This coming week is going to be a little bit different. I’ll still be packaging and mailing your orders, homeschooling my kids, and doing a minimum of housework. As much as possible, though, my focus is going to be on spinning as much as I can.

I get to play (aka spin) all week long as a team member in Spin Together, and I am over-the-moon excited. It just took three years for me to get here.

Now, why in the world would I say it took three years to get to this week? Let me explain. In the summer of 2019, I heard the news that Spinzilla was not going to be happening, and I kept thinking that someone should do something about that. I had planned on having a team as part of Spinzilla for the first time that year, but of course the fact that it wouldn’t be happening meant I couldn’t do that. More importantly, lots of people who really enjoyed that competition and the extra time for spinning that it created wouldn’t have the chance to participate.

I kept thinking that someone needed to do something about it–start some new spinning competition. Well, I reached out to my fellow indie dyers, and a bunch of people said they would help. Without having a clue about how much work would be involved, we forged ahead with yours truly at the helm.

One of the things we wanted was to have a focus on creative spinning and not just yardage, so we built that into the competition with contests for Most Beautiful Skein and Wildest Art Yarn as well as yardage on spindles, spinning wheels, and e-spinners. Also, by having the different equipment categories, it was possible for spindle spinners to compete fairly. Last but not least, we wanted to make it team-based so that people would have a sense of community–even if that community was all around the world.

It was a great success. People had so much fun, and I’m really proud of what we accomplished the first year. Most people were in it for the fun, but there was also some serious competition. I had no idea that when we said people could start at midnight wherever they were that they actually would forgo a night’s sleep and do just that. Perhaps the fact that I have seven children has something to do with how much I value sleep.

In 2020, the world fell apart, but we decided to go ahead with the competition, thinking it would be a time of stress-relief and joy in the midst of the pandemic, and since it’s online and at home, there were no difficulties there. I think it went even better than the first year. We made small improvements from the first year in terms of the rules and much larger improvements on the tech side that made things go more smoothly. Again, everyone had a great time. This time we decided to have the competition begin and end at noon instead of midnight so people would sleep!

Now, both those years I was so busy running Spin Together that I had no opportunity to take part in it. This year, Jennifer Goodie of Goodie Supply Company was kind enough to take over the leading role. I’m still helping, but since I’m not the one in charge, I get to spin. Hip, hip, hooray!

Spinning is my first real fiber arts love. I started learning to weave and then decided to learn to spin too. When I started spinning back in 2003, I fell in love with everything about it. To this day making yarn seems magical to me. To take a hunk of fiber in whatever form it comes and turn it into something to knit or weave is endlessly fascinating. To make yarn that has texture and is absolutely unique warms my heart every time.

Yet, I have done so little spinning lately because I have been busy with making art batts and dyeing fiber and yarn for my shop. Don’t get me wrong. I love all of it, and I am so incredibly blessed to get to work at what I enjoy.

Nonetheless, I am delighted to have the opportunity to focus on spinning for a whole week. I may not be too active on social media, but I’ll still be here, and I’m more than happy to answer any questions you have and package up your orders as they come in.

I should also mention that I just dyed up Renaissance Festival for the first time in 11 months (!) and Purple Delight too.

Happy fiber arts!