My little girl, Emily, who just turned eight, is spinning. She's creating these wonderfully chunky, slubby yarn that I'm going to hand dye and knit into a hat for her.

When I started spinning, I got really frustrated because the only yarn I can spin was this uneven, slubby, chunky stuff that I thought was totally imperfect. My teacher told me to enjoy that kind of yarn because once I got better and better as a spinner, my yarns will be the finer, more even variety (which was fine with me). But where's the fun in that?

Now, I crave the funky, chunky stuff. That is hard work.