how to knit now.

[geese-in-flight]

Happy Pride!

[homesweetgoodneighbor]

Quick reminder on why it is never a good idea to piss off a fiber artist:

Go ahead. Insult a crocheter. Say their craft is somehow inferior. Remember a crocheter can use their hooks go Ancient Egyptian on you and rip your brains out through your nostrils, except we won't bother to mummify you first.

Knitters will not stab you with their needles because some of them are rather fragile, but they will knit you a fetching sweater...a CURSED sweater...THAT cursed sweater...and purposely make it about 5 sizes too small and strangle you with it. It will hurt, but you'll look amazing.

Embroiderers and any sort of seamsters use a sharp object to stab something thousands of times to make it pretty. Do you want to be made pretty? Do you? We WOULD REALLY LIKE TO MAKE YOU PRETTY...

Weavers can make your death shroud from scratch. We're talking sheep to fabric. All they'll need to do is make sure you are in the proper state to be buried. Know that it takes only a moment to make that happen.

Spinners make what is varying thicknesses of rope. Do you know what can be done with rope? Do you really want an answer to that question?

Here is the True Golden Rule: Thou shalt not demean those who work the fiber and expect mercy, for we shall have none. Your destruction will be made of ten thousand knots and each a curse upon your name and your house.

And, we heed the call to protect one of our own with the ferocity of angry bees.

Just be nice to your local fiber artist.

Chances are you'll get something warm out of it.