beth smith

My Rhinebeck

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I want to tell you a secret. It’s not a scary secret but I haven’t said it much to anyone, so I’m telling YOU. It’s this: I’m jealous of all of the people who got to go to Rhinebeck AKA The New York State Sheep and Wool Festival.

I know what you are thinking. You are sure I was there. You saw me in photos or you saw my name on the workshop instructors list or you heard me talking about getting ready to go.

I was technically there. It’s true. But here’s the sad part of my story. I didn’t even see one sheep. Not one! I don’t even have very many photos because they all would have looked very similar to this one:

Rhinebeck2014

 

I also saw the inside of the bathroom but that doesn’t make a very interesting picture at all.

Here is the plus side. I got to meet a lot of amazing people who were my students. New ones this year and some who had been in my classes before. Also, I spent very little money. (We aren’t counting the fleeces I bought because most of those are for more class materials.) Also, I had dinner with Jacey and Abby and Esther A LOT! And I got to meet Jackie Graf who is a most awesome dyer and Tove Skolseg who also loves to buy wool and is from Norway.

Spinning friends!

Spinning friends!

So, no, I have no sheep photos, nope, not even one lovely leaf color picture. Didn’t even make it up the hill to see what was for sale. but I made some new friends, taught some lovely people what I know about spinning and wool preparation and signed a lot of books!

So back to the beginning. I’m jealous of some people’s Rhinebeck experiences but I don’t think I would trade mine.

Here is my favorite photo of the weekend though. It’s Lauren. And if you ever see her, tell her I said hi.

Lauren

 

Jacey Faulkner

Craftsy loves us: Ply to knit class

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Hey Spinners, Craftsy loves us! Have you noticed? Our own Jillian Moreno recently did a craftsy class called PLY to Knit (okay, it’s really just called Ply to Knit but I like writing PLY!) and I’m watching it now. Literally, right now! There’s Jillian with her great hair, dazzling smile, and cat-eyed glasses being just barely over-shadowed by all the smartness coming out of her mouth!

I’m going to try and give this a true and honest review but since I just think Jillian is super brilliant and a wonderfully talented spinner, it might be biased. A bit.

Jillianheadshot

First, Craftsy has gotten really good. The way they put together lessons is super easy and intuitive to follow, which is important to me. I don’t want to have to figure out how to use the platform while I’m trying to figure out my spinning and they’ve done a great job making it easy to use. I also really like that you can interact with the teacher.  Second, Jillian is comfortable and charming during all the lessons. She’s likable and I think that’s a really important piece in the puzzle. Can you imagine if you had to watch a grouchy teacher for 3 hours? Yeesh.

This PLY to knit class has 7 lessons ranging in length but averaging about 30 minutes each. Each lesson is broken up into main ideas that make sense. In Jillian’s case those lessons are:

An Intro to PLY: This is a kind of setting of the stage. We meet Jillian (charming) and she goes over what plying is, what it does for us, and what some of the terminology she’ll use means.

How to PLY: This is a big big lesson. This is where she gets into the meat of plying. How to sit, how to set up, how to actually ply. She talks about resting and rewinding bobbins and plying from your hand too. I found myself nodding along with much of what she said, thinking, yes, I agree with that.

SONY DSCLesson #3 and Lesson #4 cover everything your might want to know about 2-ply and 3-ply yarn, from plying to knitting to balance and unbalance to chainplying. She even compares 3-ply and chainplying. It’s good stuff. I think it’s really important that she shows examples in knitted swatches so we can see exactly how the different plys effect our knitting. Following her lead, because it’s fun to spin along with her, here’s the samples I spun and knit during these 2 lessons.  The one on the left is chain-plied, the one on the right is 3-ply.  Both are from the same fiber.  I was really careful to match up my color on the 3-ply and when I made my loops on the chain-ply, I really tried to have very little color mixing. In the end,  I like the gradual color change of the 3-ply swatch but know that it had more to do with my chain-plying technique than chain-plying in general.  Both are great techniques and Jillian is good at explaining why.

One of my favorite lessons is #5, fixing mistakes. I make a lot of mistakes, almost all the ones she mentions, so I squinched up my face and watched extra hard during this part.

Plus, she says this great line: “the answer to this mistake is a sandwich.”   I really like when the answer to my mistake is a sandwich!

She rounds out the entire class with a lesson on finishing and a lesson on measuring. And if I didn’t love the class already, she uses a WPI tool shaped like a tardis! Sandwiches and tardises! She’s a lady after my own heart.

Altogether, it’s a solid class on plying to knit. While I watched I tried to think if there is stuff that I’d have included that she left out and there isn’t any glaring omissions. Of course, not everything about plying is in here but that be silly to expect. Spinning is a giant and long-standing craft. If everything could be taught in 3 hours, PLY Magazine wouldn’t make it very long, right? And really, what that means, at least what I hope that means, is that craftsy will do lots more spinning classes!  Let them know we want more, okay?

If you want to ply to knit, this class will teach you a lot, no matter how long you’ve been spinning.  Here’s a link (with a little discount).

 

 

Jacey Faulkner

We have a winner!

