https://www.theforagersfleece.com/makersdyery daily 0.75 2026-09-22 https://www.theforagersfleece.com/makersdyery/this-is-what-i-made monthly 0.5 2026-09-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69bc49e64c6d8e5409e50d33/55cf05e1-0b58-4b03-ae57-e2375ccd7c71/20260922_155537.jpg Maker's Dyery - This Is What I Made - There are only so many hours left before the festival. Only so many batts and rolags we can make, labels I can print, and last-minute things I can finish. Suddenly every idea comes with a second question attached to it: Do I have time? I think this is a particularly maker-centered kind of panic because making has no natural finish line. There is always one more thing we could make. Another color combination could be tried. Another batt could come off the carder. Another set of rolags could be added to the bins. There is always a project we haven’t started yet, a technique we want to experiment with, or an idea that appeared at exactly the wrong moment and is now sitting cheerfully in the back of our minds asking when we’re going to get around to it. “At some point, acceptance asks you to stop mentally adding to the pile, too.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69bc49e64c6d8e5409e50d33/7d086856-5229-4741-848f-dfdb0b8b1ea2/20260805_110503.jpg Maker's Dyery - This Is What I Made - I don’t think acceptance means I stop caring about the outcome. It doesn’t mean shrugging my shoulders and deciding that whatever happens, happens. I still want to walk into the festival feeling prepared. I want our booth to feel full and welcoming. I want to bring a collection of work that feels like The Forager’s Fleece. So I’ll keep making. But there is a difference between continuing to work and believing that everything I can imagine must become real before a particular date. At some point, acceptance asks you to stop mentally adding to the pile, too. I think that may be harder than actually stopping. There will always be one more thing I could have made. If the festival were another week away, I could fill that week. Give me another month and I could probably fill that, too. Creative work has an uncanny ability to expand into whatever space we give it because ideas don’t arrive according to our production schedules. “The possibilities don’t disappear simply because the days on the calendar do.” https://www.theforagersfleece.com/makersdyery/the-threads-between-us monthly 0.5 2026-09-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69bc49e64c6d8e5409e50d33/3afbb1b5-6606-4cb2-9e24-124e413342b5/20260823_145820_exported_3117.jpg Maker's Dyery - The Threads Between Us - “We've spent years hearing that we should leave work at the office. If that's the case, then maybe we should take our making out with us.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69bc49e64c6d8e5409e50d33/039c5b7e-29c2-48b0-a101-25c95a5530df/20250722_183729.jpg Maker's Dyery - The Threads Between Us - “The knitting didn't create those things. It simply gave us a reason to notice them.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69bc49e64c6d8e5409e50d33/1788019304749-8687KY0QZP3UXTU5WP9W/20230819_143254.jpg Maker's Dyery - The Threads Between Us - “There are histories walking around us. There are memories tucked quietly into all those people rushing toward different gates.” https://www.theforagersfleece.com/makersdyery/harvesting-inspiration monthly 0.5 2026-08-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69bc49e64c6d8e5409e50d33/39b0c25d-c0ed-4ac0-8478-c48cc63b62eb/20251018_140237.jpg Maker's Dyery - Harvesting Inspiration - I love hiking during this time of year. Some of it is simply the pleasure of being outside when the air finally loses the heaviness of summer. But becoming a fiber artist has changed the way I move through those landscapes. Somewhere along the way, I started looking more closely. A leaf is rarely just orange. Pick one up and suddenly there is olive green running through the center. There may be rust around the edges, tiny freckles of red, veins of brown, and patches of gold where the light catches it. Stand at an overlook and what first appears to be a mountain covered in autumn orange becomes dozens of colors layered together: scarlet and mustard, evergreen and copper, gray stone, deep brown, and hazy blue along the distant ridges. I notice those things now. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69bc49e64c6d8e5409e50d33/a0c69323-b739-4bad-9d83-f5b452227b52/20221008_160210.jpg Maker's Dyery - Harvesting Inspiration - Maybe that's another kind of harvest. We gather experiences without always knowing we're gathering them. A walk through the woods. A dog beside us on the trail. A garden overflowing with tomatoes. A particular shade of green on a leaf just beginning to turn. The feeling of cool air arriving after months of summer heat. We carry these things forward. They become part of the way we see the next season and, I think, part of the things we haven't made yet. Perhaps that's one of the reasons creativity can feel mysterious. We like to imagine inspiration arriving suddenly, as though an idea simply