Well it looks like I am finally taking the plunge! I have only been planning on starting this blog for around two years now. Better late than never I guess.
I have been wanting to document my journey in the fibre arts for a while now. Over the years I have learnt to knit, crochet, weave, spin and have dabbled with natural dyeing. While I enjoy all of these things, and don’t plan on give any of them up, I do feel that I have reached a point where I need to decide which craft I would use to define myself.
Over the years I have become a serious knitter. My mom taught me how to knit when I was a child and I would consider myself to be an advanced intermediate. I knit ten intricate sweaters in the last year, and often develop or modify patterns to meet my needs. Knitting is something I will aways do, but as I have no interest in publishing my own patterns, and the internet is already filled with great knitting tutorials, I have decided not to make this a knitting blog. The occasional knitted object may be posted on this blog, but knitting is not the craft that I wish to fully delve into and develop.
Weaving and spinning have captured my heart and mind in the last two years. The limitless possibilities that come with making your own cloth or turning fibre into yarn have all of the wheels in my head turning.
Weaving came into my life first and it quickly became my number one passion. I fell in love with the beauty of cloth, from the comforting simplicity of plain weave to complex drafts that have people thirty years or more into their weaving careers exploring. There are so many possibilities to explore at the loom, and I have only just started.
I was never going to learn how to spin. For the longest time my thoughts towards the subject where why bother making yarn when you could be spending that time making something with yarn. Apparently when you spend as much time around spinners as I have, you eventually change your mind.
I bought my spinning wheel six months ago and since then have spun more yarn than any sane person should. A whole new world of possibilities have opened up with the ability to create yarns exactly how I want them. I’m exited to see what this new skill brings.
Reflecting back on all of this I have a clearer picture of who I am, and what kind of fibre artist I wish to become. I would define myself as a weaver who spins. I wish to pursue a deep understanding of weave structures and setts, and from that design and produce yarns to fit these need. I think that these two crafts play well off of each other, and I am excited to start this journey.
Kelsey Tremblett 