This Contest has ended.
Our Valentines Contest Winner is Julia of jkkehew at gmail dot com
Julia wins a couple of Goats Milk Soap Bars in Almond Poppy. Her fiber booty includes a generous amount of Soysilk, Silk Latte and Superfine Merino in the Candy Forest Colorway. Congrats Julia!
We would also like to thank all contest participants for being such a great sport and sharing with everyone your sweetest fibery moments. Your eligibility for 20% discount off regular priced fiber is valid for your next one-time purchase till April 1st, 2007.
Keep a lookout for more fiber contests coming soon in the near future! Happy Valentines everyone!
Matahari Spinnery is giving away a special fiber and goats milk soap package to one lucky contest participant. All you have to do is write an entry on your sweetest fiber experience under comments and you’ll be eligible for the drawing on Valentines Day. Please leave your email address so we have a way to contact you if you happen to be the lucky one! All contest participants don’t leave empty-handed either, when you post your written entry you will automatically receive a 20% discount on your next purchase of regular priced in-stock fibers at Matahari Spinnery (fibers already on special do not apply). To take advantage of your 20% discount, all you have to do is mention which entry is yours and we will apply the discount to your invoice. The drawing will take place on 14th February on Valentines Day and we will announce the lucky winner here on our website. To leave your entry, scroll down to the bottom of this page and write under Comments. Good Luck and Have Fun!
Hey everyone, leave your entry here. Good Luck!
My sweetest fiber affair had to be the Christmas after I got my new wheel. My hubby went to our local fiber arts center and got me a very generous gift certificate to pick out and buy my own fiber to spin. What a wonderful way to support my new hobby! I had never even mentioned that’s what I would like so it was all on his own. I was so surprised and excited, what a super Christmas gift it was!
My sweetest fiber experience was this past Christmas, my first Christmas with my current Significant Other.
This season he was very busy with work and family concerns, and kept saying he hadn’t had time to go shopping yet, so one night rather late in the season he finally told me he was going to go get my presents and that I had to stay home. When we opened our presents a few days later, it turned out that not only had he already had gifts for me, but his last-second shopping trip had been to clear Jo-Ann out of the “best” yarn they had, filling a Yarntainer with cashmere blend yarn … cream-colored, so that I could hand-dye it any color I wanted. When I opened the gift bag, he told me that I *had* to use the yarn to make something for myself, because he knows I usually neglect myself as far as making things for me. Silly boy. ;D
I made a pair of wool socks for my hubby for Christmas. He is wearing them all the time, ugh even dirty. He told me he could manage to live with a “few more pairs” of woolen socks. So spinning for socks for Valentines day. Gotta do it secretly by day!!!
Within the first couple years of marriage my husband learned to knit in order to help me figure out new techniques. I, of course, help him fix any mistakes in his projects. A couple of years ago, he wanted to make me a pair of socks. I knew about the socks ahead of time, and as of Christmas Eve they still had a lot of work to be done on them. He stayed up until the wee hours of Christmas morning finishing that pair of socks for me. I think he was more excited than the kids when we started to open presents, and I was so surprised, as I had gone to bed much earlier the night before. I’m now trying to dye and spin some special yarn to give him on Valentines Day so he can make something for himself (especially since Christmas was full of books and tools for me for my new fiber hobbies)
My sweetest fiber experience is when a groomer who is an email friend sent me one of her friends mothers pet dog fur because he had been put down. I spun it, crocheted a heart with a hanger with a doggy button and sent it back to her. My groomer friend and the mothers daughter bought like a shadow box to put it in, they took the mother to supper and presented it to her. She cried and said now she could pat her precious dog anytime she wanted to. It was very touching and made me feel good that I could preserve someones loved animal in some way.
Kathy-Maine
My hubby is wonderfully supportive of my fiber addiction. He has built me many tools over the years. I have a lovely purple heart niddy noddy that he made, and a wonderful drying rack that I can fit two fleeces on. The first memory that comes to mind however was the Christmas he tried to buy me a sweaters worth of Qiviut yarn. I was a little relieved that he didn’t succeed. Can you imagine how warm/expensive that would be? However the thought is soooo amazingly sweet.
