Chickenlips Knitting

Today I'm feeling much better about things in general. One thing I'm keeping in mind is that I knew, going into this venture, that I had no guarantee whatsoever of making money. Right now I am making exactly enough to not run out of stuff to dye, with nothing left over. Which means that if I think of what I'm doing as a "job", then I'm working for no pay, and that can be disheartening. Who wants to do that? So I changed my perspective to regard what I do as "fiber art". I was so hesitant the first year to refer to myself as anything but a "dyer". But now, I'm much more comfortable billing myself as an "artist". Because generally, dyers get paid. Artists, characteristically, do not. Therein lies the "aha" factor, at least for me. D'oh!

Semantics aside though, I've been doing a lot of knitting, and working on both a stealth knitting project and a commissioned dye project for a local textile artist. I'm especially stoked about the knitting, because I just love how it's coming out! It's a surprise for someone, so I'll have to wait awhile before I can blog it. And the other thing, well, it took some getting used to, being a dyer-for-hire. Somehow, between the textile artist's need to be exacting about the colors she wanted (a range of browns and flesh tones--not the easiest for any hand dyer, I'm sure), and my need to insist that hand dyeing is not an exact science, we were able to come to agreement after I dyed quite a few test skeins, and I'm about halfway through the work. I'm finding it more enjoyable as I go along. Within a week or so, the work should be completed. I'll post a pic when all the yarn--21 humungous skeins of alpaca laceweight!--is finished and ready to deliver. Provided, of course, that I have the artist's permission to do so. I hope she'll allow me to blog about it, because her project is so original and unique that it'll knock your handknit socks off!

Since I like to post at least one picture per blog entry, here are some spinning fibers I did recently.

New and improved "Earth Angel" colorway on merino