Some say...

Some say that the difference between and rut and a grave is the depth. I heard this at work earlier this week and maybe I'm just not grasping it, but I'm left with a huge, cartoon question mark over my head when I think on this. Is saying that a rut is basically a grave suppose to motivate me to hoist myself out of the rut and find a new path? Is saying that suppose to make my rut feel full of doom? Is saying that making any sense to any of you?

Yeah, it didn't make sense to me either.

However, I will admit, I've been in a rut lately. A color rut. When buying wool, I tend to gravitate towards the same colors (usually warmer colors) and that translates all too well over to my carding tendencies. This would be all fine and dandy if I were only spinning and carding fibers for me, but let me be the first to tell you, spinning yarn for myself doesn't bring in the Benjamins. So, in order to add more colors to my shop pallet, I'm left forcing myself to buy something blue, or dye something purple, or card something with black in it. YES, I said forcing. I have to step away from my eyes and let the little spinning devil on my should tell me "perhaps someone would like a yarn with blue and purple... perhaps someone would pay you enough money for some new shoes if you'd spin that blue and green fiber... perhaps you need to snap out of your love for warmer colors and GET WITH IT".

Yes, this is the conversation that goes on inside my head every time I reach for red or orange or yellow. Crazy? Maybe.

Tonight started out no differently than any other night. I found myself standing in front of my tower of wool, scanning over colors and textures trying to find just...the...right...ones. Red? No. I've already done red. Orange? No. I've already done orange. Yellow? Heck no, I've already done yellow. I was at a loss. I just couldn't reach for the cooler colors without first considering the warmer tones. So what did I do? I pulled all of the colors down. Every blasted bit of color I had and I started carding. Some colors were omitted out of fear (some color combinations are better left to the imagination), some colors were resting at the bottom of the pile and were overlooked. But the colors that did make it on to the carder are breathtaking. Warm mingled with cool which all blended fabulously with a huge smack of sparkle 'cause I like it that way.

I'm happy. Sometimes the best way to get out of a rut is to just throw caution to the wind and see what happens.