A Day in the Life of a Fiber Artist

As a fiber artist I work with fiber in many forms. The “art” part is mostly in or from yarn but I like to do much of the processing leading up to yarn, not just the dyeing either.

A day for me can look something like the following, depending on where I am in the many projects I have going.

Before going to bed the night before I prepare fiber that is going to be dyed the next day, soak a piece that is going to be blocked or place the projects that have goals on the kitchen table.

In the morning the I mix up the dye, add the fiber or yarn and place it in the sun for the day.
If blocking is what is happening then I set up the blocking table after checking the weather one more time and set to blocking the soaked piece(s).

Projects with goals could include, picking or carding fleece, crocheting or knitting to a certain point or weaving so many shuttles worth of yarn.

These are usually how the intensive, very planned days go. Sometimes I have a lot of things that are coming together and will need finished around the same time and I will choose a day to make all of this happen. Other times a day happens along and I have less than 24 hours to prepare. I also use surprise days to sort through the yarn and fiber totes and refresh moth packets.

The day-to-day is slightly different. I have many projects that are touched throughout the day and for different reasons.

Before breakfast I crochet a square for a t-shirt project.
After breakfast I knit on a lace project for 45-60 minutes.
During morning meetings I work on mitts.

After nap I weave for 30-45 minutes.
While dinner is being made I work on my current design idea. I find the stops and starts help the ideas come and work through faster.
After dinner I spin for 30-45 minutes.

Then I work on my current design that is in stitching until bed time.

I have a sock in my bag that I knit on while waiting at places during the day or at in-person meetings.

For the weekend I have a completely different project that I work on. It can be one of my designs or a project that is someone else’s design. Currently I have a wool blanket the weather’s getting too hot for, and a poncho design.

How about you? Are you a monogamous stitcher? One project at a time or do you keep multiples going like me?

Happy Making!