One Small Change: The Community of Change Welcomes Angie...and A Giveaway!

One Small Change for me, is a natural extension of living a life that is "connected". What does that mean, to feel "connected"? It is different for each of us, but it is always a conscious choosing, a grasping of responsibility for our actions. In this day and age, following the consequences of our actions can get complicated. Best to pare it down to a simple act. Which is why it is brilliant to have ONE small change. Because in this day and age, there are always surprises, especially if you have small children in your life.
Our changes were small indeed: I went no-poo, I stopped using paper diapers at night (I used cloth by day anyway), and I am sewing up some produce bags. For me, these were simple, easy, sustainable changes.

One thing I did not change was my passion for good quality crafting materials, and feeling connected through the traditional arts. As a handwork teacher, I am always looking for ways to hone my craft and deepen my understanding of traditional processes such as spinning, weaving, plant-dyeing, and music making. I do have an oft-neglected etsy shop where I occasionally peddle naturally-dyed yarn.

To me, natural dyeing is the perfect blending of the gifts of the earth. It is such an art to extract color from plants and minerals. As with any other creative process, the vision of the artist meets the limitations of the materials and the unexpected can happen. I love processes that encourage this kind of letting go of the end result and allow you to truly be present to the process. Not to mention that the colors of naturally dyed yarn have a quality, a depth, that is soothing and harmonious. The earth has given us such incredible gifts, and such varied and beautiful colors. We can celebrate Earth's gifts with the work of our hands, and revel in her marvelous sense of color. In addition to being beautiful, natural dyeing is truly sustainable.

To that end, I would like to give away 2 skeins of plant-dyed yarn from my etsy shop, a set of knitting needles topped with handspun, and a bag to tote them in. Please choose your yarn (there is even some beautiful pink organic yarn in there) and I will send you 2 balled skeins. Heck, you should try even if you don't knit.

Angie is a handwork teacher, leader of a parent-child program, mother of four children ages 15 months to 18 years, seeker, big planner and devotee of living the deeply creative life. Angie's blog is The Artist, The Mom, so named because she wanted a place to explore the roles we take as mothers and creative beings. Stop by...you might see pictures of a sheep farm, be invited to write a poem, and catch a glimpse into the secret lives of a handwork teacher.

Congratulations Sara for winning! Thanks to everyone for entering!