My husband has a Christmas stocking made by his Gram. It is one of his most treasured posessions, but the edging was embroidered using a very slick and shiny lime green acrylic yarn that I haven’t even seen in stores since the 80s. That edging was falling apart. I dyed some superwash, spun and plyed a matching yarn [as close as I could get], and redid the edging, stitching into the original holes. He nearly cried.
My sweetest fibre experience has to be when I learned to spin in November. I have a wheel now and lots of spindles and I love spinning in any form. It gets in the way of knitting a lot of the time but it is just great. I’m lucky because hubby is very supportive of my many fibre obsessions.
Years back, I’ve always wanted an Angora goat. I immediately fell in love with them during a visit to a county fair one summer. My husband has a habit of putting things off so I didn’t think I’ll ever get one any time soon. One day, we took a day trip up north in Northern Arizona to go hiking. Instead of going to a hiking area, my husband drove to a countryside farm that had Angora goats! To my surprise, there was a pregnant Angora with a pretty ribbon on her collar ready to go. She was the most goregous goat, silky coat and all, I’ve ever seen. Later that year, she gave birth to twins right in the middle of a guild meeting at my house. Everyone had such a great time witnessing two beautiful babies with silky fleece just like their mother.
My sweetest fiber experience has been de-hairing the cashmere plucked from my own goats. It has been a delight to touch every bit of that downy cashmere as I’ve picked out the hairs that came out in the plucking/brushing. I am still working on my cashmere-spinning skills, so the cashmere from Dove and Winter is waiting until I’ve developed enough skill to turn their coats into masterpieces. And in the meantime, I married the fellow who definitely deserves and would treasure a Dove-N-Winter scarf!
My sweetest fiber experience? Not a significant other (he didn’t get the spinning thing — you’re so lucky) but the very moment I sat down at my Majacraft Suzie and spun a fine, beautiful yarn. Why? I had another wheel (it who must not be named) and I feared I would never spin again — its bobbin-led tension bucked me every time and I produced only worry worms! Oh, sweet Suzie and the moment of knowing yes, I AM a spinner!
Spinning in general has been sweet for me, but…my favorite moment was last year, when I went to my first guild meeting.
A relative emailed me to let me know she wanted to give me some knitting needles and crochet hooks that were her grandmother’s. After several attempts at connecting, she finally emailed me to say, “I know you’re a member of the spinning guild, so when I ran into the membership director recently, I gave her the hooks & needles to give you when she sees you.”
Now, I had talked about wanting to go to a meeting, but never had! The meeting was only a week away, so I cleared my schedule and decided I’d better go this time. I figured I’d show up, get my stuff, and head out–I had heard many horror stories of exclusive or snobby guilds, so I didn’t want to get into that.
Of course, the meeting was absolutely wonderful. I met so many people, learned so much, and promptly joined as a full member before the day was out. Even better…the small bundle of knitting tools I was expecting also turned out to be a shopping bag containing three 6oz bumps of local roving, as well as a handspun skein in my favorite color of blue from the same person. Not only did I receive a lovely heirloom collection in the hooks & needles, but I got a great start to my spinning stash, an addition to my knitting stash, and best of all, I got the kick in the rear I needed to actually attend a meeting instead of just thinking about it. More than anything, that has helped me improve my spinning a hundredfold. Now I look forward to each meeting like they’re holidays.
I received my first spinning wheel as a gift just before Christmas this year. After playing around with some plain white top, I reached into my box of fibers and saw that I had picked up a beautiful pinkish-purple piece of roving that had been a gift from a dear friend who recently passed away. The whole time I was spinning I felt as if she was standing at my shoulder reminding me to treadle a bit slower, ease up on the wool, and, most of all, to relax and have fun! The yarn is a bit thick and thin, but very special because of the sweet memories. It has now become a pair of fingerless mitts that I can wear while keyboarding or knitting. The timing was especially sweet, since our heat went out on a Saturday a few days later and the temps were in the single digits (Farehneit) outside.
After reading the other entries, I almost decided to not even bother writing about my sweetest fiber experience. But i wanted you to know how special and what a good person my man is.
I only started spinning in June of ‘06 on a drop spindle, but fell in love with spinning so fast that in August I got my wheel. I spin every chance I can, and love showing my family my newest ‘creation’.
One night before Christmas I was spinning some really beautiful fiber, and asked my husband if he’d like to see what I was making. He shouted that no, he DIDN’T want to see it, and proceeded to leave the room.
I kept spinning, but was crushed, thinking he’d lost interest in what I was doing.
Two weeks later, on Christmas morning, my devious little stinker of a husband handed me, with a huge smile on his face, the jumbo flyer kit for my wheel that he’d had all along for my present from him.
Hubby who gets the eyes rolling into the back of his head look when I talk fiber etc etc. sweetly came along with me when a new yarn/spinning shop opened not far from my home. As I was oohing and ahhing over llama and other fibers, this man just grabbed everything that I had in my hands and even offered to buy me some hand carders! I graciously turned the carders down (for now). Once home as I had my prizes, he asked if I got another spinning wheel, which one did I want. After telling him,, and from where,,, he promptly ordered it. As he put it, an anniversary present he knew I’d be bowled over,,, and that I would probably need extra equipment for all the new fibers he bought me. Well,, my Lendrum is arriving sometime today!
There are many good memories associated with fiber already including lessons given to me by my teen-aged son who showed me how to spin dog hair with a Q-Tip! My favorite story, however, is when I was just learning to knit after spending a week with my family during which my mother taught her two of her daughters, one of her daughters-in-law and one of her step-granddaughters to knit. I came home and was quietly fussing (cussing?) in my chair across the room from my husband. Finally, he asked, “Do you want some help?” I, of course, looked at him skeptically but he came right over and took the knitting from my hand and fixed my mistake. It turns out his mother taught him to knit years ago and when he was in the Air Force, used his talents to pick up pretty nurses at the UK hospitals. He ended up marrying one of those knitting nurses and to this day remembers what she was knitting the first day he met her. His sadness over losing her was a terrible burden for him. I worried at first that my taking up the craft/art would be upsetting for him and finally asked him one day while he was sitting there watching me knit if it bothered him. He smiled and told me he was glad I did learn to knit because now all the important women in his life: “you, my mom and your mom all knit. It just seems right.” I started spinning last Memorial Day weekend. This Christmas he bought me a spinning wheel. He fusses sometimes over my ever growing stash of both yarn and fiber, but I think he is secretly delighted I have found a hobby that I love.
My sweetest fiber experience happens evertime I try a new fiber! The anticipation of opening a package of new fiber just can’t be explained. Then you touch the fiber and you think to yourself – is this the softest fiber I ever felt? Then you can’t wait to spin it and voila you’ve got yarn. The best thing about it – you can experience this feeling again and again – and all you have to do to experience it is go to your nearest fiber supplier! Yea!
My sweetest fiber story began when I mentioned in passing to my then new boyfriend that there was a Sheep and Wool Festival coming up in about a month. He replied, “Let’s go.” It was so much fun showing him different types of fibers and what makes them unique. He was fascinated by the spinning wheels (anything mechanical with that boy!). I lost count of how many times he said, “I could make that!” I was already a knitter, and he bought me my first drop spindle that day.
My sweetest fiber experience happened recently. I ordered some beautiful hand painted merino/tencel yarn but received roving instead. I never gave spinning a serious thought until then. I have 3 drop spindles now, and while I still have a lot to learn, I’m actually spinning and learning and loving it.
My sweetest fiber experience happens everytime I dye something and it comes out GREAT! Lots of them do not, I’m afraid, LOL. I have a teeny skein of wool that I spun on my brand new Babe wheel and did my first navajo ply on and then put it in the microwave with royal blue Wilton’s and it came out a lovely ocean color. It is really too small, only 40 yards, but I’m so excited that it came out PERFECTLY. Runner up would be that I built my own wheel with a bike wheel and my husband helped with it and it WORKS…And, although my husband doesn’t really care at all about what I’m producing, he is happy that I’m enjoying myself.
