Thursday, July 4, 2013

Editing in spinning, and in kitchens

Over the weekend I did some fine-tuning in the cottage kitchen:


The cottage came with a pretty impressive collection of vintage kitchen gadgets, some of which were on display on the side of this cupboard.  After looking it them all of last summer I decided my very favourites would look better if the focus was on them exclusively, so I edited a little.  I may rotate the collection over time, or adjust the nails slightly (that tea strainer in the lower left corner should probably come up an inch), but for now this looks good to me.

Last night while I was spinning more romney/mohair it occurred to me that the process of twisting fiber into long strands of yarn is another form of editing.   You're taking a big puffy cloud of yum,


and streamlining it,taking out the little clumps and bits of straw to soften and smooth it, concentrating the colour and impact while maximizing the practical value of the whole.

Spinning the same fiber combo for so many days in a row could get boring but fortunately, the dye work means that what's on the spool varies its stripes over time.  I started the evening with this:


and shifted to this:


and ended up with this.


Two of the three singles are complete, finally.  Just one more and then I can ply!  I love plying: it's the ultimate organizational victory.  Also it means I can move on to purples.

Anyway: I love editing.  It's my favourite part of writing too, which is lucky because it's so important there.

Hope my American friends have a lovely Independence Day today, and that all of us get in some crafty time!

No comments: