Uniquely Yours Free Fiber Friday

a recently dyed roving by Uniquely Yours

Free Fiber Friday @ Uniquely Yours

Once a month, Uniquely Yours gives away fabulous free fiber! The next Free Fiber Friday will be August 1st! Don't miss it!

I recently interviewed the talented lady behind Uniquely Yours. Enjoy!

Eric and Jenna of Uniquely Yours on her wedding day at Lake Michigan.

1. As one newlywed to another, I married in March 2007 and you in October 2007, how do you keep up with setting up a new home with your spinning, dying fiber, carding batts, and still find time for working in your family business?

Eric and I set up our home before we got married along with our two dogs, so home has been the one settled element in our lives. During our engagement I took a hiatus from spinning in order to craft for every aspect of our wedding, from invitations to flowers, it was all DIY! After the wedding my creative life freed up again and that is when I truly dove into fiber with both feet! My "day job" is a Monday through Friday 8-5, so evenings and weekends are spent working on my fiber arts. I find both jobs offer a good balance in my life between customer service at Norchuk (my day job working for my dad at the company my grandpa started back in 1970) and the introspective elements of my fiber art at Uniquely Yours!

Buddy & Sydney

2. Where does your fiber come from? Do you own alpacas, angora bunnies, etc.?

Unfortunately we live in the city so the greatest fiber bearing animal I have is our 160 pound St. Bernard Buddy! I do save his fiber though and plan to spin and knit a sweater for our other dog Sydney, a 9 pound Miniature Dachshund! My fibers come from many sources but currently I am working on a line to include local Michigan raised fiber! I currently have sources locally for Alpaca and Shetland. I would like to find some Mohair goats locally as well and will be actively searching for a source at the Michigan Fiber Festival next month!

3. How did you learn this art?

The internet is a fabulous place! Honestly it all started with my mom teaching me to knit. When I was knitting in college I discovered Craftster.org, the yarn pics everyone would post on Fridays truly inspired me to learn to spin on a drop spindle. I am basically self taught through online videos and tutorials. I later found Ravelry.com and from there found a local group of spinners. Once I got my Lendrum Wheel there was definitely no turning back!

4. Spinning and dying fiber must be very time consuming. Can you describe he process in a nutshell?

I spin pretty much every day in one way or another (wheel or drop spindle.) Most of my spinning is done in the evenings while I hang out with my hubby in our TV room. He will usually be playing a game on the PS3 (yep I married a gamer) or watching TV while I spin. Every so often I will have an idea for a color combo or batt and will randomly run off to the dyeing room, right next to the TV room in the basement, or upstairs to the craft room to whip up a batt. I don't necessarily set aside time to specifically create things for the shop, they are all products of spontaneous creative inspiration!

Lake Michigan Batt by Uniquely Yours

5. Your fibers are beautiful. How do you choose the colors?

Instinct and Inspiration. Some color combos just come to me, others I find in nature and my surroundings. For instance my June Fiber Club Batt was inspired by Lake Michigan. I have lived near the shores of Lake Michigan my entire life and have always found joy and inspiration from it’s waters. The lake never looks the same color so I tried to capture it’s different moods in the blue tones of the batt. The white bamboo represented the whitecaps that can form out across the lake when it is very windy or stormy, and the firestar the shine of the sun on it’s waters on a calm summer day. There are beautiful things all around and just slowing down and taking them in is definitely the key.

6. Please tell us how Free Fiber Fridays work.

Well once a month I was create a batt, hand dyed roving, or yarn to offer on my blog for free! I just love contests and the chance of WINNING something has always appealed to me! Basically it is just for fun (pick a random number) or if there is some info I am searching for (ie what kind of fiber to buy/use) I will pose a question and all I ask is you leave a comment with your answer and then I "randomly" ask my husband to pick a number 1 through however many comments there are and viola, your the winner!

7. What is your favorite thing about your craft?

The Freedom and the feel of the fibers. I love that there is no set in stone right or wrong way to fiber arts. However you want it to be is exactly how you can make it! I also love the actual feel of the fibers. I strive to make all my batts and roving next to the skin soft because I personally LOVE soft fibers such as Merino and Silk!

Be sure to visit Jenna's Uniquely Yours! Etsy shop today!