Saturday, March 29, 2008

Welcome to the First Day of the Rest of my Blog

Welcome to my blog! 
So - who is Quality Chick and why is she spinning a yarn? 

I am Quality Chick. I am a chick (being of the female of the species) and I have been professionally employed in the quality field for a number of years. I get paid to make sure that the product I oversee does exactly what it was intended to do once it goes out the door. Yep, I am Inspector 21. I do exist and I even have an official stamp that goes with my product, similar to those annoying stickers you often find hiding in your new clothes. 

One of the side effects of my job is that I find the skills I use in my job to ensure quality pervade my everyday life. This is not a "leave it at the office" type of job. I often find myself looking at things I do outside the office and analyzing what I need to do to improve things. This is not a bad thing, just a bit annoying to myself sometimes when I realize that my life is about quality and I can't seem to just throw care to the wind and enjoy the simple act of expression. I am not really a perfectionist by nature. In fact, if you could see my house you would know that I am not a Monica ("Friends" reference here, hopefully not too obscure). However, living in the professional world of quality where I am chartered with seeking perfection has warped me somewhat for living in the now outside of work. I guess this is my journey to rediscover balance between the world of quality and the world of creative expression.

I have several other passions in life. I enjoy my work because I have always had this twisted fascination with the way work is performed. I think I must have been an efficiency expert in a previous life. Hence my career path. Aside from work my first and foremost passion is my family. My family being an amazing husband and my young one, my four year old son. We also have a couple of four legged members of the family as well. Watching the antics of a growing boy has redefined entertainment and life for both my husband and myself. Nothing can equal the joy, pain, discovery, wonder, heartbreak, comedy and delight of watching that tiny infant I once held in my arms grow into the little being tearing around my living room in his underpants. 

And then there is the yarn. Ahhhhh. My other current passion. My name is Quality Chick and I am a fiberholic. I have been a knitter for the past 20some years since a school play role forced me to learn to knit, at least onstage. While my acting career never made it any further my knitting took off with a vengeance. Over the years I have strayed into other hobbies but have always returned to the meditative relaxation of the needles. I love watching a ball of yarn become a sweater, a sock, a hat or a scarf through the magic of the needles. It is easy and satisfying. Follow a pattern and create. But recently I decided to go one step further. A chance discovery at a local estate sale led me to the world of spinning. No, not the bicycle kind that is popular at the local gym. The old fashioned sit in front of the fireplace and spin straw into gold fairy tale spinning. I bought a beautiful old fairy tale spinning wheel and promptly spent six months staring at it sitting in the corner. 

This blog is about that spinning wheel and everything that followed the introduction of that spinning wheel into my life. It is my journey into spinning and into discovering that quality principles can be applied to spinning while at the same time recognizing that too much application of those principles can hinder the creativity of handspun yarn. Perhaps with spinning the balance will be found between my opposing worlds. Balance to apply to all of my life.