Brave
Over the last year, as part of our Fiberygoodness activity, we have released a range of ‘Yarn Recipe Cards’. These are simplified instruction cards for spinning different kinds of yarns, completed with step by step photos. The first was a set of 12, mostly yarn designs I have worked on and developed over the last couple of years. The second set was an collaboration between Arlene (Spin Artiste) and I, and it was prompted by the words of the late Maya Angelou, an amazing woman with some astounding insights. This was Arlenes suggestion and challenge 🙂 And I say challenge because it often is just that, taking words, or some kind of abstract concept, and turning that into a tangible and solid form, in this case yarn. To me this is what makes a yarn ‘art’ – the layer of concept and abstraction that has caused it to be created at all! This is exciting to me and I love the thought exercise it gives me as well. Arlene is especially good at selecting these challenges! We chose three quotes each to work on. Today I want to share with you the motivation and explanation of one of the three yarns I came up with, it is my no twist single: ‘Brave”. This is why. The quote: In the flush of love’s light we dare be brave And suddenly we see that love costs all we are and will ever be. Yet it is only love that sets us free. (Maya Angelou) I adore these words. To me these words describe unconditional love, simple but complicated, daring and full of risk, and yet it leads to ultimate freedom. Love challenges us to take chances, to be brave, it takes everything we are and we give that freely, and that act itself returns our freedom to us, in my mind it is all about letting go, and acceptance, and the consequence is the removal of fear. How to express that in yarn? wow! Its so BIG! This is my attempt… The Yarn: Along with the recipe cards, Arlene and I both did a short write up about each yarn design and how we related the words to the fiber. I would like to share with you what I wrote about this yarn, and Maya’s words. I hope it gives you some ideas for your own creations and another way to form a bridge between concept and concrete in your fiber work. Brave. A Woolwench yarn. I really connected with the notion of love requiring bravery, also that it offers us the chance to BE brave and even pushes us into taking risks. This prompted my idea for creating a very very low twist...
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