celebrations

Looking back over 10 years - Spinning & Knitting

November 01, 2023

I thought it would be fun to take a look at the way October House began and the transitions it has gone through over these past ten years.

I started out hand dyeing spinning fiber one day a week (I was working 4 days a week at a regular job), with just a bit of yarn added after a while. I was doing a lot of hand spinning in those days and I loved experimenting with the different sheep breeds and natural fibers. I still think braids of fiber are beautiful (and very photogenic):

OHFA 10 year anniversary - October House Fiber Arts Journal - braids of spinning fiber

I started a monthly fiber club and it was a lot of fun. Playing with color in that way is completely addicting! I loved it! It eventually got just a bit too big for me to handle by myself (and working in my home kitchen). But the fiber was wonderful to work with, and I loved creating new colorways and finding or making little goodies to include in each month's shipment.

Empty Garden

...oh...still so pretty to me :)

spinning fiber

Gradually the spinning fiber decreased and the yarn increased. We attended a few fiber festivals and found some wonderful customers. I think it helped a lot that I had a bit of a different take on color than some of the popular dyers at the time. Deep, bright and saturated colors were easy to find, but I have always preferred more muted, softer and "quiet" colors.

Not that I don't love a good juicy color, but my bread and butter turned out to be the softer and subtler colors. I had a yarn club going for several years, but in 2019 I changed it up a bit and it became a very popular club:

Yarn Club - Patisserie

(Patisserie was one of the all-time favorite clubs, with all the yarns from this club eventually becoming bestselling regular colorways.)

I had introduced my cross stitch designs in 2017 with a few yarn and knitting themed designs, which were quite successful. That made my transition away from full-time yarn dyeing an easier adjustment, and it certainly made things smoother when I hurt my neck/shoulder and had to take a big break from dyeing yarn in 2021.

yarn collage

I had to take a break from knitting during that time as well, and the fact that I could cross stitch completely saved my sanity! We'll look at our cross stitch journey next time!