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Celebrating Risks

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Words and photos by Wendy Emo 

I’ve spent the past two years taking risks with my spinning. While some of my new yarns are lovely, many did not turn out as I’d hoped. I processed and spun new-to-me Teeswater and Wensleydale fleeces (culminating in one amazing tunic and several duds), tried new spinning techniques (bouclé, cloud, and lockspinning, which all worked), attempted dyeing (I definitely did not get what I expected), persevered during a challenge project from my guild (this made me bananas for at least a month during all the spinning and knitting “fails” before the project ultimately turned out well), knit alternating strips of sari silk fabric with handspun (yuck for the first go, that’s for sure), and subbed last-minute as a three-day spinning workshop teacher (the flurry and fiber explosion in my studio were impressive, and I certainly had fun). 

I’ve discovered that I need to celebrate my attempts at the new and different. I sell items at a gallery, and a few types of items sell fairly well. When I explore and challenge myself, I’m taking time away from production of the “known,” so that’s a bit of a risk (even though the income isn’t high, the gallery needs stock). On the other hand, sticking with the known risks boredom. Spinning what is easy and known is relaxing, but then I don’t learn a new skill. 

Challenging myself sometimes results in discouragement to such an extent that I don’t even want to look at my wheels or fiber stockpile. I’m not confident with combining color. When the guild passed out random bundles to spin for a gift exchange, I couldn’t imagine how to put together dark purple, pale pink, and baby blue in any way that would make something I’d want to give to anyone, let alone another artist. I avoided my wheels for five full days after that. When I realize that I’m intentionally not spinning due to discouragement, I need to take care of myself rather than avoid my fiber stash in favor of the chocolate stash. In this case, my emotional self needed some encouragement, but the project turned out well in the end. 

Other artists also notice this connection of emotional reactions to one’s creations. I overheard a painter suggest to another artist that she focus on what she does like in a problematic piece rather than making a broad blanket statement about not liking it. I figure that this is great advice for taking care of myself as a spinner. If I identify the positive attributes of my art, I then have changed my outlook. Perhaps I can think of the challenging colors differently, such as reminding myself that maroon and light blue sometimes show up in the morning and evening skies. This then might inspire me to add an additional color to tie them together. 

Naming the positive attributes of my ineffective experiments resembles changing a mindset. I tend to think of Merino/silk top as meant exclusively for fine-spun worsted yarns. When I followed my maxim and made a 2-ply yarn intended for a lace scarf, the gorgeous top of pecan-toffee-caramel* became a “ho-hum” light brown without the lovely subtle shades. The remaining singles sat abandoned and ignored in my studio, and I went off to a workshop with Judith MacKenzie. 

Judith had us spin both eri and muga silk (singles). These were so exquisite to spin that I left these bobbins alone even after Judith encouraged us to use them. When I finally needed these bobbins, I remembered her suggestion to try the singles in plying. The silk singles were close to the same weight and in complementary tones to the toffee singles. I decided to ply the silk and toffee together. The addition of the extra silky shimmer and two tones brought out the best in the singles. The finished yarn shows the different response the two singles fibers had to the rinse, but I was after a good color effect rather than a completely smooth yarn. Those pecan-toffee-caramel tones glow in the yarn. Not only did I have to recognize the positive attributes of the singles (even, fine, great color, nice hand), but I had to do something different. I don’t think I would have experimented with silk singles without the encouragement of another spinner. It wouldn’t have occurred to me. 

Other spinners contribute to my self care, not only in suggesting new approaches but also just in sharing our creations. Celebrating the triumphs and sharing the funny mistakes is such an encouragement. One day recently I made a 3-ply skein of dark BFL, the first part of a fleece I hoped to have all spun before the next festival. I was pretty pleased with it until I finished it and discovered I had overplied it. Judith MacKenzie says that yarn judges can tell from looking at a yarn if a spinner was stressed while spinning. I had been watching Pirates of the Caribbean while plying. It showed in the yarn that I must have been anxious for Orlando Bloom’s life during all that swashing and buckling, even though last time I watched the movie, he was safe. 

My favorite mistake yarn, however, is “Going the Wrong Way” – a very elastic energized yarn I unintentionally plyed the wrong way a few years ago. The skein stretches from about 10 inches to 28 inches, nearly three times its relaxed length! 

