Poem: "We Spin Our Own Yarn"
Mar. 21st, 2023 09:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem came out of the March 7, 2023 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from fuzzyred, helgatwb, and acelightning73. It also fills the "Spring Cleaning" square in my 3-1-23 card for the March Is... Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by fuzzyred and Cross (he/him) of the_broken_tower. It belongs to the Shiv thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.
"We Spin Our Own Yarn"
[Saturday, April 16, 2016]
Shiv had stopped by Mercedes
to help Boss Finn, but as long as
he was there, he could swing by
Colette's place and drop off
all the fiber he had for her.
He and Luci had gone through
the Nebraska Collective Fiber Fair
and picked up tons of stuff, some
of it selected especially for Colette.
There was a bag of colored silk fluff
from Mermaid Haircut, a big package
of four different roving braids from
Follow the Gypsy Rover, yarn in
Purple Haze from Bloomin' Hues,
clouds of wool in various tones,
two whole fleeces for Colette and
the olive one that Shiv wanted
her to spin into yarn for Halley.
He also had stuff for the Recycle Bin,
a massive collection of materials
for dollmaking at the Finns' request,
several garments for Halley made
from yarn dyed with buckthorn colors,
and watermelon yarn for Mrs. Dr. G.
For Aidan, Shiv had two books on
dye plants, yarn in soft old colors, and
a bag of natural fertilizer from skirting wool.
"My goodness, what a haul," Colette said
as she fondled the colorful piles of fiber.
"I love these fleeces, but why green?"
"I want that one spun up so that I can
make things for Halley," Shiv explained.
"Thon likes ugly colors and maybe-colors."
"Oh right, I remember," said Colette.
"And the bundle of roving is yours?"
"Yeah, I put labels on all the stuff,
in Braille and Feelipa and large print,"
Shiv said. "So you can tell it apart,
as well as what to do with which."
"What about the rest?" said Colette.
"I also brought you some extra fiber
for spinning," Shiv said, dumping out
the big bag of it. "I did spring cleaning
and cleared out stuff I got in trades
but I'm not likely to use myself."
He'd had to, in order to find room
for all the new stuff he just bought.
"You don't like the colors of these?"
Colette said. "You have a lot
of lovely fiberstock here."
"Yeah, no ... I've tried
making some yarn with
the drop spindle, but it's
harder than it looks, even
with superpowers helping,"
Shiv said. "Some of this stuff,
I love the colors, but the texture
keeps throwing me off when I try it."
"Ah, I understand," said Colette.
"Curly locks and embellishments
aren't easy to spin, cotton is harder
than wool, and the roving scraps
are too short to go for very long."
"Nailed it," Shiv said with a sigh.
"I'm getting kind of frustrated."
"It's easier to learn with a cloud
of carded wool, or better yet,
with roving, but you need plenty
of the same thing," said Colette.
"Yeah, I thought about roving,
but I got the fancy ones for you
to spin up," said Shiv. "That's
too nice for me to learn on."
"I've got plenty of plain roving
if you want some for practice,"
said Colette. "Pick out a ball
or few, the stuff you brought
for me is worth plenty in trade."
So Shiv poked through her stash
until he found a bag of wool roving
wound into big squishy balls. It had
shades of black, brown, gray, and
white with several variegated ones.
"Oh, that's perfect," said Colette.
"They have the same texture, so you
can spin one after the other to make
a yarn with long repeats -- or tear off
sections if you want shorter repeats."
"Long repeats," Shiv said, groaning.
"I suck at the part where you're
supposed to add fresh fiber."
"It should feel easier with this,"
Colette assured him. "Here,
borrow one of my drop spindles
so you can give it a whirl now."
Shiv picked a simple spindle
and a ball of silver-gray wool.
Colette walked him through
the process of getting started,
and then -- wow, that was easier.
"This is so awesome," Shiv said,
watching the spindle drift smoothly
toward the floor. "Thanks, really."
"It's nothing," said Colette. "I love
getting folks hooked on fiber -- and
doing a bit of my own spring cleaning."
