Self Determination

“People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

 - Abraham Lincoln

Reframing Perspective
Recently, I found myself listening to people whine about their situation, and started buying into all that was wrong with the situation.  Being the creative type, I could easily take their whining, and add my own spin to it and find other things that were wrong and bad.  Eventually, I was bemoaning my own situation and thinking how awful it was.  It got to the point where I knew I wouldn't be able to continue in this way.  Something had to change.

Fortunately, the only change necessary was in me.

When I started to take a more balanced view of the situation, I realized it was significantly better than other similar situations in my life.  In fact, it had actually taken quite a bit of work to come up with all the negative factors to begin with, but once I had, it was easy to focus on only that.  Retraining my focus on all that was good about the situation really turned everything around for me.  So much so, that I started telling people my views when they starting complaining to me about their (our) situation.  Most of them didn't buy it, but some did, and the ones that didn't realized I wasn't fun to bitch and whine to anymore.  A win-win.

Mental note:  Joe - next time you find yourself mired in negative sentiment, look at it more objectively to see whether it really is that bad, or get someone to help you look at it more objectively.

Sorry, I'm very forgetful, so I have to leave myself notes.

Carol's Book Contest Winner!!
Thanks to everyone who entered the contest.  There were 74 people that entered for a chance to win Carol's book, Sock Yarn Studio.  And the winner is...

Marsha Boudrie

She writes, "I am addicted to Kiogu yarn! My stash is huge. I have knit several dozen pairs of socks, my next challenge is mittens and then on to gloves."

Thank you to all who entered, and congratulations to Marsha...I will be reaching out to her to find out where she would like her book mailed.

Current Knitting/Spinning
First of all, I'm pleased to say that I'm almost finished spinning the singles for the Moonlight and Laughter milk solids roving.

I plan on spinning up singles in some other fiber in a solid/neutral color, and then ply it with the milk solids singles so that I can keep the nice color variations in the Moonlight and Laughter singles, and hopefully mixing in something a bit more somber will darken up the final yarn.

I also finished up the pair of gloves in the handspun from the roving from Tidal Yarns.

And yes, I wove in 50 ends last night while I caught up on the current season of Supernatural.

Readers' Comments/Questions
Deborah Furchtgott writes, "I'm curious to hear that you don't prep your fibre. Would you mind explaining what you find to be the difference, and why you choose not to follow it? I'm a new spinner (only working on a drop spindle right now) so I'm very curious about people's different choices and the whys and wherefores."

Most of the wool or other fiber I buy is already carded or combed, many spinners say it's mandatory to do some additional prep work to the batt or roving before spinning it.  This video explains it well. - http://youtu.be/UQEweGiO3SA - I find that I can work around any inconsistencies in the fiber while I'm spinning, so I find it's not as mandatory as this woman's video might indicate.  All that being said, I would still recommend following her instructions for pre-spinning fiber preparation.