When I share these yarns with others, both “Pirates” and “Wrong Way” always give us a good laugh, which helps me enjoy my mistakes. I was happy to read Jillian Moreno’s comment (Yarnitecture, 2016) that an overplied yarn like “Pirates” probably wouldn’t affect the project I had planned for it – a watch cap for my husband. I may keep “Wrong Way” for posterity. 

Celebrating my mistakes and triumphs makes me realize how much I’ve learned about spinning since I started taking more risks. I can understand the technical descriptions in spinning publications, explain them to someone else, and apply them to my own spinning. I now give myself permission to give away fibers and fleeces I thought I’d enjoy but which are not yet “my thing.” I’ve learned that I can make complex-looking yarns, even though I see the flaws which identify them as a learner’s handspun. 

I know my emotional self is connected to my physical well-being. When my attitude toward spinning is not positive, maybe I need to get out for a walk. Perhaps I need to change my position at the wheel, check the angle of my legs, notice where my hands and shoulders are, or put a pillow under my seat. It might be that my hands are too close or too far apart. Am I tense? With new fleeces, new ways of spinning, or when I’m trying to spin perfectly, I might be on edge. The first place I notice tension while playing piano is in my right ankle. When I intentionally relax that tension, I usually play better. In spinning, that tension is usually in my hands, and that tension affects my spinning. 

My physical self, my emotional self, my intellectual self, and my social self – all of these affect my spinning. Thank goodness for my fiber friends and husband. I share my fails and successes with these people. They sometimes suggest changes and always grin along with me when I share what actually worked. Mostly, when I ask the question “Do you think this will work?” they say, “Just give it a try!” 

According to some motivation researchers, we all are likely to stick for a long time with tasks we choose, over which we have some control, which engage our imagination, and whose challenge level is appropriate although the outcome is not guaranteed. If there are social elements to the task, that’s often motivating, but to a lesser degree and not for everyone (the same with achievement recognition and competition). The next time you approach that interesting project, note that you’re taking care of your creative self and motivating yourself just by what you’re choosing to do and how you do it. Celebrate your explorations and share them with others and let us celebrate with you. 

*This fiber is known as “Lynx,” a 70 percent Merino, 30 percent Tussah silk blend. 

Wendy Emo, PhD, takes risks playing keyboard in open mics, music jams, and a surf band when she’s not finding ways to use up (or add to) her fiber stash. 

Meagan Condon

Trash in; trash out

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The art of saving your scraps for another project

words by Meagan Condon

Something many experienced fiber teachers, myself included, try to relate to new spinners is… if something in your fiber supply isn’t working… if you have neps in your worsted preparation… if you have a lock that doesn’t want to spin right… it is okay to toss it! No one ever listens the first time. I remember when I first started spinning, I didn’t want to waste a single tuft of fiber. Fiber is an expensive and precious commodity! I couldn’t bear the idea of tossing anything, even if it was trash fiber. It could have more straw than fiber and I’d still sit down and pick out “the good parts.” That boat has long since sailed for me, and I’d like to help you christen your own boat and explore ways of handling fiber scraps that will improve your spinning projects and clear out your studio.

Rule #1: Trash in; trash out
Let’s say you want to create a smooth worsted yarn. You select a nice braid of BFL/silk which you probably paid a nice price for. As you begin to spin, you get to a place in the fiber preparation that is compacted and the fiber preparation is badly disturbed. What do you do? Still spin right past it? What if I told you it had a few neps? Better yet, what if it also had some vegetable matter? All of these problems interrupt your worsted yarn, create a weaker yarn structure, and take away from the value of your yarn. If you paid that much for your fancy fiber, you want to make the best yarn you can. Rather than incorporating those “trash” portions into your yarn, toss it!

Toss it doesn’t mean trash it necessarily…
Just because a bit of fiber isn’t right for a particular project doesn’t mean it can’t be used in some other fashion. In my studio, I keep a bag of fiber scraps. Sometimes these are tufts I cleaned from my drum carder or blending board. Sometimes it’s a not-so-nice portion of a top I’ve spun. Sometimes it’s a section of fluff I experimented with.

What doesn’t go in the bag? Dust and fiber from the floor and beneath the carder, portions of a fleece too gross for me to spin, fiber less than a 1-inch staple, and anything too tangled to work with.

