Never Say Never

August 3, 2025

How does the old adage go, “Never say never?”  Well, here’s a list of the fiber art “nevers” I said I would never tackle.

It began with knitting.  You can ask my mom, who for years tried to convince me to knit.  I blamed being left-handed and not being able to cast-on for my avoidance of the craft.  Let’s just say that came from my painful crochet learning experience.

At any rate, I did eventually learn to knit.  I moved to a place where I didn’t really know anyone and there was a yarn shop that was offering beginning knitting.  Then I found another yarn shop with a wonderful knitting group where I learned, made friends, and continued to knit.  Fast-forward about ten years, and now I’m designing knitting patterns (something else I said I would never do).

I was also never going to needle-felt, or wet-felt, because spinning is really where it was at for me.  No, really. Spinning beautiful fiber into yarn is probably my most favorite thing to do.  But, I began needle-felting, and then became a needle-felting kit designer and supplier.  I was asked to teach some wet-felting classes, so I learned how to wet-felt – and while that’s still relatively new and I’m still learning – I’m having a blast doing it.

I was never going to spin art yarn.  Lace yarn was what I liked to spin, mostly because lace knitting is what I truly enjoy knitting.  I’ve also been asked to teach classes on art yarn, so, I decided I should learn.  I’ve watched videos, taken a class or two on my own, done some reading, and ultimately decided to just play.  Turns out I like to just play, and spinning thicker, animated yarns tends to go a little (okay, a LOT) quicker than the infinite miles of lace yarn I’m used to.

But my biggest “hard no” was that I was never going to weave.  It wasn’t for me.  I just knew it wasn’t for me.  But, after watching some videos about lovely fiber being blended on a drum carder, then spun, then woven into beautiful scarves, I got curious.  I have a drum carder, access to beautiful fiber, and as I mentioned above, I love to spin.  What could it hurt to try to weave?  I may also have an abundance of handspun yarn that I can’t knit fast enough, so maybe, just maybe weaving could help me out – but I wasn’t holding my breath.

So, I went all-in and bought a small Ashford Samplit Rigid Heddle Loom.  If I didn’t like weaving (which I was still sure I wouldn’t), I could easily sell the loom.  Then, something really cool happened… a friend sat down with me (you know who you are) and walked me through warping my little loom with my own handspun yarn.  It wasn’t as rough of an experience as I thought it would be – it was actually kind of soothing and cool to watch my own yarn lined up on a loom.  Then came the fun part… weaving with some pretty art yarn that I had blended and loosely corespun. The process went pretty quickly.  To be honest, quicker than I had imagined.  That same friend helped me cut (gulp) the long scarf off the loom when I was finished weaving and then tie the ends for some fringe.  

Okay, so now I like weaving.  But I think the most important things to take away from this whole never say never experience (or all of them) is that one, it’s important to keep learning, or even trying new things.  Second, what this particular experience has taught me is that I’ve gotten away from the whole reason, the “why” I started my fiber art business.  While I’ve learned lots of new things along the way, they have helped me to realize it’s time to take a step back.  It’s time to re-evaluate things.  

So while I’m saying goodbye to never say never, I’m saying hello to new things (like this blog I have wanted to write for the last several years), steps backward, steps forward, and getting back to some basics – which will be the topic of next week’s blog from the road to Michigan Fiber Festival.  I hope you’ll continue coming back to see what everything is about – and I hope you’ll give some of your own “nevers” a chance – they may just lead you to exactly where you’re meant to be going.

~Tammy

P.S.  Below are the photos of me and my first woven project just off the loom along with the handspun yarn and finished scarf.