MidSummer: New Wheel, New Classes, New Ride

Summer’s just barely half over and already its been amazing. June - The day I hear my new spinning wheel is ready I learn about a new online course from FiberyGoodness, S3: Sketch Spin Scribe. So of course I sign up. There there was the lovely Sat spent driving on back road of Wisconsin to pick up the wheel from Spry Whimsy, an awesome fiber studion in Stoughton, WI, check it out you won’t regret it. And in case one internet class wasn’t enough I decided that I had to try this one two, Dye Secrets with Natalie Redding to learn about dyeing fiber. Both are self paced which is good, as then I have a chance at finishing.

July - This year I got to see not one but two city firework displays. One friday from a field by the Wheeling airport, and one saturday at a friends house that included beercan chicken and firespinning in the backyard before hand. I used my favorite staff for the fire spinning. And while way out of practice, I managed not to burn myself or fall in a whole so quite the success. Same weekend I set up the new spinning wheel and learn about the Tour De Fleece, a fiber event that follows the Tour de Force bike competition, only instead of spinning bike tires the idea is to challange yourself spinning fiber. There are no rules only guidelines "The concept is simple: Challenge Yourself. Spin. Have fun.” I could work with this. I set a modest goal: spin a little bit every day I could.




Then finally it arrived my new car. So shinny and new. So purple. So mine. And jsut in time for birthday shenanigans with Cole. Went straing from the dealer to pick her up, then headed downtown for Dinner and then Neo for dancing. Got lucky that first night driving it and didn’t have to do actual parallel parking. A week later I still love the car, even though the same tire has had two flats now. Second time at the dealer, and after much complaining, the new tire patch is holding and we are rolling.

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what happens at craft night...

For those who missed it we had our second craft night at the new location, Barnes and Noble in Deer Park. The new location seems to be working out just fine.

Here's some pics from the last few sessions:

Renee works on new fall cards

Cole experiments with luminaries

Stacy embroiders a onesie

Progress on the blue vest

Completed scarf, first project done on the 35mm needles.
5 strands of yarn knit together as one

Tasty treats
the real reason
we show up :)

Current plan is to do two a month till the new year to give people plenty of time to work on those holiday crafts. So if you've got some free time come join us there's always room for one more.

Stalling

The plan was simple, take a few days off work around the birthday and holiday weekend to focus on some new pieces for a consignment job. Looked forward to the plan for months. Things did not go according to plan. In fact I'd have to say the plan got derailed completely. Which may not be a bad thing.

Things happen, plans change, we adapt. But in adapting to the changes a few thoughts came up. I wound up not doing what was planned, an unexpected bonus was that I got to spend time with a friend I normally don't get to see very often. But now I was very off schedule. The scary thing was that I didn't want to get back on schedule.

Does not wanting to get back on schedule mean I'm losing some of my passion for these crafty obsessions of mine? Or are they just temporarily on hold till I sort out all the things clamoring for attention in my house. I still spend a lot of time looking up new ideas, new techniques but I'm not spending as much time doing. I tell myself its a time thing. I'm tired when I come home from work and I don't want to be in the torch when both brain dead and physically tired let alone train like I should. Yet if these are truly important to me wouldn't I want to be working at them no matter how tired?

Some of it I'm sure goes back to my blank canvas phobia, sometimes the hardest part of a project is starting one. Especially when you have high expectations of it. I have all sorts of idea for this consignment job, I want to make some custom pieces just for their shop, something exclusive. Yet why haven't I started to? It all comes down to because it just doesn't feel right. The space isn't right, I'm not right, and the pieces aren't right.

So now this vacation isn't about focusing on a particular schedule but rather me allowing myself to take care of all the distractions that have been keeping me from doing. In a way that might be more important to the over all goal of sustainable creation. I've always counted on little burst of creativity when I needed it. How nice would it be to access that as a constant stream instead of small bursts?

So in the end maybe it was a good thing my vacation got derailed and I'm not just stalling on starting a new project. Once the distraction are taken care of the space will feel better, once the space feels better creating will feel better. So in the end it will all work out, according to plan.