Make yarn
After I’ve filled or sometimes overfilled the bag, I dump the fiber onto the floor, give it a rough sort, and then card it into a scrappy batt or “trash” rolags. The tricky part about these scrappy projects is they can contain any type of fiber, any staple length, any diameter. Medium wools get mixed with fine wools. Longwools get mixed with angora. You name it, it will be all together in this one project. On top of that, you’re using the less-desirable bits instead of the prime fiber. That means your yarn will pill. It will be a weaker yarn. It may even be ugly, itchy, or lumpy. Be aware of that going into the project. I usually don’t get too invested in my scrappy yarns and I don’t expect the finished projects to last a lifetime. I usually spin it as a woolen yarn to deemphasize the inconsistencies of the preparation and use in a project that won’t get much wear & tear and that won’t have tears shed when it does wear out. 

Felt it
Does the idea of making crappy yarn kill your soul? You can always felt that fiber instead.

  • Wrap your scrappy fiber around a bar of soap and turn it into felted soap.
  • Paint a felt tapestry with your different colored scraps.
  • Needle-felt some bobbles to include in your next art yarn.

Experiment
Use your scrappy fiber as a chance to experiment. Try a new preparation or spinning technique. Always wanted to try super coils? Now is your chance! Coreless core spinning? Bring it on! Carding a gradient out of anything? Try it. Just remember, since you are not dealing with prime fiber, if you run into trouble as you experiment, some of your frustration may come from the fiber and not your technique. Take it with a grain of salt and ask yourself along the way – is this something I’m doing or is this a result of my fiber?

What about all the fiber too icky to spin?
If it is too icky to spin, it becomes packing material for shipping things, stuffing for pillows, and (worst-case) compost. Remember, there will be more wool, better wool, stronger wool. As your stash grows, you’ll have more fiber than you can spin, so don’t waste your time fussing with the trash bits.

You have permission to scrap the scrappy bits.

Let me say that again.

You have permission to scrap the scrappy bits.

While you spin, when you get to that not-so-nice bit of fiber, tear it out of your fiber supply and fling it to the floor. Not only does it feel great, but you can pick it up later for your scrap bag. Just because it isn’t going to be in your current project doesn’t mean you can’t use it in other applications.  

Meagan Condon

PLY: 2024 YEAR IN REVIEW

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PLY has had a full and fulfilling year! We can hardly believe how much we’ve done!

Firsts

PLY had its first booth at a fiber festival! No, really! In September, we attended DFW Fiber Fest and had a blast!

We also had our first full season of the PLY Spinners Guild. That means we produced 13 episodes featuring 8 different instructors. Our more than 1400 guild members have collectively watched 9,743 hours of guild video content. We’ve also hosted 24 Zoom spin-ins!

We also offered our first ever Holiday Guide! We were pleased to present a variety of new products and top-of-the-line small businesses in this fresh format.

A New Magazine

In 2024, we committed to producing a sister magazine to PLY. With the help of smart and passionate weaver Lisa Graves and the PLY team’s 11 years of experience, WEFT was born! In July, the Kickstarter was a success with more than $100k pledged from 1348 backers. The first issue is slated for Spring 2025!

A New Book

We are excited to announce the release of our third book on December 20: Twist by Michelle Boyd. Twist is destined to be one of the “those” books — the ones that earn a permanent spot on every spinner’s bookshelf. It’s a deep dive into every aspect of Twist and how it affects spinning and yarn. It’s also our first hardback book!

Added 2 New Amazing Team Members

In 2024, PLY brought on two new team members: Jeannie Sanke and Meagan Condon. Jeannie has been with PLY since summer and handles advertising for both PLY and WEFT. Beside being a prolific spinner of chiengora, she has more than twenty years of experience in marketing and advertising in the publishing industry. Meagan joined PLY in October as the technical editor and blog coordinator. Meagan has been teaching and writing for PLY almost since the beginning. She has a background in library & information sciences and social media marketing. We are excited to have their combined experience leaning into the new year!

Worked with Some Amazing Contributors

In 2024, PLY worked with a total of 56 authors and designers to produce four issues (91 published articles!): the Growth Issue, the Reference Issue, the Alpaca Issue, and most recently, the Care Issue. Supporting our vision and goal to give voice to our diverse community, of those 56 contributors, we brought in 17 new-to-PLY authors.

