…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)!