Hello, my name is Natasha Sills and I have a serious problem. I have craft-related attention deficit disorder (CRADD). I hop around from hobby to hobby, learning each new technique until I have a few projects under my belt, and then something new catches my eye. At some point or another in my life, I have been obsessed with drawing, painting, sculpture, mixed-media art, graphic design, photography, artist trading cards, sewing, knitting, and crochet.

Then suddenly, I found something that stuck: spinning. Even back in those awkward first days of fiddling with my spindle, I knew I had hit on something special and different (to this day, I have never been able to actually drop my drop spindle, but I digress…). I now spin on two wheels: my beloved Ashford Traveller “New Zealandy”, and my Spinolution Mach 1 “Frank the tank.”

Unfortunately, CRADD sufferers like me tend to be impatient. I have endless respect for those who can create a 1200 yard skein of perfectly even, two-ply, lace weight yarn. Unfortunately, that respect does not translate into the required amount of patience to do it myself. Every time I’ve tried to spin thinly and evenly, a little inner voice whispers in my ear, “This is no fun; you could buy yarn like this at the store! Why don’t you make something unusual instead?” And so my interest in art-yarn just sort of happened; there was simply no other option for me.

What began as selling occasional skeins of handspun on Etsy eventually evolved into selling both yarn and fiber on my own website, Gritty Knits. I began selling Ashland Bay and Ashford fibers alongside my own hand dyed roving, and I also invested in a drum carder to make and sell blended batts. I quickly realized that the more products I carried for my customers, the more fiber I had at my disposal when the muse struck. The spare bedroom has since been converted into a warehouse filled floor to ceiling with wool, batts, unusual art-yarn ingredients, and more colors of Angelina than you can shake a stick at …arranged in Roy-G-Biv order, of course.

The question art-yarn spinners are asked most often is, “What can I do with this?” I have to admit, that question confuses me. Having always been the artsy-type, the list of possibilities seems endless to me.  “What CAN’T you do with this?” Every new skein I see starts an immediate list running in my head: “Wow, that would make a great purse. Or hat and mitten cuffs. Or pillow sham!” Sometimes I’ll want to keep a skein just sitting on my desk, as-is, because it feels like a work of art by itself. The only drawback is my unfortunate geographical situation: I live in Houston, TX, where winter only happens on TV, thus negating the need for warm garments.

I recently purchased a small loom and discovered that weaving is the perfect medium for unusual yarns. Every single inch of the yarn is displayed, and we southerners get the added benefit of a much thinner fabric than with knitting or crochet. Yardage seems to go much further on a loom, a factor that compliments the small size of most handspun skeins.

Unlike many of my contemporaries, I rarely spin a yarn intended to pay homage to any particular person, song, or picture. That may have been my intention on a few early experiments, but frustration taints the experience when it doesn’t come out looking exactly the way I envisioned it. My solution to this problem is simple: stop envisioning. Without a plan to start with, the finished product can never be wrong. My current strategy amounts to little more than grabbing handfuls of whatever fiber happens to be within reach and crossing my fingers that everything matches at the end. Chances are someone, somewhere in the world will like it. And with any luck, they will find my website and adopt it.

Find more of Natasha’s wonderful musings, yarns and fibers here:

Store: http://www.grittyknits.com

Blog: http://blog.grittyknits.com