Going Forward

Thank you for joining us on this journey! We look forward to a prosperous year full fiber, creativity, community and fun.

Meagan Condon

Seasons Greetings from the PLY Spinners Guild

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The giving season is upon us, and we want to include everyone we can in the PLY Spinners Guild. If you are in a crunch looking for a very last-minute holiday gift for the spinner or soon-to-be-spinner in your life, a guild membership is the perfect answer!

The guild is priced at $85/year or $12/month. We think this is a very good deal for the amount of information and community you will get. It’s also the amount we need to make the guild financially viable with 1500-2500 members (we are currently at the lower end of that). This allows us to pay for the substantial hosting required by so many high-def videos, the charge per member to access the site, along with fairly compensating the teachers, editors, and everyone involved in making the guild work.

However, in the giving spirit, we do not want the guild’s membership dues to be a barrier to anyone who would like to be a part of the guild. We want everyone, and the more diverse and full our community is, the better we all are. To that end, we are making available 100 free guild memberships every 3-month period for spinners (or potential spinners) who are part of an underserved community, are on a fixed income, or just plain can’t currently afford the regular dues. Please sign up here and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Whether you get a membership for yourself or a loved one, the PLY Spinners Guild looks forward to sharing a new year of community, education, and fun with you.

Join the PLY Spinners Guild Here
Meagan Condon

Mood Board: Spring 2026 – Experimental

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Mood Board: Spring 2026 – Experimental 

Proposals due: March 1, 2025         Final work due by: September 1, 2025 

Let’s break out those lab coats and safety goggles and try out all those spinning “what ifs” you’ve always wondered about. This issue is about experimentation, and we want you to explore the possibilities within fiber and spinning that you’ve always wanted to examine. This isn’t a time for writing about what you already know – it’s a time to test hypotheses and see what happens. 

What parts of spinning have you always wanted to delve into? Maybe you’ve wondered how much ply twist can go into a yarn before it starts to bias or when a singles yarn biases. Or maybe you want to test the strength or abrasion of woolen vs worsted yarns or between different numbers of or types of plies. 

Does pre-drafting really make your yarn less consistent? If you tear a batt into rolags, does that have the same effect as making individual rolags? Is it possible to card really long fibers? What’s the minimal length of fiber that makes sense for combing? How far gone can a braid of fiber be before it can’t be spun? 

Is spinning woolen yarn really faster than spinning worsted yarn? Does the length of the fiber impact chainplying? Is there a difference in spinning from the tip or the butt of a lock? Does the weight of the spindle actually impact the diameter of the yarn you spin? Is EZ Spin cotton actually easier to spin? How much difference does it make for a worsted yarn if you spin short backward vs short forward? How does plying from both ends of a ball impact the yarn? 

Do cabled yarns really make cables pop? Does 2-ply yarn really make more lacey lace? Do chain-plied yarns really abrade quicker because one ply is going in the opposite direction? Is tension setting your yarn actually bad when using it for knitting, crochet, or weaving? Is a hard finish really better for woolen yarn? Does steaming your top actually reactivate the crimp? Does steaming yarns work as well as wet-finishing? 

We can’t wait to hear what experiments you want to try out! Proposals are due by March 1, 2025. You’ll hear back from us in April 2025, and final articles are due September 1, 2025. 

Submit your article idea now!
Meagan Condon

Small Business Feature: The Foldout Cat

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During this giving season, we’d like to call attention to some of our small business partners. You’ve seen The Foldout Cat featured in the PLY gift guide. Now we’d like for you to meet them as more than just the product they sell.  

Q Wirtz, the owner and Chief Feline of the Foldout Cat, started her spinning journey in 2012, when she was still practicing law full-time. At that time, she primarily focused on crochet for her fiber fix. She purchased a Schacht Ladybug but quickly exiled it to the closet when Toxic Perfectionism(™) got the better of her. Within a few years, she’d essentially given up on spinning. In 2014, she left the full-time practice of law and moved to Alabama to be with her partners. 

Q explained, “I was both burned out and worn out, and I had absolutely no clear idea of what I wanted to do – or could do – next.” 

