May 15, 2013

The Gifts of Fiber

I really hate that there is only so much time.  By the time I finish working at my profession, training my border collies to herd, cleaning my house, teaching my spinning lessons, I have no time left to create my own art projects.  I have now reached the place where I have to parcel out segments of time to do all the things with fiber I love, and I have to identify those things that I could do but do not have time to do without causing some other aspect of the creative process to suffer.

Yikes!!!! I hate choosing.  I love preparing fleeces and seeing the fiber come alive into beautifully hand drafted tops and clouds of carded fiber that I spin in to lovely woolen and worsted yarns. When I prepare fleeces, no matter what animal provided them, I feel connected to and thankful for that animal's gift.  I am grateful for the opportunity to create something beautiful.  How could I give up the fiber I prepare or the feeling of gratitude that comes with it?

Oh, and the spinning is wonderful.  I can make exactly the yarn I want for my projects simply by preparing the fiber with forethought and mindfully spinning it into yarn.  Mindfully...Mindful... the spinning is a process that helps me to embrace a relaxed state of mind.  It leads me into meditation so that my hands are occupied with creation and my mind and heart are occupied with thoughts of peace and love.  I must continue to spin.

What shall I do with the yarn?  Sometimes I knit.  Sometimes I weave.  The choice of which to do is guided by my creative desires, and, often, I have several projects going at once.  Some of them are knitting.  Some of them are weaving.  The completion of any one of these projects allows me a sense of satisfaction that is hard to find in this world of rapidly accelerating technology and demands.  When I finish a fiber art project, I have reached completion.  I have created a "whole" out of many different parts, and I am satisfied. 

I still haven't chosen... Let's see...I receive the experience of gratitude from the preparation, the experience of mindfulness from the spinning, and the experience of wholeness from the knitting and weaving.  How could I choose not do any one of these?  The gifts of the fibers to me, gratitude, mindfulness, and wholeness, leave me a better person.  No, I won't choose, but I will certainly be thankful.