#spin15adaytilMardiGras

Even though my blog is mostly about stamping and card-making, I've never really been a "monogamous crafter."  There are so many fun things to learn and experiment with, and in the last five or six years, I've really fallen hard for the fiber arts.

At the start of this year I stumbled upon a challenge on Instagram called #spin15aday12days.  It actually was a specialized version of the longer commitment to #spin15aday, created by The 1764 Shepherdess.  Of course, being from Louisiana, for me, the 12 days meant spinning something Mardi Gras themed and finishing it by 12th Night.  Can you say King Cake?!

To commit to spin 365 days straight, or even to a few months at a time, is a little daunting imho, but I really was not ready for the #spin15aday12days challenge to come to an end.  Another spinner and I decided to commit to daily spinning not just for the 12 days, but at least through Mardi Gras (February 25th this year).  Hopefully by then we will have established a habit and will be ready to commit to continuing to spinning 15 minutes daily til at least Easter, maybe longer.  

A while back I purchased a drum carder, so I was spinning the fiber I'd carded daily on my Kromski Interlude wheel for the 12 day challenge.  I was also working on a current spin-in-progress with my Turkish spindle, and I'm proud to say that I have made great progress!  It's really amazing what you can accomplish in 15 minute increments!

This is what my Mardi Gras carded batt looked like.

Then I stripped it by colors, spinning three colors together as a gradient and the other two as separate yarns.

For their journey from carded fluff to yarn

each one was spun as a singles on the wheel, 

chain-plied (that keeps the colors from barber-poling),

skeined onto the niddy noddy, then washed and hung to dry.

Spindle-spinning is much the same process, although the twist comes from the flick of the fingers rather than the treadles, bands, and whorls of the wheel.

The bonus of spindle-spinning is that it is portable! 

I really love spinning, how calming it is, and how it makes me feel connected with my ancestors.  

If you're a spinner, I really hope you'll join us on Instagram to #spin15adaytilMardiGras.  And spinner or not, enjoy some King Cake in this Mardi Gras season that extends from today, Epiphany, through Mardi Gras, which translates from French to "Fat Tuesday," the day before Ash Wednesday when Lent begins.