To keep herself busy, Q began selling her crochet with one of her partners at a weekly maker fair at one of Huntsville’s reclaimed textile factories, Lowe Mill. She adds, “I found myself increasingly recharged and inspired by the constant exposure to assertive creativity, and in relatively short order I applied for and was granted a studio space with the collective… In early 2017 I took the terrifying step of giving my creative endeavors a business name – naming is a powerful act! – and the Foldout Cat came formally into being.”  

In 2018, something extraordinary happened. “That November, I went to a spinning retreat hosted by friends, attending for the company but dutifully toting my Ladybug and a bit of theoretically easy-to-spin roving along for the look of the thing. I sat down next to someone who’d taught spinning for the Haus of Yarn in Nashville, stuck my fluff into the leader loop she tied on for me, sighed deeply and put my feet on the treadles … and something just clicked. I went through the roving I’d brought with me in the first hour after that silent revelation and spent the rest of the weekend spinning anything and everything the other attendees were willing to throw my way. They were delightfully generous, as fiber folk often are.” 

The Foldout Cat had a new direction: spinning and enabling.   

“Given the amount of time I spend teaching spinning/talking about spinning/actually spinning these days, I surprise myself sometimes when I remember that I only started spinning six years ago!” Q adds, “I love teaching anyone who wants to sit down and fiber with me – but my favorite is working with folks at the beginning of their experience with a given fiber-art form. I like giving people permission to play, and to experiment – and above all, as they’re learning a new skill (or acquiring a new tool for an existing creative toolbox), to give themselves the grace in that learning that they would give a beloved friend.” 

The Foldout Cat’s Goals 

Goal #1: to support myself, financially and psychoemotionally. 

Goal #2: to spread love and respect for fiber arts of all kinds. 

Goal #3: to empower everyone I meet through my business – students, customers, fiber-adjacent spice and partners – to believe that they have a creative, artistic aspect, that it deserves to be recognized and honored, and that doing so will enrich their lives. 

Goal #4: to keep putting beauty into this world–especially now, especially in these tumultuous days – and to help others to do the same.

If you are looking for a last-minute fiber gift for the discerning spinner in your life, consider working with Q to create a custom CatBatt! If you have ever seen The Foldout Cat at one of the many festivals and fiber retreats where they vend, you’ve probably had the pleasure of seeing her one-of-a-kind batt buffet where customers get to choose their fibers from a plethora of options and Q will blend a custom batt right then and there.  

She extends this service to her website. “Right now, online customers have two options there: they can send me an email and I’ll work with them remotely to build what they need or they can buy a gift certificate and use it in person at any of the 15+ shows to which I travel each year.” Design a batt for a loved one (or for yourself! You deserve some holiday fluff, too!) or give a gift certificate that allows your friends and family to design their own CatBatt. 

Even if you don’t have the opportunity to grab a CatBatt now, you’ll have plenty of opportunities in the upcoming year. Q explains, “In 2024 I had the honor of being part of 18 events, from conferences like Convergence to huge festivals like Rhinebeck to intimate workshop series like the one I got to do at a good friend’s beautiful home studio in Georgia, and including the first-ever Alabama Fiber Festival in early November. My 2025 schedule’s on track to be even more packed – and I couldn’t be more grateful for all of the teaching and vending opportunities that presents.” Check out her website for a list of events where you can find the batt buffet in person this upcoming year! 

Meagan Condon

Innovation at Bam Fiber Works

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When we think about fiber tools, we think about tens of thousands of years of progress and the history of innovation. We imagine the slow roll of progress bringing us to today, where we’ve obviously got everything figured out, right? This is as good as it gets! After all, we’re working in the slow arts, and we don’t need more than a stick to make some yarn. Some of us take joy in being able to prove that all we need is a stick!

Well, sometimes we like to make it a little easier on ourselves. Sometimes it isn’t about proving we can so much as getting the work done. The truth is innovation is happening every day in our fiber world. We have a strong community of toolmakers who are constantly looking to improve the tools we use. One of those toolmakers is Baruch with Bam Fiber Works.

Bam Fiber Works has designed an incredible new feature for a workshop staple and is now offering a self-cleaning drum carder. You read that right! SELF-CLEANING. This patent-pending device is already on backorder through January 2025 as of the writing of this article.