"No problem there," Shiv said. "I
blew so much money at the fiber fair."
"Don't we all," Colette said, grinning.
Shiv kept going until he had several yards
of beautiful silver yarn wound on the spindle.
"So um ... how do you join a different color?"
he said. "I could maybe try it with you here
in case I screw it up like I have before?"
"Pinch off your current ball of roving
with a little left over," said Colette,
and Shiv did that. "Now tease out
the end into a fan. Do the same
with your new ball of roving."
Shiv picked a ball of pure white
for contrast with the silvery gray.
"Now what?" he asked her.
"Fan it out the same, then lay
the two fans together and press
them into each other," said Colette.
"Wool has plenty of catch, so it
likes to stick to itself as you spin."
Shiv followed along. "What do
you know, it works," he said happily.
"I never thought I'd end up doing crafts
and talking about obscure yarn trivia."
"When it comes to life, we spin our own yarn,"
Colette said, "and where we end up is really,
in fact, where we always intended to be."
"Yeah," Shiv said softly. "This is
a hell of a lot better than where I
used to think I would wind up.
I wouldn't trade it for anything."
"So, I hear you're a graffiti artist,"
said Colette. "The Finns have been
going on and on about your work."
"Uh, yeah," said Shiv. "What about it?"
"I just wondered if you'd like to help me
yarnbomb a givebox," said Colette.
"It went up with gray paint, so people
have a hard time even noticing it."
"Yarnbomb?" Shiv said, but she
was already hauling out what looked
like a cross between an afghan, a tent,
and an explosion in a paint factory.
"All I need is someone to help hold it
up and knit it into place," said Colette.
"Why the hell not," Shiv said, laughing.
"Sure, let's go yarnbomb the givebox."
He felt pretty sure Boss Finn would love it.
Better they got pictures of art than Shiv himself.
It was a bit of a circus getting both of them
and a giant pile of knitwork bundled onto
a crowded city bus, but they managed.
Colette showed Shiv the givebox, and yeah,
he must've walked past the thing at least
a dozen times without ever spotting it.
Talk about wasted opportunities.
Shiv unfolded the cover and
flopped it into place. It had
long seams to knit closed
and clever little strings
to tie it onto the givebox.
With two of them working,
it didn't take long to finish.
Seeing the installation in place
made Shiv think of people that
he could yarnbomb back home.
He certainly knew of a few pervs who
deserved to have soft-sculpture dicks
yarnbombed all over their sports cars.
"So ... how do you actually make
this work?" Shiv wondered, tracing
a hand over the knitted cover. If he
was going to try it himself, then
he needed some guidance.
"First, measure your target so
you know how much you need
to knit or crochet, and what shape,"
said Colette. "Sighted yarnbombers
usually take photographs as well."
"Phone camera," Shiv said, and
snapped a few for practice. "Next?"
"Work out your pattern on paper. I
use raised-graph paper," said Colette.
"You can work freestyle, bohemians
often do it that way, but then it's
harder to get the fit precise without
doing more fibercrafting on the spot."
"Graph paper it is," said Shiv.
"Are there, like, patterns for this?
Say if someone wanted to do a car?"
"A few, but most of those are small,"
said Colette. "However, you can take
a large project like an afghan and just
modify it for yarnbombing. That's what
I did for the givebox here -- it's made
from several attached afghans."
Shiv backed up and looked at
the thing more carefully, unfolding
the pieces of it in his head. Yeah,
okay, he could see that now.
Well, a car had a top and sides.
Maybe he could make the top like
an afghan, then make the sides
like a car silhouette or something.
This'll be so much fucking fun
to work up, slap on, and take
snapshots to share around town.
He couldn't wait to spin his own yarn.
