Fiber Friday - Clubs
July 03, 2009 | By
Welcome to Fiber Friday! Each week I’ll be bringing you the best in fiber arts related inspiration. We’ll be covering all manner of string sports in this column, including knitting, spinning, weaving, crochet, hair pin lace, tatting and any other thing creative folks do with bits of fluff.
It is my hope that this column will introduce you to new ideas, techniques and of course inspiration to make your fiber craft better, broader and more enjoyable. We start this Fiber Friday with something I personally find incredibly inspiring; clubs!
The concept of the fiber or yarn club is pretty simple: you pay a fee to be a member of a club and the supplier sends you a certain amount of fiber or yarn in whatever theme or concept of that particular club each month. While that is the bare bones definition of the concept, it’s actually much more interesting than just the ‘you pay a fee, you get some stuff’ definition I’ve just given you.
The great thing about clubs is that most of them have some kind of theme; these themes can range from anything from ‘natural’ (see Natch Woolies ‘Take Out Club’ for raw spinning fiber) to ‘sexy’ (see The Unique Sheep’s Fiber Fetish yarn club). I personally belong to a fiber club where I get 3 oz of spinning batts each month from one of my favorite fiber artists, Serendipity Fiber Arts. In this club there is no over arching theme, just really great fiber every month. What is so wonderful and ultimately inspiring about these clubs is that you’re getting things that you may not have picked for yourself if the item had just been available to purchase. Belonging to yarn and fiber clubs has really opened me up to trying different colors, textures and techniques that I may have been too scared of or just plain unaware of before.I recently recieved a spinning batt containing recycled Sari silk from India, I'd never spun anything like that before and probably wouldn't have picked it out for myself. I spun the batt up and it created a really beautiful yarn that I would never have come up with on my own! 
I have not only participated in fiber and yarn clubs as a buyer, but I also currently run a yarn club based on rock n’ roll currently. Having this club has given me a great and often challenging creative outlet. Each month I pick a band or artist and design a color way for sock yarn based on their music, album art or music videos. Every month I have to come up with something new and different for my members so they don’t get bored with the club. I’ve been able to combine two of my biggest passions; music and yarn. I’ve been challenged to come up with new colors and dying techniques to keep things interesting. These color ways are fun to do because they are one of a kind color ways that once they’re sent to the existing membership, I will never repeat again. This creates a very special experience for not only the members of my club but also for me! I don’t have to worry about taking meticulous notes so that I can reproduce the color again; I’m free to simply create.
If you are a knitter/crocheter or spinner I urge you to check out the myriad of fiber/yarn clubs that are available currently. Allow someone else to take charge of what items you’ll receive and allow yourself to be pleasantly surprised by the new and interesting things you discover!
(Strawberries n Cream Sock Roving image from Extreme Spinning)
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