Spinzilla is a week long competition to see which spinner can spin the most yardage of yarn. I found out about the event too late to join a team, so I signed up as a Rogue Spinner.

Day one started pretty strong with a bright burst of color.

Up and spinning at 5:45 am, nothing was going to slow me down.  Sleep is overrated, spinning….not so much!The first skein was complete and I was feeling pretty accomplished.  102 yards under my belt for Spinzilla before 6:30 am.With  a pretty large amount of Alpaca from the local Sweet Clover Alpaca farm in town, I figured my best bet would be to tackle this pile next. I grabbed a luscious bag of baby alpaca and let the fiber turn into the yarn it wanted to become.  This cria had the softest, crimpist coat.  Spun, the yarn almost looks like a boucle yarn.  I’m in love. After this skein, I had another 89 yards finished!  Yay!!!Knowing I had to get quite a few soaps felted, I had to make the most out of my last spin of the day.  This one reminded me of a Christmas Peppermint.I needed lots and lots of yards, so I focus the Spinzilla Force and spun probably the lightest weight yarn that has come off my wheel in years.196 yards…folks for me and my normal super bulky yarn was an accomplishment.  I really love the look of this one!  Most likely after Spinzilla Week I’ll go back and thread ply it to make it even more fabulous. 😉Lots more spinning is ahead for the week!

Just a quick peek into the last couple weeks and a look ahead at lots of fun in store for The Twisted Purl.Above and below is my son wearing his goofy Horse Mask.  This boy loves to make folks laugh and this horse head just has me rolling!

The Twisted Purl is excited to be a part of the brand new establishment in downtown Conway called The Locals.  It will be the go to place for coffee, handmade local items and produce, live music, workshops, and oh so much more!  The closer we get to opening, the more information I’ll share. But for now, please go to TheLocals.be to learn more!On the Felted Soap Front:  I’ve started making our super popular Christmas colors for retail stores and my upcoming shows.Please be sure to order early!  The closer to the Holidays we get the busier it is and shipping tends to take a bit longer. The soaps make excellent teacher and co-worker gifts. They also fit quite nicely in a stocking. 😉Shhhhhh!  I’ve been playing around with a new scent for the soaps and will be testing the market this weekend.  A new fresh clean scent may be replacing our Oatmeal and Almond soon, but I’ll let our customers make that call.Speaking of this weekend, come out and see me at the Main Street Food Truck Festival in downtown Little Rock. 

If you mention you read this on my website, I’ll have a little free goodie for you!

Look for The Twisted Purl tent.  It’ll be hard to miss me spinning and chatting up a storm (but hopefully there will be no storms!).  I’ll be the one with tons of yarn made by hand right here in Arkansas.  Stop by and say hi!  There will be a ton of amazing Etsy Little Rock Vendors, music, yummy food trucks, and beer.  So come hungry and leave happy!!!Our popular weaved scarves are once again available in our Etsy Shop.  It’s easy to order a custom scarf.  Just simply pick out any yarn you see in our shop (or even one you see me making on Facebook) and I’ll turn it into a scarf like the one below.In handmade yarn news:  I’ve signed up for a spinning competition next week called Spinzilla.  I’m going Rogue and seeing how many yards I can spin between October 7-13th.  I’ll be sure to share all the new yarn and post pictures of the Spinzilla adventure.

Hope you are having a wonderful week and hope to see you at the Main Street Food Truck Festival on Saturday!

How can I express my feelings in simple words? This weekend changed my life.

I faced two giant fears and came out a new person: Women and Spiders

Being an Air Force brat, we moved a lot. I moved from school to school until we settled in Fresno, California. From 6th grade on, I was in the same school, with the same people, but was always considered the “new kid”. My first circle of friends damaged my faith in girls and women. Countless days of shattered confidence, inadequacies, and tear soaked pillows brought me to the conclusion that large groups of women were evil.

In many ways, I have allowed those early school years to cheat me out of deep relationships with friends. There have only been a very select few I have trusted with the real me.

This weekend at the Arkansas Women Bloggers conference changed my perception of large groups of women. I felt love, acceptance, encouragement, and a sense of belonging. I learned, lived, and laughed more than I thought possible.

I stayed in a cabin with one of my closest friends, Jeanetta, but was very nervous about all the empty beds. With each new person that entered, my fears starting dissipating.

Each of these beautiful ladies in our cabin felt like a gift to my soul. Each one of them touched and healed my faith in women in a way simple words can not express. Thank you to Liz, Vera, Alicia, & Katie for being authentically awesome!

With the new revelation of my cabin mates being such cool chicks, I went into the morning breakfast with a sense of security and renewed confidence. I sat at a table with ladies I didn’t know and really talked to them. (Y’all for me that’s kind of a big deal). I did the same thing at lunch. I mean, hello…I was meeting people!!!

I was taken from my comfortable, but lonely box, and put into a new, happy world of belonging and joy. In this life we need people. We are not meant to be on an island. We need community.

The second night we battled a nest of spiders and survived. (Yes an actual nest of hatching baby spiders..I know ewwwww!)  We had to get a new cabin, lost a couple of roommates (who lived close enough to travel home), and gained a new roomie.  Peggy entered as we were all jumping up and down, squealing, and squashing spiders.  Bless her heart for sticking with us and not running for the hills!

Spiders are a HUGE phobia of mine. Well, spiders and all bugs in general. One time I threw a whole glass of red wine on my poor mom while trying to get away from a moth. But that’s a story for a different time.

It was funny facing both large fears on the same weekend. My hope is the next time I have to battle a nest of baby spiders, or any other fear, I have some rock solid gals by my side with shoes ready to stomp away the angst.

I’m excited to have found a renewed faith in women and the confirmation needed to step forward confidently and say “Hi I’m Cyndi!”.  I still might squeal and scream at spiders…I mean there is only so much one can grow on a weekend…right?

My not so simple words to sum up a divine weekend?  Be brave enough to step out of your comfort zone, embrace those around you, live in the moment, be yourself, and have no regrets.  Your life is what you make it!