A New Home

Sitting down to write my first blog post feels like coming home. It’s a different home, sure. The walls have changed, the furniture is updated, the weather is different, but it is familiar and comforting. I have been here before, and I am so glad to be back; returning from a long trip. I used to write a knitting blog, Knitting with a “Y”, which I began in 2008 shortly after I learned how to knit. I was 20 years old, and that blog carried me through college in Wisconsin, and graduate school in Pennsylvania. I met a number of wonderful people through that blog, and I was able to document my creative endeavors. I enjoyed being able to share the projects I was working on, and it was – for me anyway – nice to look back at previous posts and see how I had grown as a knitter and as a person. The blog allowed me to revisit projects I worked on, trips I had taken, people I had met. I tackled new techniques as I expanded my knitting knowledge and soon learned how to spin on a drop spindle, then a spinning wheel. After grad school, I moved back to Minnesota (my home state) and was lucky enough to spend a summer visiting a local alpaca farm. Learning about fiber animals expanded to learning how to process raw fiber from skirting and scouring, through combing/carding, spinning, and knitting into a finished object. I was, and still am, fascinated by textile creation, garment construction, and the unmatched qualities of natural fibers that make our handwork so special.

The blog fizzled out a year or two after grad school, as I began to navigate the world as a young adult trying to find my way. I checked in every now and again, hopeful that it would spark my creativity, but it felt like too much time had passed. So much happened between posts, how could I possibly revive the blog and fill in the gaps? The blog went dormant.

Spring Creek Textiles is a new and exciting concept for me, and at the same time a continuation of the adventure I began when I learned how to knit way back in 2006, a freshman in college and completely unaware of the ways in which my life would inevitably be molded by the fiber arts. This is my new home to share and document my experiences as I explore. This space will allow me to expand my musings beyond knitting, to include additional crafts I have explored and collected over the years. Knitting has always been constant, spinning intermittent, and over the past few years I have learned to sew, embroider and weave. I will continue to explore them all here with Spring Creek Textiles serving as a window into my life where I now live with my husband and three dogs, on a cozy acre of land tucked into the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina.

To those of you who don’t know me and have stumbled upon this little hobbit hole by happenstance – you are welcome here; stay as long as you like. To those who know me in person, and to the few who shared in the meander of my old blog and whom I have had the great fortune of staying connected with these many years later, I hope Spring Creek Textiles offers a glimpse back into my life and my creative journey. I am glad to have you.

Welcome.