Hi!

I am Tabitha. I am 34 years old and I am an ‘ArtyarnGroupie’.

So there it is, now you know. I wake up in the morning and check the usual blogs, Ravelry groups and Raveler’s stash just to get my daily dose of woolly wonderfulness.

When Cindy asked me to write something about myself and my love for spinning, fibers and yarn I realized I had to come clean…..  So there it is. I am an ‘ArtYarnGroupie’, really an art yarn spinner ‘wanna-bee’. I spin novelty yarn, but that’s often more good luck than technique or thinking ahead. Can you see the frantic look in my eye?!

I am in total awe of people who create the most fantastic, well balanced, well thought out, technically outstanding, enormously inspiring, and colorful yarn. Like Laura with her pieces of art which are full of meaning, thought and feeling; Tracy, who is to me the queen of subtlety and has an eye for the true nature of the places she lives in; Cindy, who’s humor and wit in her yarns and Ravelry groups are just ridiculous; Karen, who I always think of as a super sophisticated lady with a crazy streak which totally comes over in her yarns, Velma, who has an idiotic feel for color. ( I do quote her to friends saying stuff like “it takes dye like a hooker takes crack”; non-fiber friends just glare at me and shake their head), Jacey, who is so incredibly cool and a super technical spinner, Lily, who is such a modest but incredibly talented spinster. Shall I go on? If I missed anyone, it is just because I have limited stalking time.

When I see everybody spinning with their bizarre techniques and so much subtlety, with these amazing eyes for details and color it makes me feel like such an amateur. I just grab my wheel, yarn, fiber, good intentions and start… and have a lot of happy accidents along the way. One of my favorites happy accidents is the time I threw way to much black into the dyepot. It looked horrible, but ended up being one of the most beautiful yarns I have ever spun.

I guess that’s how I do a lot of things. I say ‘yes’ and start, not knowing where it will take me. It creates chaos, movement and new things. I guess my kids and husband will agree with that…. Mum is always busy doing things and always creates a lot of chaos. Our house is slowly turning into a spinner;s wool studio. Everywhere you look there are knitting needles, spinning wheels, fiber, or drying yarns and batts. Sound familiar?? And the kids….they are already infected with the ‘fibervirus’. My youngest, who is not able to make full sentences, is bringing me all kids of stuff saying: “mamma wol”, when he thinks it is spin-able.

My oldest boy has already dyed his first batt and spun his first yarn on a spindle. How cool is that!

And the dearest piece to me I ever made is a skirt for my daughter. It is made from 2 dresses I used to wear when I was a little girl. I cut the dresses in fabric stripes and spun them. My daughter loves her knitted skirt and to me it is full of memories and meaning. That’s why spinning is so special to me, it can give meaning to things because they are made with love and dedication.

That’s what spinning is all about to me: making something beautiful out of nothing, giving and sharing with (virtual but real!) friends and letting your creative juices flow.

Editor’s note: I would like to thank Tabitha for a very personal, modest, look into her life delivered to us in a first-person essay written with a lot of vigour. You can find more from Tabitha here:  http://www.gnaptorknits.blogspot.com. Tabitha ended her note to me in saying…

…..OMG did I just become an ArtYarnSpinner by my own definition??! Thank you Cindy for letting me write this therapeutic essay. Now I can proudly say: I am an ArtYarnSpinner!

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**This is the second in the series of weekly Spinterviews and Spin in Public are really enjoying a lot of the submissions being sent into us. We would love to hear from you! – Send us a spinning story to editor@spininpublic.com. Any videos or photos you would like to share are also a welcome contribution.