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As much as I want to keep this fiber for myself (it’s that smooth and amazing) I must do the right thing and announce that Janelle is the winner!  She can thank the random.org and Mary at Fancy Fibers Farm and accept the fiber as a giant thank you from us here at PLY.  I’m just going to sleep rolled up in it for one more night and then I’ll send it on it’s way.

ps.  I wore the Swing Set cardigan (made out of her fiber) all last weekend and I was warm, itch-less, and if I do say so myself, quite stylish.

pps.  I’ve got another fibery giveaway coming up!  If you liked the hat by woolly wormhead, it’s up next!

Congrats Janelle!

 

 

 

Jacey Faulkner

Swing Step Cardi fiber give-a-way

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It’s a gorgeous sweater, no doubt.  I’ve actually worn it.  Twice.  It’s so fitted and comfortable and warm.  Much of that goes to Amy Herzog, no doubt, she’s a fantastic designer, but the fiber had something to do with it too.

Glynda McIver got to spin the fiber for Amy’s Swing Step and while it was nice and the yarn was pretty great, I’m holding the fiber that you’ll get to spin for your own Swing Step and it’s even better!  I’m not sure what Mary changed with her processing but this stuff is like buttah!  So perfectly processed, no vm, no lumps, no bumps, no neps, nothing!  It’s like a homogenized pound of fiber heaven.  I even think it’s softer.

This pound (yes, 16 ounces) Suriland (Shetland and Suri 50/50) from Mary at Fancy Fibers can be yours!  All you have to do is leave a review for this issue of PLY here (not in the comments, but here, on the issue page under reviews).  Be honest, give it a star rating and leave a review and you’ll be entered in the drawing for the fiber.  I’ll announce the winner on October 15th.

 

Jillian Moreno

Community in a Flower

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Because the new issue of PLY is all about community, I’ve had the spinning community on my mind for a little bit.

When Beth , Rita and I held a retreat a couple of weekends ago and I got the opportunity to immerse myself in everything I love about our world of spinning.

The passion we have for our craft, we shout it from the rooftops. The opinions we hold, no one ever has to ask a spinner what they think about a wheel, a fiber, a tool or a method of spinning. The respect we have for each other, for while we are an opinionated lot and may argue a point or two, it’s never nasty or personal. Our openness and generosity, spinners are always willing to try something new or a new way around an old technique. Spinners are always sharing what they know, what they have. The joy we find in our craft, spinners are happy when they are spinning or around other spinners and it’s infectious. We are an amazing community of people and I feel so grateful to be a part of it.

I was full of this feeling of wonder, gratitude and belonging on my daily walk this week and I found a perfect representation of our spinning world in a flower. Tiny flowers clustered in small groups like individual spinners in their local groups and guilds and those groups forming a large beautiful flower, like our world wide community.

community flower

beth smith

Books, Magazines, Classes

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I’ve always been a big reader. Fiction and nonfiction, both. I’ve learned a lit from books and magazines over the years.

I have a giant collection of books. Every room in my house has at least one bookshelf – even some of the hallways. Check out this photo of the shelves where I keep most of my spinning, knitting and weaving books.

books

This photo is from June. Since then I’ve added at least 10 more books and of course every issue of Ply is there. All of them are important to me. That is all stored knowledge there.

When I first started spinning I bought a spindle and some fiber and a book. I had learned several other crafts from books so why not spinning? Well, a couple of months went by and I just wasn’t getting it. It must have been the tool so I bought a spinning wheel. Heh. A few more months went by and I was making yarn but it wasn’t the yarn I wanted. So finally I took a few lessons and magical things started to happen! My yarn was transforming.

The secret was someone sitting by me who could watch me and help me make tiny changes to my hands and feet and posture. Tiny things that I couldn’t get from a book. These were the days way before Craftsy but I would even say that a live, in person teacher is better than a video.

My point today is this. If you have the opportunity, take a class.

I still take classes when I can and I still buy the books and I have a crazy number of Craftsy classes in my account. But nothing beats sitting next to someone who can give advice to you personally. Sometimes it comes down to a class or more fiber. Well, You always have your knowledge. That’s what my Grammy used to say.

Most of the writers in the Ply issues also teach spinning. If they can make you say aha when you are reading their words on the printed page, imagine what would happen if you were in the same room with them!

Cover of the Community Issue
Jacey Faulkner

You’re on the cover of PLY!

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The newest issue of PLY Magazine is arriving in mail boxes this week.  One of my favorite things about PLY is our covers.  I just love them.  This one is no different.  Whenever I get a new issue, I line them all up on the kitchen table, in order, and smile.  Then I stack them and smile at the spines.  This cover was more troublesome than the rest.  I was flummoxed as to what would say “Community issue”.  All kinds of terrible ideas came to mind and I was afraid we’d have to go with one of them.  That’s right, I almost had to ask Bernadette to shoot a spinning circle, sans spinners.  Just the wheels, from above.  Yeah, she would have cried (she’s sensitive like that).  Then my wonderful Levi came up with an idea.  He wanted me to gather as many spinning snapshots of our spinning community as possible and he’de make a mosaic of the world, this side and that side, for the covers.