appeared one morning and asked to be made. But I wonder how often the idea has actually been gathering for years. A color remembered from one place. A texture from another. Something we learned with our hands. Someone we loved. A season we thought had already passed. https://www.theforagersfleece.com/makersdyery/sometimes-rest-is-enough monthly 0.5 2026-08-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69bc49e64c6d8e5409e50d33/7db043fe-3002-4174-a52f-2ba155c720a9/20231105_104037.jpg Maker's Dyery - Sometimes Rest Is Enough - I like making things. I like finishing things. I like looking back at the end of the day and seeing tangible evidence of where my time went. But somewhere along the way, I made something can quietly become I was productive. And from there, it isn't very far to I was productive, therefore I have value. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. That's the part of the word that has begun to itch. We live in a world that requires production. As much as I would sometimes love to flit and frolic through a field all afternoon, eventually something needs to be done. Things need to be grown, collected, mended, built, cooked, reworked, and sold. Bills need to be paid. Apparently, Dominion Energy remains stubbornly opposed to accepting creative fulfillment as legal tender. So this isn't an argument against productivity. Work has value. Making has value. There is satisfaction and dignity in doing something well, whether that's dyeing a beautiful skein of yarn, repairing something that was broken, tending a garden, caring for someone, or simply completing the ordinary work that keeps a life moving. https://www.theforagersfleece.com/makersdyery/the-friction-of-fiber monthly 0.5 2026-08-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69bc49e64c6d8e5409e50d33/1786294457766-4CCBQG1RXYRPJM0XI4UZ/20260722_200305-EDIT.jpg Maker's Dyery - The Friction of Fiber - Somewhere between holding on and letting go, yarn happens. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. I've been thinking about friction lately and the role it plays in holding things together. We tend to think of friction as something undesirable, something to eliminate so everything can move more easily. But fiber tells a slightly different story. A certain amount of friction creates cohesion. Individual fibers catch against one another, and with twist they become something stronger than they were separately. Perhaps friction can create strength in us too, although I've become wary of the idea that difficulty automatically makes us stronger. Sometimes difficult things are simply difficult. Sometimes they hurt. The strength, I think, comes from what we learn in the resistance and how we understand the forces pulling at us. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69bc49e64c6d8e5409e50d33/7977628d-5abf-49da-b6d7-355e7ad11836/20260626_144242.jpg Maker's Dyery - The Friction of Fiber - Each step has brought its own resistance. There is a part of me that wants to protect what I've created by keeping it within the boundaries I already understand. There is another part that wants to see what it could become. I don't want The Forager's Fleece to simply be a fly by night shop. I want to build something with roots, something that has the chance to grow. I don't know exactly what that looks like yet. Perhaps teaching is part of it. Perhaps there are possibilities I haven't even imagined. That uncertainty creates its own kind of friction. Maybe that's why I keep returning to the fiber in my hands. When I draft, I don't know exactly how every inch will behave. I feel the resistance through my fingers and respond to it. Sometimes I need to hold a little more firmly. Sometimes I need to loosen my grip and allow the fibers room to move. I'm not trying to eliminate the friction between them. I'm learning how to work with it. Perhaps growth asks something similar of us. There is friction that protects us, reminding us to slow down, pay attention, and consider whether we're ready. And there is friction that comes simply because we're moving beyond what is familiar. I'm not always sure I know the difference between the two. Maybe learning to recognize it is part of the work. https://www.theforagersfleece.com/makersdyery/the-anatomy-of-a-stash monthly 0.5 2026-08-09 https://www.theforagersfleece.com/makersdyery/the-art-of-being-present monthly 0.5 2026-07-27 https://www.theforagersfleece.com/makersdyery/the-rhythm-of-spinning monthly 0.5 2026-07-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69bc49e64c6d8e5409e50d33/1784301490829-TQMQW3ELDG8KQ9OYOGMU/20251020_123932.jpg Maker's Dyery - The Rhythm of Spinning https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69bc49e64c6d8e5409e50d33/1784301896234-VQ4H9LNOBDQ5VWZ4LY70/20260228_092716.jpg Maker's Dyery - The Rhythm of Spinning https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69bc49e64c6d8e5409e50d33/8d283f11-1709-4c7f-8877-2f1d63942364/20250910_200639.jpg Maker's Dyery - The Rhythm of Spinning - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. 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