* * *
Notes:
This poem is long, so its notes appear elsewhere.
fuzzyred, helgatwb, and acelightning73. It also fills the "Spring Cleaning" square in my 3-1-23 card for the March Is... Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by fuzzyred and Cross (he/him) of the_broken_tower. It belongs to the Shiv thread of the Polychrome Heroics series."We Spin Our Own Yarn"
[Saturday, April 16, 2016]
Shiv had stopped by Mercedes
to help Boss Finn, but as long as
he was there, he could swing by
Colette's place and drop off
all the fiber he had for her.
He and Luci had gone through
the Nebraska Collective Fiber Fair
and picked up tons of stuff, some
of it selected especially for Colette.
There was a bag of colored silk fluff
from Mermaid Haircut, a big package
of four different roving braids from
Follow the Gypsy Rover, yarn in
Purple Haze from Bloomin' Hues,
clouds of wool in various tones,
two whole fleeces for Colette and
the olive one that Shiv wanted
her to spin into yarn for Halley.
He also had stuff for the Recycle Bin,
a massive collection of materials
for dollmaking at the Finns' request,
several garments for Halley made
from yarn dyed with buckthorn colors,
and watermelon yarn for Mrs. Dr. G.
For Aidan, Shiv had two books on
dye plants, yarn in soft old colors, and
a bag of natural fertilizer from skirting wool.
"My goodness, what a haul," Colette said
as she fondled the colorful piles of fiber.
"I love these fleeces, but why green?"
"I want that one spun up so that I can
make things for Halley," Shiv explained.
"Thon likes ugly colors and maybe-colors."
"Oh right, I remember," said Colette.
"And the bundle of roving is yours?"
"Yeah, I put labels on all the stuff,
in Braille and Feelipa and large print,"
Shiv said. "So you can tell it apart,
as well as what to do with which."
"What about the rest?" said Colette.
"I also brought you some extra fiber
for spinning," Shiv said, dumping out
the big bag of it. "I did spring cleaning
and cleared out stuff I got in trades
but I'm not likely to use myself."
He'd had to, in order to find room
for all the new stuff he just bought.
"You don't like the colors of these?"
Colette said. "You have a lot
of lovely fiberstock here."
"Yeah, no ... I've tried
making some yarn with
the drop spindle, but it's
harder than it looks, even
with superpowers helping,"
Shiv said. "Some of this stuff,
I love the colors, but the texture
keeps throwing me off when I try it."
"Ah, I understand," said Colette.
"Curly locks and embellishments
aren't easy to spin, cotton is harder
than wool, and the roving scraps
are too short to go for very long."
"Nailed it," Shiv said with a sigh.
"I'm getting kind of frustrated."
"It's easier to learn with a cloud
of carded wool, or better yet,
with roving, but you need plenty
of the same thing," said Colette.
"Yeah, I thought about roving,
but I got the fancy ones for you
to spin up," said Shiv. "That's
too nice for me to learn on."
"I've got plenty of plain roving
if you want some for practice,"
said Colette. "Pick out a ball
or few, the stuff you brought
for me is worth plenty in trade."
So Shiv poked through her stash
until he found a bag of wool roving
wound into big squishy balls. It had
shades of black, brown, gray, and
white with several variegated ones.
"Oh, that's perfect," said Colette.
"They have the same texture, so you
can spin one after the other to make
a yarn with long repeats -- or tear off
sections if you want shorter repeats."
"Long repeats," Shiv said, groaning.
"I suck at the part where you're
supposed to add fresh fiber."
"It should feel easier with this,"
Colette assured him. "Here,
borrow one of my drop spindles
so you can give it a whirl now."
Shiv picked a simple spindle
and a ball of silver-gray wool.
Colette walked him through
the process of getting started,
and then -- wow, that was easier.
"This is so awesome," Shiv said,
watching the spindle drift smoothly
toward the floor. "Thanks, really."
"It's nothing," said Colette. "I love
getting folks hooked on fiber -- and
doing a bit of my own spring cleaning."
"No problem there," Shiv said. "I
blew so much money at the fiber fair."
"Don't we all," Colette said, grinning.
Shiv kept going until he had several yards
of beautiful silver yarn wound on the spindle.