And that’s what we did.  I begged y’all for photos, you delivered, and so did he. So grab a magnifying glass and check yourself out!  Can you find yourself (or your yarn, cat, dog, wheel, kid etc)?

Community issue of PLY

 

 

 

 

Jacey Faulkner

Get on the spinners/dyers/photographer list!

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I hope that it’s clear that PLY loves indie businesses.  It’s not hard to do, is it?  I can’t think of many fiber businesses that aren’t indie!  It’s the nature of our community, even our big companies are still small companies, you know? Often dyers work in the kitchens. Spinners set up shop in their family rooms. Tool makers park in their driveways so they can use their family garage. Even many of our biggest wheel makers work out of converted garages and make our beloved wheels on a skeleton crew of 5 or less.  Trust me, I’ve seen this in person and it made me love our community even more.

One thing that I really wanted to do when I started PLY was to support these people.  I know how hard it is to make it, to get noticed, to support yourself and your family with craft, but I also know that it can be done and it’s amazing when it works.

It’s what the independent spinner page in each issue of PLY is about.  Notice how it’s always at the beginning of the issue?  That’s no accident!  It’s where we put the indie businesses that supported that issue of the magazine. We’ve worked with several now but I want to diversify!  I want to use and support different spinners and dyers and photographers each issue!

However, I’ve found that organizing that diversification has been a bit beyond what my already taxed brain can handle.  I’ve tried e-mail organization, spreadsheets, and trello boards but none have worked super duper well.  So, here’s my new attempt — a trello board that spinners, dyers, and photographers input and update themselves!

Yep, I couldn’t do it so I’m pushing it off on you.  My life coach (if I had one, boy, I need to get one of those) would be so proud!

Do you know what Trello is?  Trello is awesome.  Leanne of stitchcraft marketing introduced me to it about a year ago and I use it for everything!  Some of my boards are totally private, just I can see them, some I share with Levi, some with Kitten, some with Kitten and Bernadette, some with Kitten, Bernadette, and Levi…you get the idea, yeah? Seriously, I’ve got 12 separate boards and a board for each issue of the magazine!  I’ve got a editorial board, an advertising board, a workshop board, a personal home-to-do board, a kid-stuff board.  I have found it incredibly helpful and intuitive.

I know I sound like a advertisement but it’s all true. It’s free, it’s easy, and I’ve never gotten any e-mails from them (except the activation one). So while you do have to sign up for it to participate, you don’t have to use it and they’ll never contact you, but if you do use it, you won’t be sorry.

So this is what I’m trying.

I’ve created a public trello board called PLY Support.  On it is different lists, some for spinners, some for dyers, and one for photographers.  Under any list (or several) you can create a “card”.  If you want to spin, dye, or photograph for PLY, the front of your card will contain your name/business and on the back of the card you can add additional info (links to your work, photos, favorite kind of cookie, etc). You can add a card to as many lists as you like and be as specific as you like.  You can also edit your cards whenever you like.

And that’s how my job gets easier. You do the work.  Whenever I need a dyer (like right now, I need 2) or a spinner (like right now, I need 3), or a photo of an animal (like right now, I need some wendsleydale sheep), I’ll go to the list instead of putting out a call that you might or might not see.  So, you see, it’s not just better for me, but for you too!

Wanna get on the list ? And I really hope you do! Go here — https://trello.com/b/vtAt6YeQ and sign up!  There’s instructions on the first card called “How to Participate, click on this card to read!) but essentially you do this —

1. Join Trello, this involves verifying your e-mail.

2. Return to  https://trello.com/b/vtAt6YeQ (I recommend opening it up in a new window now, it’s easier than trying to find it again before you’ve joined) and leave a comment on the card with the instructions.

3. The comment will let me know to add you as a member of the board which I’ll do super quick!

4. Now make a “card” by taking a look at the lists on the right. Find the list(s) that fit your skill and click “add a card”. Once you do this, you’ll be able to fill the card out, front and back.

The front should be your name/business link (and for photographers, what animals you have). Once you save that, you can click the “edit the description” which will allow you to put more information on the back of the card. Use this area (the back) for any additional info you want to add such as your experience, what you’re really good at, links to photos (yarns, fabrics, fibers, animals) or even actual photos (using the attachment button).

 

Jacey Faulkner

Spinzilla team roster: Alice Hollowed (aka spinalot)

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Name: alice hollowed

Spinning nickname: spinalot

years spinning: 3 year

Location: chicago

Spinning tool of choice for spinzilla: matchless

Favorite weight of yarn: worsted

Favorite fiber for fast spinning: romney

Favorite treat to eat while spinning: Coffee and beer

Project you’ll be spinning for: Sweater

Personal Spinzilla goal: 6000 yds

I live on the northside of chicago (near wrigley field) with my four kids, 3 chickens, 2 chinchillas, 1 cat, and 40 silk moths ( for another couple of days).  I homeschool, garden, can, compost, cook, throw pottery,  and make yarn. I ‘ve mastered the technique of spinning with a sleeping or nursing baby.  I also try to knit and crochet but little hands and paws keep trying to help.