An easy to spin staple length is about the width of your hand. And there is the question of purpose i.e is it for a scarf or a rug or just to practise with? Quality varies enormously between breeds, and within the breed, and within the specific fleece itself where, the easiest part to spin is mostly found where the saddle would go if it were a horse. Feel, smell, knowledge, nous and even hearing all play a part in making the important choice that may – or may not! – bring you joy in winter. For more information on choosing the best see: Ch.4 Fleece Nature’s best, ‘Handspinning – essential technical and creative skills’ (now in paperback) or request an extract.

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This Fowey Woods art yarn, by Jane Heynes, epitomises Art Yarn. It was inspired by a photo taken from the yacht “Steady’ while anchored in Fowey, Cornwall last month. The yarn includes my hand dyed Angora goat locks (mohair) that bring colour and texture reminiscent of the fresh new leaves just opening up in Fowey Woods alongside the estuary. What makes it art yarn?

Art is a personal response to something. If you are an artist and a spinner that response is art in hand spun yarn; a unique and meaningful blend of fibre, colour, texture, yarn structure(2ply) and spinning method (long draw) all brought together by that inimical spark of inspiration we call creativity.

The purpose of the yarn is Art; it may well become part of a project at sometime in the future; for today this yarn Being what it meant To Be, is enough -the epitome Art Yarn.

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What Joy to spin. Moved my wheel into the sitting room and will spend the weekend spinning by the fire; unless it dries up enough to dig over the asparagus bed that is…Hopefully it will be a weekend filled with Joy whatever the weather!

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Garden shed has been cleaned out. The poor thing is collapsing, the workbench is 2 inches lower at the back than the front;  it never used to be like that! It is over 30 years old, the centre part of the floor has given way, so nailed a board over the gaps for safety. 

poor thing is collapsing…. never used to be like that… centre giving way,  6in  lower than it should be…,and to end it all….. TREND CONTINUES DOWNHILL! 

whoops??‍

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Why go to all that trouble? Answer: because I love it. Love playing with wool and colour and using my skills to make something beautiful.

When you love what you do, you do it beautifully, says John O’Donohue, and he’s right. Doesn’t matter what it is – tinkering with a Harley Davison, digging the garden, or baking a cake, if you love doing it, then you do it beautifully.

But if your heart is not in it, you might as well pack up and start something else. What you do will not be beautiful unless you love it. You can tell as soon as you look at something if love has gone into it – be it a shiny motor bike, a cushion or perhaps most important than anything  –  a smile.

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What do I really need? A roof over my head, means of keeping clean and warm, and food and water – i.e. protein of some sort, fruit and veg, and, of course, toilet paper! Provided I can get to the shop, I’m ok. There is much more in Wilbarston shop that I don’t need, but do want. For example; fresh coffee (roasted and ground on the premises) fresh cream, rice and pasta, wine, yeast, newspapers and postal services. 

There is more to want than meets the eye.  The eye stimulates want… until I know something exists, I cant want it  – hence the £billion advertising and packaging industries.  Or maybe, it’s not until I see something, or run out of something I am used to having, that want  kicks in. For example I want fresh coffee, wine, and chocolate. (all stimulants I note!)

Over and  above these earthly needs is a far greater human need; love. Everyone needs love. Without love we would not survive infancy, never mind a crisis like this. I’m not talking about erotic love, which we all yearn for at some point in life. But the love that transcends everything, for which a language does not exist to describe it. Love of the sort I received from my parents, and love I share with my family and friends and those who fit somewhere in-between. Those who fit somewhere in-between include many pupils and fellow ‘woolies’ who spin and weave. They love what I love. Hence we share a love and respect for each other and our individual uniqueness, and creativity.

We feel the same for our pets and gardens,  love that is indescribable, and the very essence of our being. This transcendent love is where creativity is found. When you do what you love doing, you realise your own potential, and therein lies joy. I don’t think this can be found in a shop full of things we might want but don’t need. It is found in simple things shared with those we love.

 Love Bears All things 1Cor 13.4-7 – I think it needs saying.

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Ive been cultivating my garden for 30 years with a lovely old fork that belonged to my father-in-law (he died in the 1960s). When I started, the garden was full of twitch(couch-grass), a tangled network of roots enough to fill a wheelbarrow in every square yard, it had to be removed as it will grow straight though a carrot and chokes everything. All that remains now is creeping grass that grows on the surface – much easier to deal with.

Once I could dig all afternoon, now I dig for 20 minutes, then have to sit in the greenhouse for 20 minutes to recover. I also meditate for 20 minutes each day too. Im very fortunate indeed to have backache from digging my garden, so many people could do with a garden at the moment. Gardener’s backache is not REAL suffering….as the world’s leading  Christian Meditator, Laurence Freeman OSB explains in his Lenten message today;

‘Suffering, and we are all experiencing it in this crisis, should be avoided or reduced, if we can. But if we can’t, let’s learn from it. Let’s hope that after this passes and we begin the recovery, we will have a better understanding of what ‘normal’ really means.  Normal use of time, normal weather, normal relationships. How we use this time can help us find the centredness and balance that the Cross also symbolises. Then we will be less prone to blame and more ready to act well. Just by being who we are (like Jesus did) we will be agents of change for the normal that is real.’ 

– unlike digging, meditation gets easier as time passes http://WCCM.org 

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