Changing Gears

Sometimes, I find that fiber arts has lessons that we can apply to life in general. Case-in-point, my recent spinning attempt taught me a lesson.

At Stitches 2013, I picked up four ounces of this beautiful cashmere, merino, and silk that I wanted to spin for a cowl. Its in the colorway, Malificient.

I thought I wanted to spin it woolen, but after making a small attempt on my traddy, I had PROBLEMS and the resulting singles were spun too tight, had too many thick & thin spots. And I was just generall not happy. And this is not cheap fiber and I only had 4 ounces! I lost less than 1/2 ounce before deciding to try something completely different.

And, it turned out that I could spin it worsted just fine. So, I switched gears (and wheels) and began to spin it worsted on my Sidekick. The yarn and I are MUCH happier at this point.

The moral of this story? Sometimes, it's much better to completely switch gears and do something different than what you intended. There's no sense in pushing a boulder up hill when rolling it around the hill works just as well.