The project to develop an improved drum carder started in 2016. “We wanted to create a drum carder that offered cool features that weren’t already offered in another drum carder on the market. We couldn’t quite put a finger on it, though,” Baruch told me. “The feedback we got again and again was to make the carder easier to clean.”

I personally felt that feedback in my soul. It had recently taken over an hour to deconstruct and deep clean the drum carder in my own workshop; work that needed to be done but that I took no pleasure from. I could have spent that time spinning… or at least catching up on some good television.

Baruch began by testing the concept of some sort of doffing cloth that could be used to remove fiber from the drum. Following many prototypes, he still wasn’t happy with how it performed. Then the magic happened. After a brainstorming session with his brother, Baruch discovered that a drum mounted on two pieces of scrap wood did a superior job. And he didn’t stop there. He wanted to make sure that his tool wouldn’t cause additional wear and tear on the carder itself. “We did over 1000 test cleanings. We filmed as we did it,” he said.

On top of the self-cleaning drum, the Bam Fiber Works drum carder features a number of unique features. Everything – clamps, doffing hook, cleaning brush – all store conveniently in the front tray of the drum carder. It has a magnetic pin lock system that allows pulleys, drums, and handle to be quickly removed, making it “crazy easy to clean.” And parts are designed to be used interchangeable amongst their entire product line.

“We wanted to take the unenjoyable parts out of carding,” Baruch added. “Take away the ‘I dread this’ part so that carding becomes more enjoyable on its own.”

That’s not all. While it is not yet available, Baruch and his team have a patent pending on a handheld version of the drum cleaner that could work with any drum carder. “There’s still a lot of testing to do,” he said. “Other brands have a variety of types of carding cloth in different weights. We want to make sure it works well and doesn’t damage people’s existing equipment.”

We in the fiber community have that to look forward to! In the meantime, readers can get on the pre-order list for this self-cleaning drum carder through the Bam Fiber Works website.

Guest Blogger

Planning Your Crafting Year 

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The beginning of the year is the perfect time for planning your crafting year – all the things you want to accomplish in your creative life before the next calendar year arrives. The first thing I want you to consider is your Why. 

Why do you want to plan your crafting year? We all have different reasons. Perhaps you want to prepare handcrafted gifts for a family event or holiday. Maybe you’re ready to replace parts of your wardrobe with unique, handspun pieces. Or perhaps you want to improve certain skills to become a more proficient spinner. Understanding your Why will help you plan and adjust your year. Plan your year so your crafting reflects your Why and maintain flexibility for any life changes. 

Spinning is a unique hobby because the end product, yarn, is just the raw material for another textile craft. As a multicraftual maker, I include using beautiful handspun yarn in my crafting year. As a spinner who enjoys working from raw fleece, my crafting includes picking and scouring fleece, fiber preparation, and sometimes dyeing. 

Make a wish list 

I use two tools for planning my projects: a wish list and make nine. Grab a notebook, pencil, and your favorite beverage. If you already follow a bullet journal practice, as described by Katherine Mead in the “Journaling to Grow” article, reserve a place in your journal for your crafting/creative wish list. This allows you to add items as they come to you and review them when planning your year. 

Some examples of a wish list: 

  • Create a winter wardrobe for me 
  • Create a summer wardrobe for a significant other 
  • Spin a collection of 2-ply handspun yarns in the same weight (sport, DK, worsted) for use in various projects 
  • Create warp and weft yarn for two stoles 
  • Spin the box of summer dyeing fiber 
  • Spin full commercial hand-dyed braids (fractal, gradient, rill, raindrop, and marled) 
  • Spin complementary colors for a colorwork sweater to be knit with commercial yarn 
  • Spin two braids of fiber for an accessory 
  • Become proficient with the dizzing-off-the-hand-carder technique using five different commercial braids or wool breeds 
  • Prep fiber and spin the pound/half a kilo of scoured fleece from last summer 
  • Spin with my spindles at least 15 minutes every day 
  • Practice fiber preparation with the Lock Pop and drum carder 
  • Scour one or two pails of raw fleece from the last fleece auction 
  • Spin through the Fiber Club braids received every three months 

Adding items to your wish list doesn’t mean you’ll tackle them all this year. This is just the first step. 

Choose a theme 

Along with your Why, choose a theme for your crafting year, such as His Wardrobe, My Summer Wardrobe, or Intentional Learning from Stash – whatever resonates with you. 

