More than a decade ago, I wandered into a yarn store in Woodbridge, England, and saw my first ever skein of Noro yarn. I'm sure there are many fibre addicts out there who have had a similar experience - your mouth goes all dry, and you feel almost physically hungry with a desire to first own, then make something with that incredible yarn. While I am an average (okay, bad) knitter, I have an absolute passion for good-looking, nice-to-touch, hard-wearing yarn, and I'll admit that I'm a bit of a yarn hoarder. So I bought my first skein of Noro (Silk Garden!), and proceeded to make plans as to how to get the most out of my skein. Unfortunately, I quickly found that my desire for more luxury yarn quickly exceeded my budget, and besides, I was so worried that my knitting skills wouldn't do justice to the luscious colourway that I couldn't settle on a plan of what to make. I also began to realise that it wasn't so much that I wanted to make something from the yarn, but more that I wanted to make the yarn itself. So, after many hours on the internet, scouring used bookstores, and bugging people I knew had some yarn spinning knowledge, I took the plunge and bought a maple-wood drop spindle. I'd love to say it all went well at first, but truth be told, I almost broke that spindle over my knee about a dozen times in the first week. Eventually I got the rhythm, and started turning out some fairly bumpy, odd-looking yarns. I still have them somewhere, I take them out and have a giggle at them every now and again. From there, I moved on to dyeing my own fibre before spinning.
Around this time, I had trouble finding fibre in colours that I liked, so I started dyeing my own. I also invested in a lovely Ashford spinning wheel, and a drum carder.
While my production of yarn has stepped up a lot since I first picked up a spindle (although its still just me!), I still work in much the same way. Each skein is individual, and is made one at a time. While I occasionally make two skeins in the same colourway, it is rare. The world is so full of mass-produced products, I can't see why I should bore myself or others with churning out identical, consistently blah yarn. So visit my shop, have a look around and drop me a line any time you want to talk fibre!