In the beginning:

In the beginning, man, or should I say woman, was wandering around gathering things, one was the fleece of some of the animals the hunters brought back, and the women noticed that when twisted together these pieces of fiber of fleece clung together, and you could wrap those long strings around a stick... That's it in a nutshell.  Fiber's are twisted into long strands, which can be used to tie things together, weave into fabric, knit, crochet, weave, and even mat with needles or water into felt.  From here, we can create so many things. Clothing, blankets, shelters, shoes, art and so much more.

It is my hope to take this simple little craft and discover what can truly be created if you really really want it.  When I lived in my mother's home, the sewing machine was pulled out and she would make lovely dresses for my sister and I to wear, as well she knit us sweaters, and I still can hear the plink plink of the needles as they crossed.  She did not always work on things and I do recall a loom with lots of string and some long  pieces of thick doweling that she would swear at in German as she tried to untangle the inevitable mess of strings that were hanging from the main dowel.  My sister and I were not allowed to touch her things... but I wanted to learn to knit.  The answer was no... However, my father saw me and grabbed me and he showed me to knit very simply and from there I learned to knit, and knit well.  I watched my mother and my little German Aunts that came to visit and exciting things would happen, in glorious natural colors made from mustard and onion skins and other strange exotic things.  These ventures into dying, I suspect ended in disaster, because one day it was all abandoned, to be worked on later (which came to never).

Life goes on and I would knit and sew from time to time and was always comfortable around textiles, loving the artsy feel of it all.  I had wanted to spin and knew no one who spin, there was no YouTube, so no kind of tutorial or lessons.  For, as luck would have it, spinning fell out of vogue and items for spinning were impossible to find.  Then one day I met someone in a group that was not even remotely involved in my desire to explore textile arts.  She brought me wool, and looms, and we continued to talk and built up a friendship.  I began to pour over YouTube and discovered ideas on how to make my own little drop spindle.  It was created from a pencil, I put in a little teacup hook into the eraser end.  I then sandwiched an old CD between two square pieces of cardboard with a hole in the center and two rubber bands... those are to set the place for the spooly end.  I just put the rubber band near the end by the eraser, and wrapped it around tight, then it's a piece of the cardboard, the CD and the last piece of cardboard, hold tightly in place and put the last rubber band around the pencil and inch everything up tightly together, now you have a drop spindle to spin with. 

This is a picture of my spindle, the fleece I used and the ball of wool I created.  That was my first ever attempt and it actually knit up quite well into these:

These mitts are finger-less and are actually quite warm.  I've made a pair of these in heather for myself, and these are more of a masculine style, which I call Bad-Ass Biker Mitts. :D