My sweetest fiber experience? When my sister spun my very expensive, gorgeously dyed “fluff” I purchased on eBay. Now how “sweet” is that of her? I just finished the shell top from it too
I have been in search of a wheel for over 2 years now (i finally succumbed to the Kromski Sonata -delivery expected end of Feb 07) and my next sweetest fiber experience will be after that arrives and I spin some on my own!
My sweetest fiber expeience was when I got my first spinning wheel…my hubby drove me 45 minutes away to pick up a table loom…for my graduation…and then for my birthday…bought me lots of different fibers to learn to spin on. He was excited I was wanting to learn to spin and weave.
It’s a toss up between learning to spin while on honeymoon in Atlantic Canada, and my experiences at MDSW last year. At MDSW I volunteered at the fleece show. I had never even SEEN raw fleece before that and had only been spinning half a year. I learned a ton from the exposure and got to listen to Judith MacKenzie McCuin judging the fleeces and describing what qualities she was looking for with each breed and how the fleece met or didn’t meet them. I was also able to buy the grand champion cormo fleece! I was floored by all the vendors and the wealth of fibers available. I was in fiber heaven.
My poppa became seriously chronically ill when I was 3 years old. He worked in a textile mill, and between being out on strike and being in the hospital, he was a very depressed guy.
On my 4th Christmas, he bought me some red yarn, some blue yarn, and some knitting needles. I poked at them, and remember looking up into his face. He sat down beside me, and proceeded to teach me how to knit. The first project was a strip that became a blue headband – k3 p3 k3 p3 etc – checkerboard pattern. The second was a pair of red mittens. The ribbing on those mittens took me just about forever! He helped me tear it out and do it over until I finally got it right. I had those little mittens for years.
When I was 11, I decided to become a textile designer. That Christmas, he gave me his pic glass. A tool to count threads. That tool was more important to him that any other, and he gave it to me! Brass, worn so smooth you could see yourself, and that lens, polished from years of use.
My poppa died when I was 18. For over 30 years, I’ve made yarn and knit. Every day. He is with me every stitch of the way. Every spin of the spindle. What a dear man, to love me so much.
My sweetest fiber experience? As a grad student, last fall was my most stressful semester. I was teaching for the first time (because my advisor was on sabbatical) and studying for my qualifying exams. Learning to spin was my way of trying to keep my sanity in the midst of all of that. Needless to say, my admittedly tiny stash of fiber was piled up along with insane numbers of books all over the floor of our study. One day, I came home to discover that my husband had spent his day off reorganizing the study to fit in an extra bookshelf, just for my fiber and spindles!
I love spinning so much, every time I spin it is a very sweet experience. I have always loved yarn and crocheted years ago and then tried to learn to handknit. That wasn’t very successful. Then someone told me about knitting machines. Wow! I fell in love. I had always wanted to learn to spin, and was told it was a great stress releaser. Well it was atleast 10 more years before I got the chance to learn. At first my goal was to spin yarn thin enough to knit on the knitting machine, but I did finally learn to hand knit. I just love knitting my handspun yarn. No matter what it looks like, I love everything I spin. I am now hand knitting socks and scarfs with my handspun and am thrilled at all the new skills I’ve learned. Now to brainwash my granddaughters to I will have someone to knit and spin with.
My sweetest fiber experience changed my whole approach to knitting and spinning. Last Winter Olympics, when “The Yarn Harlot” Stephanie Pearl-McPhee challenged knitters to knit a project during the two week Olympic games, I decided to try a sweater. I ended up spinning for it the week prior to the Olympics, then started knitting during the opening ceremonies and actually finishing it by the closing of the games. This opened my eyes to the possibility of finishing projects within a reasonable amount of time, and not leaving them to languish for months or years as my creative energies when on to new projects. I continued last year to knit several shawls, and a few pairs of socks and hats. This year I have a rigorous schedule of knitting and spinning, but it makes me so happy to not only enjoy the process, but actually to complete projects as well.
i knit my husband’s socks from hanspun yarn and he wears them til they have big holes, then he mends them. THEN, when they are mere rags from the foot down, he uses the still-good tops to stuff into drafty places in the house! we have an old house that he is renovating and often he needs just a little insulation somewhere to stop a small stream of cold air; the old socks are perfect for that!.
