Samples, Goals and Yarn Everyday Month

It's April!
Guess you didn't need me to tell you that but I thought I would mention it. Especially since it is an extra special month for me. Those signed up for the newsletter will get details later. ;D

So, past the fabulous news that we have started the 4th month in 2009, I thought I would do some updates. First I have pictures of my goodies that will be sent to a sampler box in the next couple of days. I only have 20 but that is because I underestimated how much would go into making each of the samples at "sample-size." Included are 11 skeins of hand spun yarn in the color "Faded Forestry" and 9 tadpoles of roving in either "Strawberry Lemonade" and "Ladybug." LadyBug is actually made with dark gray dyes though it probably appears black in photos.



In making my samples last month I started to think about my goals for April. Last month I tried to log my time so I knew when I was productive. It's harder than you would think when you don't have anything to schedule your time around. Funny thing to me is that before I was laid off I would excuse myself because I was always too tired after work to do anything. So I sort of built myself into a no win situation by that logic. Last month I tried to log time... completely ineffective. This month, I am challenging myself to do it as one of my goals. I plan to log 40 hours a week just as if this was a day time paying job. The plus side is I set my own hours (yay!) and I can work weekends if and when I want. I started today and have already gotten in 3 hours including photos, spinning and carding. Now, if I can just get it lined you so that I am using the time most effectively. Either way, 40 hours is better than the maybe 5 hours a week the last few weeks.

One of the ways that I am trying to challenge and motivate myself is by participating in the Yarn Everyday Month. It's a group over on Ravelry that was started by BlondeChicken. Her original goal was to spin some everyday as motivation for herself but she invited others to join. I am so glad she did. I need to do this and I just always found a reason not to. (Really, I guess my goal for April is to stop making reason why its okay for me not to do what I want to do. Yea, that's it.) So on a successful note, I spun a corespun yarn from a technicolor batt I made on my new(to me) carder. Its just a coarse carder but I wanted to be able to continue offering *some* batts until I can afford to get a larger (costly) carder. So this was my first batt to see how everything would work. I think it will be fine for arty/novelty batts and I already spent a little time carding a beautiful purple based batt tonight. But this isnt about that... its about this:

One Batt, 34 yards, corespun on a #10 weight crochet thread. I have no name for it but will be loading it on Ravelry and Flickr with other photographic proof of my spinning today. =D