Draw a grid with nine spaces and title it with your chosen theme. Fill your make nine grid using your Why and wish list to guide your decisions. Here’s an example of my planning for the next 12 months: 

I want to spin beautiful yarns compatible with colorwork projects, improve my proficiency with fiber tools like the drum carder and the Lock Pop, and keep practicing my fiber prep skills with hand cards and blending boards. My make nine projects align with these interests and the crafting I enjoy. Note that I’ve included three works-in-progress. As spinners know, our craft is slow, and projects often carry over from the previous year. I also left one square open for any inspiring project or make-along I encounter during the year. 

Find your tasks 

Filling the make nine grid with attractive projects is satisfying, but it won’t become a reality if you keep it tucked away. New projects will fill your time if you let them. 

List all the tasks needed to make your crafting list a reality. Identify the roadblocks for each project. For example, scouring fleece or fiber dyeing may be seasonal tasks best done in warmer months. Account for fiber prep time before spinning the singles or sampling time if that’s a roadblock for you. Add each task to a checklist you can mark off as you complete them. 

Once I have my grid and checklist, I print the page and add it to my bullet journal. You might choose to stick it in your crafting area. Place it somewhere visible where you can check off tasks as you tackle them. 

Craft your year! 

For critical roadblock tasks, I schedule them on my calendar as I would a work meeting, ensuring I reserve time for them. I also add monthly tasks to my journal to stay on track with project progress. I enjoy photographing the process and sharing moments on social media. Reviewing these photos later inspires me and helps me remember successful processes. 

Two or three months before the end of the year, I reassess my crafting progress and celebrate my successes. I also reflect on any projects left unfinished and consider whether I was too ambitious, failed to account for roadblocks, or got distracted by new patterns or spin-alongs. I include this reflection in planning the upcoming year to better align with how I like to spend my crafting time. 

Planning my crafting year helps me be intentional with my projects, crafting garments that complement my daily life and ensuring I incorporate learning into my making. I hope what I’ve shared helps you start planning your crafting year too! 

Greta lives in the Greater Vancouver area, Canada. She enjoys sampling and planning her crafting time. She loves being the Education Program Coordinator for the School of SweetGeorgia, where she is lucky to make a career of her passion. She shares life with her husband, five kids and a house full of wool, good food, coffee and tea. She may be found at the SOS forums, knitting, spinning, or walking with her family. 

Words and photos by Greta Cornejo 

Guest Blogger

The “World’s Cutest Sheep” in Colorado 

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On a dusty road, halfway between Denver and Fort Collins, sits the thirty-five acre farm of Davis Family Livestock, with stunning views of Long’s Peak to the west and the piercing blue sky overhead. My focus, however, is much closer to the ground: on the new lambs chewing on my shoelaces. Affectionately called “the world’s cutest sheep,” the Valais Blacknose are the showstoppers of the Davis farm. The breed originated in the Valais region of Switzerland, and though endangered, it has grown in popularity though Europe, Australia, and the United States in recent years. While many breeds of sheep tend to be wary of people other than their shepherds, the Valais eagerly demand attention from everyone.  

The Davis family began breeding Valais Blacknose sheep in a roundabout way. A friend of Anne’s had told her about a British show with the cutest sheep, and it piqued Anne’s interest. After much research and discussion, Rob and Anne decided that the Valais Blacknose sheep would be the perfect animal to start their farm because the Valais have to be marketed differently than other breeds. Due to their rarity, newness, and novelty, one doesn’t need to run thousands of heads on massive acreage to make money. Plus, at the time, no one else in Colorado was raising the breed.

“There’s no mystery on how to raise sheep,” Anne told me. “We’ve been doing it for thousands of years.” But breeding Valais Blacknose does come with some unique challenges. The USDA does not allow the live import of sheep or goats. The only way to introduce new breeds of sheep to the U.S. is through imported semen and embryos, which go through rigorous genetic testing. Additionally, breeders want semen from rams that meet the Swiss standards for size, quality of fiber, and coloring. It takes a long time to meet all these requirements. In 2016, New Zealand was the first country to export Valais Blacknose semen to the U.S., with embryos following later. A couple years ago, the UK began exporting semen, and in 2024 began exporting embryos as well.  