My sweetest fiber experience (although I feel like I have many) involves my grandmother, who taught me to knit when I was about 12. I grew up in Canada, and she lived in England, but she encouraged me in my knitting, and kept me and my siblings, and then my sons, in gorgeous hand-knits for years. She made fantastic cabled arans and her finishing work was impeccable.
Shortly before my grandmother died, I sent her a pattern and wool to make a sweater for me. She finished it, and sent it, but the shoulder pattern was somewhat unusual, and she had misunderstood the instructions, so the sweater didn’t fit. I thanked her for the sweater (without mentioning the shoulders), packed it into a plastic zip-up bag and waited until I had the time and inclination to refinish the shoulders. When that day finally came, some years after she had died, I opened the bag with the sweater in it. It still had the sweet scent of my Grandma knit into every stitch, and when I opened the bag, it brought her–and loads of good memories, fiber and otherwise–right back to me.
My sweetest fiber experience crossed generations and state lines. My aunt had started a baby blanket for me (ahem!) several decades ago, and never finished it. One snapped knitting needle remained in the work, holding the live stitches and marking the precise place that her patience had deserted her. I grew up to be a knitter and spinner, so she gave the blanket to me to finish. I dutifully set off finishing the blanket, which was a simple stockinette bias pattern, and was to have a knitted border attached. She had lost the original pattern, so I searched through my pattern books to find a suitable substitute. Once the knitting was completed, I noticed that the yarn she had knit with had yellowed over time, while the fresh yarn I had continued with was clean and new. I sent out a wail of despair to a friend who is a dyer, and she agreed to help, so I mailed the blanket several states away, and it was returned to me overdyed a consistent shade of rosy pink.
My aunt and I had originally intended to donate the finished pink blankie, as it had come to be called, to charity. But on it’s completion, we learned that my cousin, my aunt’s daughter, who had long been trying to have a baby, was pregnant. And her soon to appear baby would be a girl. Needless to say, she was gifted with the pink blankie, which had been a collaborative project across time and space, calling on the skills and talents of three people, who welcomed a long awaited baby with an even longer-awaited finished project full of love.
My sweetest fiber experience was the last time I dyed wool with KoolAid – it smelled like KoolAid for a couple of weeks.
My father listens to me gush about spinning every time he calls…and he knows how important it is to me to have something slightly meditative to do while I’m bogged down in grad school. So this year for my birthday, he surprised me with a new wheel (my old one has been getting cranky). And like any good Dad, he wears even the questionable knits I made out of very lumpy yarn from when I first started spinning.
Hi everyone,
Every gift giving holiday is a special moment. My family and husband indulge me terribly in my obsession with all things fiber. Last years it was oodles of mixed fibers and paints for my quilting. This christmas he really out did himself. I got oodles of knitting supplies including a no longer in print hard to find book , but it is one of the best books on Fair Isle knitting.
I am now getting into spinning and want to learn every inch of it. After 10 years of trying to talk my mom into giving me her Louet spinning wheel…. She finally gave it to me… My mom has been my inspiration and mentor in all things crafty. She introduced me to all my addictions as a young girl.
However, my most heartwarming was this past weekend when my mother-in-law. We were browing the local yarn shop together and found the most beautiful skein of yarn that we both fell in love with. Later at the store we found a sweater pattern that just called my name. My mom-in-law got this wonderful twinkle in her eye and asked if she could purchase the pattern and yarn for me. She was so excited about it. Now she calls everyday to see how the project is comming. Little does she know that I am going to make her a sweater too.
My sweetest fiber experience was when I was a little kid and a lady at the farmers’ market offered to let me try spinning for a few minutes. I’ve forgotten exactly what she taught me (I use a drop spindle rather than a wheel the odd time I spin now), but the lady was really nice and the idea that I could make my own yarn appealed to me.