JessaLu Knits (and Spins!)

…because she threw a gauntlet at me.  Or something.  ;op~

Over the weekend, I became embroiled in an email controversy.  It was a small one, but meaningful to me.

You see, Cookie didn’t believe me when I told her just how horrible my first ‘skein’ of handspun truly was.  I had complemented her on her freshly beaten skein and told her that I wish my first handspun was as nice as hers.  She replied that was not her first skein and her first skein was, as she put it, “a hot mess”.  HA!  I said!  No way was it worse than my first skein!  She didn’t believe me.  The gauntlet had been thrown.

So, just to prove a point, I shall now dangle my dirty laundry in front of the whole interwebs.  Brace yourselves, you may want to avert your eyes:

That is roughly 1 oz of BFL.  From Foxfire Farm.  That fiber in no way deserved the horrible, unspeakable things I did to it.  *sigh*

It was spun on a Bosworth drop spindle (fitting since Sheila taught me to spin at Cummington in 2006) and then – are you ready for this? – Navajo plied on the same drop spindle.  Because I wanted to conserve the colors.  Because I thought I’d knit with it.

Except I’ll never knit with it.  Want to know why?  I need the reminder of where I started.  I had no problem finding this little skein because I keep it on the same shelf as my iPod speaker in my craft room, so I can see it.  So I can remember that I have the capacity to truly suck at something when I make the first attempt.  (you should have seen the first box bag I ever made – it’s on the same shelf, hehe)

The shelf below that holds my basket of handspun, the handspun that I am most proud of.  The handspun that looks like this:

Why right there?  Close to my first?  So I can see what I can accomplish when I apply myself.  So I have a reminder to not give up because I may have screwed up.  Because screwing up is an important lesson, it shows you how to not screw up.  ;o)

Of course, that first skein can also be considered ‘artsy’ since it’s thick and thin and you know what?  I couldn’t spin like that anymore if I tried.

p.s.  I am very proud to have one of my Stitched bags added to the prize basket for Claudia’s MS ride donation drawing!  For every $10 you donate, you get a chance to win one of some very nice prizes!  Please head on over there and donate so we can help her get the #1 on her jersey for one more year (and, of course, support a very worthy cause)!

20 Responses to “For Cookie…”