"So um ... how do you join a different color?"
he said. "I could maybe try it with you here
in case I screw it up like I have before?"
"Pinch off your current ball of roving
with a little left over," said Colette,
and Shiv did that. "Now tease out
the end into a fan. Do the same
with your new ball of roving."
Shiv picked a ball of pure white
for contrast with the silvery gray.
"Now what?" he asked her.
"Fan it out the same, then lay
the two fans together and press
them into each other," said Colette.
"Wool has plenty of catch, so it
likes to stick to itself as you spin."
Shiv followed along. "What do
you know, it works," he said happily.
"I never thought I'd end up doing crafts
and talking about obscure yarn trivia."
"When it comes to life, we spin our own yarn,"
Colette said, "and where we end up is really,
in fact, where we always intended to be."
"Yeah," Shiv said softly. "This is
a hell of a lot better than where I
used to think I would wind up.
I wouldn't trade it for anything."
"So, I hear you're a graffiti artist,"
said Colette. "The Finns have been
going on and on about your work."
"Uh, yeah," said Shiv. "What about it?"
"I just wondered if you'd like to help me
yarnbomb a givebox," said Colette.
"It went up with gray paint, so people
have a hard time even noticing it."
"Yarnbomb?" Shiv said, but she
was already hauling out what looked
like a cross between an afghan, a tent,
and an explosion in a paint factory.
"All I need is someone to help hold it
up and knit it into place," said Colette.
"Why the hell not," Shiv said, laughing.
"Sure, let's go yarnbomb the givebox."
He felt pretty sure Boss Finn would love it.
Better they got pictures of art than Shiv himself.
It was a bit of a circus getting both of them
and a giant pile of knitwork bundled onto
a crowded city bus, but they managed.
Colette showed Shiv the givebox, and yeah,
he must've walked past the thing at least
a dozen times without ever spotting it.
Talk about wasted opportunities.
Shiv unfolded the cover and
flopped it into place. It had
long seams to knit closed
and clever little strings
to tie it onto the givebox.
With two of them working,
it didn't take long to finish.
Seeing the installation in place
made Shiv think of people that
he could yarnbomb back home.
He certainly knew of a few pervs who
deserved to have soft-sculpture dicks
yarnbombed all over their sports cars.
"So ... how do you actually make
this work?" Shiv wondered, tracing
a hand over the knitted cover. If he
was going to try it himself, then
he needed some guidance.
"First, measure your target so
you know how much you need
to knit or crochet, and what shape,"
said Colette. "Sighted yarnbombers
usually take photographs as well."
"Phone camera," Shiv said, and
snapped a few for practice. "Next?"
"Work out your pattern on paper. I
use raised-graph paper," said Colette.
"You can work freestyle, bohemians
often do it that way, but then it's
harder to get the fit precise without
doing more fibercrafting on the spot."
"Graph paper it is," said Shiv.
"Are there, like, patterns for this?
Say if someone wanted to do a car?"
"A few, but most of those are small,"
said Colette. "However, you can take
a large project like an afghan and just
modify it for yarnbombing. That's what
I did for the givebox here -- it's made
from several attached afghans."
Shiv backed up and looked at
the thing more carefully, unfolding
the pieces of it in his head. Yeah,
okay, he could see that now.
Well, a car had a top and sides.
Maybe he could make the top like
an afghan, then make the sides
like a car silhouette or something.
This'll be so much fucking fun
to work up, slap on, and take
snapshots to share around town.
He couldn't wait to spin his own yarn.
* * *
Notes:
This poem is long, so its notes appear elsewhere.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-22 03:39 am (UTC)I would love to see Shiv yarn bombing! I also love the idea of yarnbombing a give box to bring attention to it.
Thank you!
Date: 2023-03-22 04:03 am (UTC)Feel free to ask for more in any relevant prompt call. Next up will be April 4 with "Non-standard Identities" which is certainly a fit for Shiv.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-03-22 11:10 pm (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2023-03-23 12:04 am (UTC)