Writing, carding, spinning....the business of fiber moves forward

I've been writing magazine submissions these past few months. Two have been accepted and I'm hard at work trying to meet the deadline for a third. As usual with we creative folks, the ideas and execution of those ideas come easy--putting it all on paper? Not so easy, because our brains want to move on to the next exciting project. A sort of "Oh, shiny!" moment every few days, and difficult to keep oneself on track. But I manage, with the help of lots of DVDs of the sci-fi shows I missed during the winter tv season. All the good ones come on at my bedtime and watching them at their original time would find me sound asleep in my chair with knitting in hand. And the cat snoozing in my lap, having taken advantage of my being asleep to catch a nap on my knitting.

Then there's the business of trying to keep carded fiber in my Etsy shop. I could card 8 hours a day, 3-4 days a week, just to keep all my colorways up to date. On the other hand, it gives my customers something to look forward to. The best part of carding is seeing something in my travels or in the yard that I want to capture in fiber. Upstate Meadows (currently out of stock) was one of those, it caught my eye when returning from Fingerlakes Fiber Festival several years ago. Field after field of Purple Loosestrife and Queen Annes Lace blooming among all those different grasses and I couldn't wait to get home and throw things into the carder to see if I could duplicate it.

One of these days I'll card enough Upstate Meadows to spin and knit a sweater for myself. But not this week, I have other colorways to work on and rolags to refill in the shop and create. Then there's the vegetable garden (and the danged groundhogs/woodchucks who like to break in for a snack) and the berry and fruit trees to take care of. Keeps me busy and makes for quick days and sound sleep at night.