Morning Cup of Yarn?

A friend of mine who knows me in my musician world asked me recently "how do you have time to knit?"

Music, like many fields, is extremely time-consuming, takes both physical and mental energy, and has extremes in emotional highs and lows. You can get obsessed with detail, structure and form, finding the perfect "color", and trying to make it all come together perfectly. Hm.. sound like something else I am also familiar with...

The great cellist Pablo Casals was known to say that the first thing he did in the mornings was to play a movement from a Bach Suite, even before "bread and water", thus implying that it was the music that sustained and nourished him even more than food. Personally, I can barely stand up in the mornings let along play a Bach Suite -- and certainly not without my morning cup of Joe.

But lately, I have been also using my morning hours (usually 30 to 90 minutes) to do my knitting - along with my coffee, of course. I find that it gets me focused for the day, relaxed, and leaves me with the thought that I have been productive, even before getting to my real work. The hard part is stopping, naturally. But I happen to be fairly disciplined at setting time limits.

So I ask all of you wonderful daily knitters, what time of day do you typically knit, and how does that work for you? Does it help you in any way?

--And here's a morning toast to all you early birds out there who share my proclivity towards a "morning cup of yarn!"

COFFEE COLORS AT ARTISAN YARNS:

Spread the Joy of Knitting!

Welcome to the Artisan Yarns Blog!

In conjunction with the online yarn shop artisan-yarns.com, this blog is intended to bring a personal touch and familiar face “to the person behind the counter”. I am excited to meet new people in the knitting community, and I want my customers to get to know me as well.

Professionally I am a cellist, performer and teacher. Additionally, I am passionate about the fiber arts – and I see a lot of connections between music and knitting that would be fascinating to explore.

Inspired by patterns, textures, and colors in knitwear design I decided to open an online yarn shop dedicated to selective patterns and yarns. The focus is on artisanal yarns that are hand-dyed, organic, and/or made from natural fibers, especially if they are associated with an interesting story, unique style, or worthy mission -- like the Mirasol Project, O-Wool, or Ilga Leja patterns.

In addition, I am increasingly struck by the supportive nature of the knitting community as a whole, and would like to provide extra fun things and activities at Artisan Yarns that will bring this special community together. The latter function is still in the early stages, but will eventually be found under the topics “Features, Join, and Resources” on the website. Register with the website or blog to receive updates!

For me, Artisan Yarns is a type of journey - like knitting the most intricate Fair Isle sweater or Estonian lace shawl- it will gradually take shape, stitch by stitch. As the site develops, you can look forward to finding exclusive patterns, beautiful photography, helpful online resources, special features, and much more.

Join me in my journey to explore fabulous yarn & stunning patterns, and to meet this wonderful and diverse community -- and ultimately to:

Celebrate and Spread the Joy of Knitting!

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FEATURE:

Win the Aslan Trends 2009 Knitting Challenge

and automatically receive a new commission from Artisan Yarns!

As someone who wants to bring out the creative and adventurous side in knitters by promoting original design, I was so excited to see the Aslan Trends design challenge – with fantastic prizes. As an added incentive to enter the contest, (and to purchase the entry yarns from Artisan Yarns) we are offering an automatic extra prize to the first place winners (there are two categories).

Interested? You can read more about it here. Already know you want to enter the contest but need to purchase yarns? Look no further! Find the complete Aslan Trends yarn line here.

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