Then it’s a matter of time and careful breeding. By the fifth generation of lambs, both ewes and rams are U.S. purebred Valais Blacknose sheep. The Davis family began their breed-up program with several Scottish Blackface sheep, and some first- and second-generation Valais sheep. They were purchased from a woman in Idaho who had started the program on her farm but had to stop due to some personal health challenges. The Davis family bought her sheep and continued the work she started. Anne told me that the two of them are friends to this day.   

Rob and Anne Davis purchased their 35-acre farm in 2020, the same year they began breeding Valais Blacknose sheep. Both come from agriculture backgrounds, Rob from a ranch in Colorado, and Anne from a fruit and vegetable farm in Oregon, and when Rob retired in 2017, the family began considering their next steps. Rob has a PhD in Agriculture Economics and Anne holds a master’s degree in Plant Pathology, but both wanted something more tangible to leave as a legacy for their two children. Their daughter Maddie has a passion for livestock and plans to take over the farm in the future. 

Higher education has been a significant part of the life of the Davis family, and they highly value the role that education plays in communities and relationships. Tours of the Davis farm are always free because Rob and Anne want their farm to be as accessible as possible. During the 2024 lambing season, they gave several tours a week, with lambs being delivered during a couple of the tours! Their tours typically begin with a walk around the farm to meet all the animals. In addition to the Valais Blacknose sheep, the Davis farm currently has Scottish Blackface sheep, Rambouillet sheep, a guard llama and alpaca, and several horses. The tour wraps up in the barn where Anne has put together an in-depth display of the fleece-to-product process. The display includes raw fleeces, a skirting table, handspinning tools, a dye pot, looms, and felting tools. I’ve led several handspinning demonstrations for tours, which allows visitors to watch and learn to spin yarn from Valais wool. In 2024, the Davises also bought an authentic sheep herder wagon from the early 1900s to add to the tour!   

Anne and Rob want their farm to be a resource for people of all backgrounds. They also mentor other breed-up programs. Anyone who buys sheep from the Davis family and has questions about breeding is welcome to give Anne a call, and she will help in any way she can. They are transparent with everything they do. “This is a small enough breed where we need to be supporting and working together,” Anne told me. “We need to be cooperating instead of competing.” The Davis family was the first to bring the Valais Blacknose breed to Colorado and produced the first purebred Valais ram in the state. They are proud to have led the way and now get to celebrate the success of other breed-up programs in Colorado. 

The farm invites CSU vet students to gain experience by watching procedures, and in the summer of 2024, the Davis family welcomed their first intern: a local high schooler interested in studying large animal veterinary science in college. Her work on the farm will also gain her school credit, so the program benefits both the Davis family and students interested in exploring agricultural vocations. There is always plenty of work to be done on the farm, and while Rob and Anne’s children, Roy and Maddie, help out when they are available, both currently have other jobs away from the farm.  

The last time Anne and I met for coffee, I asked her about the biggest challenges in running their farm. She didn’t hesitate. “The physical demands. Especially the heat.” The summer heat on the high plains isn’t just difficult for farmers, it can also be hard on the sheep. Colorado is so dusty that the dust irritates the sheep’s lungs and can lead to dust pneumonia. The Davises monitor their sheep closely to prevent pneumonia. To breed and raise healthy sheep, the farmer needs to be familiar with the environmental and climate factors that affect their livestock. But Anne isn’t discouraged by these challenges. To the Davis family, being close to the land and having a purpose is incredibly rewarding for them. The family gets to see new life and watch their animals grow and thrive. They get to see the joy on the faces of young children visiting a farm for the first time and the memories that are brought back for older visitors who haven’t been on a farm in years. Anne told me she especially loves when people come back for return visits. “If you think we are cool enough that you want to take your time to come back, that’s pretty special.”  

Anyone interested in touring Davis Family Livestock is welcome to contact Anne through the contact page on their farm website: https://www.davisfamilylivestock.com/contact 

Rowena Zuercher is a freelance editor and researcher who dedicates most of her free time to fiber and textiles. She lives in Aurora, Colorado with her husband Ryan and their turtle, ball python, and aquarium of fish. You can learn about her many heritage craft explorations on Instagram @homesaponified. 

Words and photos by Rowena Zuercher (except Davis family photo, which is from Anne Davis)