Francine's 30 days...

[Francine]

Ok, day 3.. its ok actually. I actually did something 3 days in a row!!! Day 1 I wrote a snippet (which I will share later), Day 2 I did some funky spinning of some silk, and today I went though my project book so taht I can find a new idea or 2 to fire things up again :D

[Wendy]

>> I did some funky spinning of some silk<<

That sounds cool - would like to see and learn more about what you do.

:)

[Francine]

I've just added a few pics of the yarn I am currently creating. Its great fun to take materials that had a former life and give them a new one. The silk is actually reclaimed Sari silk that I'm spinning into a new thread. The pics should be up by now

[Carol@Swallowcliffs]

Sounds like you are mindful towards creativity! Love the yarns...

[Francine]

Trying to be. With everything else going on, i really need something to anchor me, and my creative outlet seems to be in. Glad you like they yarns, they are fun to spin

[Dan Goodwin]

Hey Francine, delighted you've joined us for the Thirty Days of Creating! Off to a brilliant start, well done... : )

Dan

[Francine]

lol..thanks Dan, I really enjoyed the last 30 day challenge, so decided it was a good way to stay on track :) Day 4 includes the blog entry of this am, and a few snippets written on paper, so .. so far so good :)
Hope everyone is enjoying their 30 days start....and thanks again dan for the forum and the ideas :D

[Heidi]

Hi Francine, great to see you back and creating. I am curious about the silk yarn (great colours!). Do you rip the sari silk into thin strips and then twine it with wool? Lots of possibilities for recycling good fibres there!

[Francine]

Hi Heidi,
thanks, I love the colours too! Actually, you an buy the silk pre shredded as it were. It looks like what has been done is that the silk is cut into smallish strips ( maybe 1/2" wide, through the warp, and then the threads are pulled in bundles. The bag I get looks essentially like a huge pile of tangled silk threads of all different colours and textures. I grab a handful out of the bag, and stretch them out as much as I can, and make 1 of the plies out of that. Because I allowed the threads to be pretty bunchy with this batch, there are a lot of large nubblies. There's no way this yarn could ever been a thin, smooth yarn, but its a great novelty yarn and lots of fun to spin and work with. I am sure you probably could use pretty much any reclaimed fabric, but they would have to be very fine. One of the great things about the sari silk is the amazing colours.

[Francine]

Well, day 17, just a little more than half way. Its been interesting working on a little bit of creative every day. I kind of overloaded on saturday last week.... I was at a knitters guild fair, and got to spin all day!!! I haven't been able to do a demo like that in years, and it was wonderful to spend the time surrounded by others who have the same love as I do. Fiber artists of all stripes and fibers galore!!! I was a VERY bad girl :P I sold a bunch of my yarns and ended up buying some lovely fibers and a beautiful new very light weight spindle. I managed to spin a whole punch, talked to a whole lot of people, spinners and knitters as well as people who were there interested in the while itself, which is quite unusual.
I've been doing a lot of little things. Spinning most days, and some little bit of writing. I know I haven't managed to post anything, but the writing has been pretty skimpy of late. Been hard to get anything done that has any quality to it after working so many long hours.
The fact that I've managed to do so much spinning is great and I'm going to go with that.. lots of journaling too..

[Jules]

Spin away Francine!
I am not surprised there were people interested in the wheel and spinning process. Spinning is an ancient art kept alive by you and others who love it so. I mentioned before that mom has Grandmas wheel and was looking for help to learn- ten short years ago the closest person she could find was on the other side of the country..I think there has been a revival- today there is a guild on the other side of town:-)

[Francine]

Hi Jules, great to see you here!! Thanks for the support. Its amazing to watch people watch me spinning, and the wheel. Its an unusual looking wheel so it does draw attention. Its amazing the range in ages whose attention seems to be grabbed by the simple act of that wheel going around. I had littles as small as 2-3 years old... to several older people who remember their grand mothers spinning. Its so much fun to see a light go on. I think there is something that grabs us in our ancestral roots. I hope mom has been able to find a way to use grandma's wheel.. its a great family tradition :)