Osborn Fiber Studio

June was all about spending as much time as possible out on this beautiful land.

Jared was traveling the first half of the month. This might be the longest he’s been away from all of us. The female contingent of our family did pretty well while he was gone, and a big part of our coping was to spend five nights out at the cabin. I am proud of how well we did on our own, handling all the little needfuls of cabin life. We missed daddy just as much, but many walks and card games and flowers made up for a lot.

After Jared got back, we finally threw MiniMighty’s belated birthday party. This was a hilarious mix of creativity and planning and completely pivoting, that could have been stressful, but ended up being special instead. MiniMighty felt celebrated, and that is the only part I care about.

We wanted to have some cabin time with Jared too. So we got away for three warm, wonderful days together. My big practical accomplishment was painting the deck.

Craft-wise, this month has seen a winding-down of my overclocking on 15-a-day pursuits, and a winding-up for several big things that are next.

Wool n Spinning

Radio

I need to start including in here what my part of Wool n’ Spinning is, because why on earth wouldn’t I? I hope this doesn’t all read like advertising copy, because I’m not getting paid to write this. These monthly round-up posts are just me looking at my month and sharing about it – and right now, Wool n’ Spinning is a huge part of my making. Making not just stuff, but making words and moving pictures to continue the creative process. You can check out everything that’s happening this month in Rachel’s June newsletter. Here are my bits!

Do you like audio podcasts? I’m obsessed with a couple right now, though they are mostly too silly to bother sharing with you. I really enjoy this medium as an accompaniment to our other content. My blog is personal, slow, analytical; our pre-recorded videos are fairly didactic; Rachel’s livestreams are more communal. But the non-visual medium of audio-only is intimate in a different way. And, because we don’t have to produce anything visually, there’s less pressure, and we tend to go deep!

I hope you’ll check out our conversations on Wool n’ Spinning Radio, which is now free for all, not just Patreon members. This month Rachel and I returned to our discussion of clothing philosophy. This time, Rachel shared her wardrobe colour palette exercise, and we share how a couple months of reflection are evolving how we think about dressing our bodies. Listen to episode 94 here, or search for “Wool n’ Spinning Radio” wherever you get your podcasts.

Tomorrow our next episode comes out, in which we will take a look back at our Year of Colour so far, and look forward to the rest of the year and beyond.

The Wool Circle

This month I wrapped up our exploration of combing. In episode 95, I recruited our lovely member Dionne to share some of her learnings over our Year of Colour so far. We discuss combing, and veer into rigid heddle weaving territory as well. In episode 96, the infamous ChatGPT helps me write an episode about what to do with combing waste. This swoonworthy skein was one happy result.

Behind the scenes, I have been feverishly beavering away on episodes for the next two months. We will be traveling for five weeks and then starting school, so it will be a relief to have those videos all teed up for sharing. You’ll finally get to see Dyeapalooza 2023! I’m super excited to finally share this journey. Wool n’ Spinning patrons at the Wool Circle level can watch the episodes, and I will have some accompanying blog posts here that will be public for all to enjoy.

All the Spin-Alongs

Rachel is teaming up with Andrea Mowry for a truly delightful spin-and-knit along that has taken over my life a little bit. Rachel knits lots of Andrea’s patterns, many of which are extremely spinner-ly. I’ve done a couple myself. This summer, we are having an -along to spin for and knit Andrea’s Attune Shawl pattern.

The spinning part of the -along overlaps with the Tour de Fleece / Tour de Fleece Femme spinning frenzy that is a big summer thing already. This year we are having a Wool n’ Spinning team that I get to co-captain.

This overlaps further with an annual Wool n’ Spinning event, Spindle Spun Summer. From the summer solstice to the fall equinox, we place an emphasis on spindle spinning, which is so portable for travel and working outdoors in beautiful weather. I’ve mostly been an observer, but for the first year I am in whole-hog with my new fleet of support spindles.

These spin-alongs are all being hosted in the Wool n’ Spinning ravelry group, where I get to be a friendly moderator. Some people are participating in just one. I, of course, had to find a way to engineer one project to participate in all three categories at once. This adventure really deserves its own post, so maybe I’ll write another tomorrow about this spin in honor of Day 1 of Tour de Fleece.

Wool n’ Spinning is Growing!

It’s just such an exciting time right now. Rachel has been implementing some new branding, with colours that are just so her that I love so much. The website update is still in progress, but I know it’s going to look amazing. With so many new Spin-Alongs going this summer, our Ravelry group is buzzing away again.

It’s always been a lovely community, but it’s a great time to jump in. There’s lots of public and free content to dive in with. But if you love what Rachel and I do, and want to see whether our paid content is for you, Patreon now has a 7-day free trial option. You can use it to mainline my podcast, I won’t judge. But if you decide to hang in there and support us, you’re the bomb!

