out on a limb

I'm not one to rush to do new things. I tend to like the familiar and comfortable. But, I think it's time for me to get some feedback on my home spun yarn.

I love spinning yarn. I love how the skiens have turned out. I've knit with the yarn I've spun and love it. J has knit with my home spun and loves it too. But, I've never gotten any actual feedback outside of our house. I learned to spin yarn by some wonderful ladies at my spinning guild. They have been so very helpful in this learning process. Unfortunately, due to my work schedule and child rearing responsibilities, I don't get to attend guild meetings as often as I'd like.

So, I am planning on entering skeins of my home spun into two different competitions. The judge is different for each event, so I will get a variety of feedback.

I already planned to submit a skein of Greyt's fiber at Alpacafest in November 2010. I've spun up a skien of it and it's wonderful. J is actually knitting with it right now. I should have snagged it and bagged it up for the competition, but this will motivate me to spin more. The deadline for entry is October 1, 2010, which gives me time to do that. I can enter up to 2 skiens in the catergory I qualify for, so I will be seeking out which other blanket to spin up and send off. In the next couple of weeks I will be spinning a variety of different blankets so I can decide which one I feel most confident about entering into this competition.

After I had decided to take the plunge and enter a skien in Alpacafest, then I heard about the Fiber Fiesta Alpaca Fleece Event. I want to do this one too. The rules are the same for this one. I can submit up to two entries into this category. These entries have to be postmarked by September 30, 2010. While that seems like a long time, I don't want to wait until the last minute. Decisions have to be made very soon on which blankets to spin and enter. Ideallly I'd like to submit yarn skiens from different fiber blankets to this one. It would be neat to get a variety of feedback on different types of fiber.

It makes me even more nervous to hear that I am not a *beginner* spinner because I've been doing it for more than a year. I'm an intermediate. I like my spinning, it's fun to spin, it's fun to knit with, I love it all. But I have no idea how it holds up to others out there.

Now to take a deep breath and go forward to actually do this. I'm nervous... I don't want to think of bad feedback, but I know it's time to get out there and just do it.