About
I’m Kaitlin, an early 20’s girl, wife to a whip-smart genius trucker, owner of two felines, one of which is more of a benign, furry lap-tumour than a cat – Virtue.
By day I’m a full time music store employee, on a quest to educate and enlighten customers (much to their dismay, most of the time) about new music. They see me, and their pulses race and their eyes get wide as I rattle off names of artists and why they should be listening to them instead of insert less than savoury artist of choice here . I love it.
By.. later in the day, I do copy writing/editing and graphic design for radio and television websites in the area.
By night, I sleep. Sort of. Most nights I spend lying awake with ideas rushing past the backs of my eyelids for new projects, a new design to try out, a painting to do, a photograph I saw or a portion of conversation I had that I will analyze. And over-analyze, until, yes, eventually I sleep.
Growing up in Victoria, BC, Canada I was always crafting, singing, playing music or drawing pictures. These have become life long passtimes for me and I just love talking about them. I could spend hours chatting with interested parties about music, knitting, spinning, dyeing, painting, drawing, photopraphy and poetry. While my husband of nearly 3 years listens patiently and has picked up much of the ‘lingo’ (enough to ask right out for a 2×2 rib knitted sweater, tunic length, fitted) I still find it great fun to collect all my thoughts and coherently post an entry about my latest obsession.
I’ve been knitting steadily since I was 16, though my mother taught me to knit when I was 11. My first project was a navy blue acrylic garter stitch scarf, sort of. You see, my mother didn’t know how to bind off, so when I would finish knitting an entire ball of Red Heart (cast on edge the full length of the needle) I simply ripped it out and knit it again. It didn’t ever become a scarf, the yarn was simply knit over and over again until I tired of it, more for the soothing sensation than for the finished project. The motion and feeling of knitting, creating something out of string stuck with me for years until I picked it up again in high school and have been stuck ever since.
I learned to spin 2 years ago, taught by the great Barb Brown of Wild Geese Fibres. I just love the idea of taking a fleece straight off the sheep, scouring it, dyeing it and turning it into something beautiful. Most people, when I tell them what I am capable of have to come to terms with the fact that I kind of make most grandmas look like sell-outs. I’m okay with this.
I’m working on my second year of the Master Spinner course through Olds College in Alberta. This six year program is intensive study of all things fibre and I look forward to my trip for classes every year.
I play music sporadically with my best friend Elyse, and we’re in the midst of putting together our first collaborative album, hopefully to be at least partially recorded when I return to Victoria in April 2010.
I’m always on the lookout for new ideas, friends, hobbies, middle names and collaborative partners to help me chase down that high, elated feeling I get when I’ve created something with my hands that I’m so proud of that I can’t help but shake.