Belated 4 Year Anniversary Giveaway!

I don’t know about you but giveaways are starting to have so many hoops to jump through that it’s almost not worth the effort. So I thought to celebrate the four years my fiber studio and farm have existed I’d have a simple giveaway.

In order to enter all you have to do is “like” this post on our Spindrift Studio at Reindeer Station Farm page on Facebook. That’s it! You can only enter once, but you can share the love by sharing the post. You get a chance to win these fabulous dryer balls and I get some exposure for my studio/farm. It’s a win-win! If you do decide to share, THANK YOU! Believe me, in this age of information overload I know what I’m asking. While you're on our FB page "like" it if you haven't already. Pretty soon I'll be doing FB-Only specials and goodies.

On March 1, Hamish will choose a winner. I hope it's youuuuuuuuuu!!

Can you believe it was four years ago that I sat spinning some nasty 10-year-old wool by my wood stove, longing for sheep and bunnies? (I never even dreamed as high as an alpaca and llama!) I am in fiber nirvana and I am fully aware of that and appreciate it every day, I truly do. Even when it’s 20-below outside I enjoy taking care of my animals, making sure everyone is as warm as they can be and has food and water. I love watching their fiber grow - okay, so maybe it’s more along the lines of lusting than looking but if you could see how beautiful it is as it grows you’d lust after it too.

Four years ago I didn’t even know where my studio was headed beyond writing. As I look ahead I see more writing. Hopefully not the kind with truly killer deadlines because I’m beginning to realize that it takes me away too much and too often from my own life. (Exciting news on that front very soon.) There will also be teaching because I love to teach. (News soon - hopefully later today - about a fiber retreat I’ll be teaching at. Come play with me!) There will be art of all kinds because I can’t seem to limit myself to a single medium. (And why should I?) There will be sales of vintage finds because I can’t help carting home with me items that I know have beauty and life in them beyond what others see. There will be bunny hugging because, honestly, what’s a Monday (or a Tuesday, or a Wednesday) without a bunny hug? And there will be sparkle because it makes me happy. Good times ahead. I hope you’ll join me.

So, about the giveaway. You’ll get three felted wool dryer balls and this snazzy bag to keep them in when you’re not using them. It’s plenty big in case you get, or make, more. Keep reading for a description and may the odds ever be in your favor.

“What Are Felted Wool Dryer Balls – And Why Do You Want Them? 

Instead of loading your laundry – that soft, precious fabric that touches your skin every day – with stinky chemicals that are in dryer sheets, these felted wool dryer balls will do the same job in less time. 

In a nutshell: The wool soaks up some of the moisture in your laundry as it dries, but then evenly distributes it into the air – helping your dryer stay humid longer, which exponentially reduces static cling. In addition, this “soaking and releasing” action makes your clothes dry faster. And all of these things together mean fewer wrinkles. And if you sprinkle a few drops of essential oil on them before using you’ll scent your laundry too. 

Best of all, they’ll last up to 5 years. That’s 5 years without having to worry a single bit about static, dryer sheets, wrinkles, buying supplies, and failed presidential debates (you shouldn’t ever worry about that last thing, anyway).” ~ Crunchy Betty

(This is where I learned how to make them, but I actually adapted her process because I wanted mine to be heavier and denser than what this process would produce. I both needle and nuno felted mine. But if you don’t win - or you simply fall so in love with these you want more and want to make them yourself - there you go. If you want some nice, dense ones like mine, or you don’t want to make your own, I’ll have more up in the shop. If you make them Betty’s way you can make quite a lot in a short time. Mine take a lot longer. But I’m biased; I like mine better.)

Portrait of a Fiber Artist

This is not actually a portait of me as a fiber artist. I mean, that's my picture, but it's to show you the work of another fiber artist, thespunmonkey
(www.thespunmonkey.etsy.com). She made that tangled nuno felt scarf I'm wearing. She used to live in Vermont which is where I first saw her work. Rachel and I went into a fiber store in Brattleboro (Knit or Dye) and saw a basket of art batts full of sparkles. They only had one blue one or we probably would have bought more.

The next place I saw her was on Jacey Bogg's art yarn video "Sit and Spin" and I thought, "Hey, I `know' her!" I can't remember if I found her blog or her Etsy shop first but I visit both frequently. It's funny . . . when you find someone you identify with on some level you feel like you "know" them, even when you don't "know" them. I guess that's how people feel when they read my books, because they say the same thing; that they feel like we're already friends.

Anyway, I decided to treat myself for Christmas and I went to thespunmonkey's shop and chose a tangled nuno felt scarf. I LOVE it!!! I wear it with all kinds of stuff and can't wait for spring/summer/fall when I can wear it with tank tops and T-shirts. I dunno, just wearing it makes me feel like a fiber artist. I find that in general scarves, more than any other item, have that effect. Maybe it's their wildness, their color, their what-the-hey abandon, but scarves are totally creative. (I guess it could just be my French showing . . . ) And even skinny scarves add a bit of warmth indoors when you wear them as an accessory. What I wanna know is why did it take me so long to figure this out???

Anyway, I love being part of the fiber creating crowd. I love wearing stuff I've created and I love wearing stuff other people have created. It makes me feel like I'm part of some universal, ongoing creativeness. And the colors . . . well, the belated discovery of color is a whole other post. I mean, I'm all for Shabby Chic, cottagey whites, but by the time I discovered fiber art I was like a starving man. Give . . . me . . . color . . . or I perish. It's amazing too how much the excessive use of color spurs you on to even more abandon in your creativity. And for us perfectionists that's revoluntionary.

Citizens of the world unite! Create art! Wear art! And be colorful! You are so commanded. :^)

On the Bobbin

My spinning wheel is a hard working machine. Especially lately. I've been prepping fiber and spinning up a storm. You can see some of the most recent stuff in our Etsy shop. (Link at top right.) But this lovely sensation just barely came off the bobbin and is currently having it's twist set. I've already sold a couple yards to a woman in Germany (thanks Petra!). It's finger teased mohair locks in pink and white with pink sparkle. It's sooooo lovely. I don't know why, but with other art forms I end up creating something I don't want to let go, but with fiber art the satisfaction seems to come from the creation itself. (Either that or I'm able to part with it because of the certain knowledge that there's more fiber where that came from and if I doubt it all I have to do is look out the window!!)

As I think I mentioned, probably in numerous places so bear with me, I visited one of my very favorite fiber stores on Friday (The Fiber Studio, Henniker, NH) and I finally, FINALLY, after nearly a year of trying to manage it, had enough time to bring my wheel up to the fiber loft and spin with all that fiber at my fingertips. I thumbed through Lexi Boeger's book Intertwined (one of my absolute faves on art yarn) and decided to make the Knotty Little Slub yarn. Very few people (at least around here) make art yarn so I caused a bit of a sensation and people would come up to see what I was doing and how. It was So Much Fun. A bit of a busman's holiday, but having all those fibers to choose from was too much fun to seem much like work. Needless to say I came home with a bag full of goodies and have some plans for it already.

On the way home I came up with an idea to make and donate art yarn chemo caps. I'm looking into the particulars and hope to have some news on that to share soon. I was very excited about the whole idea.

Right now I have to go finish up some more Wild Grey Tailspun because some of that is going to Germany too. And then, and then . . . some jingle bell yarn if I can round up the elves because it takes eight arms and a team of elves to spin that stuff.