10,000 hours or 100 hours

What Is the 10000 Hour Rule?

The 10000 Hour Rule is just that. This is the idea that it takes approximately 10000 hours of deliberate practice to master a skill.

For instance, it would take 10 years of practicing 3 hours a day to become a master in your subject. It would take approximately 5 years of full-time employment to become proficient in your field. Simply work out how many hours you have already achieved and calculate how many more you need to clock up before you reach 10000.

the 100-Hour Rule:

For most disciplines, it only takes one hundred hours of active learning to become much more competent than an absolute beginner.

For example:

• Cooking: it takes years to become a master chef, but one hundred hours of cooking lessons and classes and deliberate practice will make you a better cook than most of your friends.
• Coding: it takes years of study and practice to become a strong software engineer, but going through a couple of Codecademy or Udacity courses will make you a good enough programmer for a lot of basic applications.
• Sales: it takes years of experience to become great at sales, but reading a few key books and shadowing experienced sales people for several hours will help you learn enough to avoid the most common/dangerous sales mistakes.

So, if this is the case--what is the number of hours you need to be competent in your fiber field?  Is it 10,000 hours, 1,000 hours or 100 hours?  As someone who has been a weaver since 1979, I can personally say--I'm still learning!  I AM NOT competent in my weaving!  I don't think I ever will be.  There is no way you can achieve the greatest number of hours and learn everything about weaving--how do colors mingle; weave structures abound; fiber combinations match, etc.  So, I will continue to practice and build up more hours of learning!

What number of hours do you need to be proficient in your field?  

Weaving Inspiration!

It's back to the routine--January always brings out new thoughts, new beginnings, new challenges.  And I'm always ready to be inspired by my fellow weavers--who have been more production and creative than I have!

D'Anne purchased a new loom--Glimakra Band Loom and she really went to town with her weaving.

Using stash yarns (5/2 perle cotton) she wove and wove

colorful band weaving--perfect for a jacket or even a guitar strap

Gretchen enjoyed weaving workshop with Rosalie Neilson that she wove this

wonderful 'snowflake' table runner.

Take a look at one of Rosalie's video

Close-up of Gretchen's snowflake in Rep Weave

She also had these wonderful turned twill block woven towels

Same warp, different wefts!  Enchanting color changes--cottolin fiber

Karen I was at it with her small tapestry piece--super detail in this tiny (3"x5") piece

I love her backs too--she says she needs to weave in the ends, but

I like them just like this!

Karen I also had these lovely woven linen mats/towels

such wonderful weaving technique

She has an article in this month's Handwoven magazine--working with linen.

Her work is always superb!  Another article in the January/February Handwoven

is by Tracy on towels.  We had such a great knowledge of weaving in our

study group.

As an exercise, we played with colored papers and weave structures

or lack there of--fun just to play

and a good way to see how colors bounce of each other. 

Okay, I'm inspired for the month--what to weave?  and what color will I use? 

Under the Mighty Oak!

There is nothing like an oak tree--and it is amazing that from a seedling it grows to be mighty and bold.  Having lived in Louisiana for many years, the Oak was a symbol of love and endurance.  There are so many lovely oaks around the state.

Edna Szymoniak Oak

35' 6" in circumference | #2072 of the Live Oak Society

A recent article in Countryroads Magazine caught my attention as we had a huge oak growing right beside our home in Gonzales, Louisiana.  William Guion is documenting Louisiana's most ancient live oaks--the oldest 100 Oaks in the state.  Take a stroll through his photographs and read the article on this project.  I watched our tree grow from a sapling to over 15 ft tall, but it is still growing and enduring.  Oh, the stories they could tell!  

Marshmallow Fluff!

Marshmallow Fluff --Yummy!  

We can't do fudge without it!  My mother said she ate so many peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwiches in her day that she had to swear off the stuff!

Nope, I'm talking about this Marshmallow Fluff knitting pattern 

from The Studio

Doesn't this look luscious and yummy, just like the real white stuff from a jar!  

Just need some chunky yarn, needles and away we go!

and it will be a quick knit too!

Are You Calling Me Chicken??

January must be the month to be called "chicken"!  So many recipes popping up with chicken as the main meat ingredient.  Do you know Erin?  Erin Chase runs 31 days of certain recipes--She is $5 Dinner Mom.

January she is featuring 31 Days of Rotisserie Chicken Recipes--Not that I want to eat chicken for 31 days straight, but these recipes can be saved for future reference.

Then I got my January Cooking Light Magazine and guess what?  It features chicken recipes too!  Is it a conspiracy?

Chicken 25 Ways!  

And Food Network Magazine has recipes for chicken wings!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner--

excuse me--I'm getting hungry and going to search for some

CHICKEN!

Fleece to Finish Project

For those who have fiber animals, here is an opportunity for you to participate in an event.  Many of our past fiber study groups have done a similar project.   Each person in the group chose a sheep breed, did a study of that breed, collect the fleece to distribute to other members of the group.  Then there was the spinning of each breed for our own workbook.  It was a year long study with great results.  We learned about different breeds, quality of their fleece and how it could be useful for our needs.

A link to the actual discussion is here: FLEECE TO FINISH

INFO:, 
There will be an emphasis on 3 areas:

1. Washing/processing fleece January we’ll discuss the washing methods we all use and make up our very own booklet..
2. Plying February to April will focus on plying methods with a particular look at Andean plying so we can make our own document on plying too.
3. Finishing items eg knitting, felting, weaving or crochet etc March to April we’ll look at what we do with our processed fleece - ie end products- knitted crocheted felted woven.. Other?

Shetland Isles

Many moons ago, I was privileged to receive a couple of nice Shetland fleeces from a friend.  Shetland wool is extremely interesting to process--it takes some time and energy to get the locks just right.  Needless to say, I kept the fleeces in their lovely little storage bags until I decided it was best to pass them on to someone who would process them with the care they deserved.
Of course, now, I'm sorry that they went to another home!!  But, here is the skinny on Shetland sheep and their fleece.



• Shetland sheep are hardy, low maintenance animals, easy lambers and good mothers that fit with our 'no fuss' philosophy of animal husbandry,

• Shetland sheep produce a high quality fibre in many attractive natural fleece colours, that has a ready market and is also useful for our own fibre works,

• Shetland sheep can be used as dual purpose meat and fibre producers if required,

• Shetland sheep have distinctive personalities,

• Shetland sheep have a well run North American Registry   (NASSA), and

• Shetland sheep hark back to our own Celtic/Viking roots.

Susan Crawford  is publishing a book on Shetland.  Susan has studied hand-knitted garments and accessories from the 1920s to 1960s, which are held in the Museum's archives. She has chosen 25 pieces, recording their construction stitch for stitch then recreated them for the Vintage Shetland Project. These pieces – all with their own unique story to tell – have been developed into comprehensive multi-sized knitting patterns, complete with instructions, technical advice and illustrated with colour photography shot on Shetland. 

With an essay reflecting on the story of each hand-knit item this book is a treasury of Shetland knitting patterns and an insight into Shetland's rich textile traditions.

What peeked my return interest to Shetland fiber and knitting?  Hazel Tindall's blog!  I was reading through different Shetland knitting patterns and came across her blog with this cool "Benon Headband"

West Coast Fiber Arts has a super booklet on Shetland knitting project.

Shetland Fleece types

Here is a video on the processing of Shetland Fleece.  Wish I'd had youtube back in those days!