I just can’t believe I’ve been on this team for 9 months already. Time flies when you’re having fun. And when you drink lots of coffee.

Spinning

And now, back to the actual stuff. You probably saw the yarn I actually finished this month:

It was a big relief to discover that this wasn’t a really slow spin; it was a really big spin. Now I am rocking and rolling on a messier woolen spin on my spindles that is thicker and faster all around.

I spent several days spinning up some test singles, a different colour of the same wool I’ll be using for TdF, to decide whether to spin a 2- or 3-ply. I really wanted to do a 3-ply, so I was relieved when the 3-ply worked in the (admittedly wide) range of gauges for the Attune Shawl pattern..

Another big chunk of time this month has been spent harvesting qiviut. After a facebook shoutout, a couple of hunters kindly shared spring hides with me that they had no use for. I don’t know how many hours I spent with this hide. Probably 15-20. But I think I got over a kilo of qiviut from it, and the hide itself is now drying to be a cozy rug at the cabin. I ended up sharing the second hide with a young lady who wants to learn to spin. It’s a relief to have that project finished. I enjoyed very much sitting in the sun harvesting, but the process was hard on my hands. Harvesting from one or two good hides like this would be a welcome part of my spring.

I’ve started working on combo spinning for the Wool Circle, but I’m working so far ahead on that that it wouldn’t make sense for me to even share a little spoilerific pic. Suffice it to say it is really fun and I think I’ve found a way to take it on vacation with me.

Knitting

Knitting…. I have been knitting… weird stuff.

MiniMighty is very like I was as a kid. I used to love poring over my mom’s knitting magazines, imagining and planning how I would knit every sweater in them for some member of my family. MiniMighty’s imagination has been captured by Tanis Grey’s books, of which I have two: The first Harry Potter knitting book, and the Star Wars knitting book.

MiniMighty sensibly decided she would knit the simplest project first. So I went out on a limb and ordered some yarn for her to make them. What appeared are these mug warmers.

I bet you can’t guess which of us is which Hogwarts house.

Now, I did most of the knitting on these. I think MiniMighty probably knit an average of about twenty stitches on each mug warmer. But you know what? It was a really positive collaboration. She was willing to work on it, sometimes asked to work on it, did as much as her attention span allowed, and let me do the rest. She made the creative choices, and I never pushed her. It was honest-to-goodness really special. And now we have a set of mug warmers for the cabin.

Now, when you go and buy seven colours of yarn for the end goal of mug warmers, you are going to have some epic leftovers. So I’m turning the rest of this yarn into pullovers for MiniMighty and her MapleLea doll, which I told her I have to finish before I buy more yarn for any more projects for her/us.

Going has been slow because I’ve also got my secret project to knit on. I’ve also been derailed over the last few days by an attempt to bring my samples for the Wool Circle all the way to swatching before recording. As fun as it is to sit around and knit for eight hours in a day and say “I have to, it’s my job,” it’s a lot and I might not do it again.

I haven’t decided if MiniMighty’s little sweater is coming on vacation or not. I really want to devote any and all knitting energy to finishing the first Big Stage of the Secret Project.

Weaving

Not much to report here, as I’ve already written extensively about what I cut off the loom this month. I forgot to wear it to church on Sunday. I hope I remember this weekend.

I have some ideas for sewing a bag out of some of my goofier weaving to be a project bag for my spindles while I travel, but what are the chances I’ll make time for that in the next few days? Low.

Sewing

I have come to a solid stopping point in my EPP project. Believe it or not, I only have one more set of units to complete, and then the center, and final assembly. But I needed a break from the whole 15-a-day thing. I got a huge chunk done in both this project and in the weaving corner. For a while, it helped me focus. But now, it’s not helping, so I stopped, except on the support spindles. This project will still be here when I get back!

Coping

I’m going to take a moment to share with you that I am typing this post through a migraine. The drama of this spring took a whole bunch of my life and shone a spotlight on it, revealing the level of masking going on, and stripping down my ability to mask to about 5%. My migraines have been back to almost weekly, my phone use is off the charts, and I pretty much can’t do any chores unless I’m dissociating with a podcast. With summer being so brutal on my sleep, I’m just on a different planet from where I want to be with mindfulness.

I am OK – I know this is just a season. We leave on vacation in a few days, which will allow my body to release a lot of tension, even as we have to juggle a different set of responsibilities. Change really is as good as a rest, at least in the mental load department.

What I am really thankful for is that I have this space, and the Wool n’ Spinning community, where I really can be myself. I post here, and I think you know, dear readers, that this is an exercise in thankfulness. It is a way to look at my month and see the things that went well. This builds excitement for what is ongoing and what is still to come, which are sometimes hidden behind the housework and human needs which are my daily riptides. It helps me find resilience to write here. And it blesses me that you read. So thank you once again, and I hope you find a note of resilience for yourself between these lines.