1. What’s your name and where are you from?
Hi, I’m Betsy. I’ve lived in seven cities in four countries (most of them before I was 13), but I still call Brisbane home 
2. How long have you been a member of QSWFA?
I joined the group when I was about 14, with my mother, Karen. We found the group shortly after moving to Brisbane – we were already knitters and spinners (well, my mum was, I really just dabbled). I was the youngest regularly attending member for some time, and have been attending Night Owls since we joined, sometimes regularly, sometimes not so regularly. I also like to go to Saturday meetings when I’m able.
3. What crafts do you enjoy, and how long have you been doing them?
I can’t remember learning to knit, though I took it up seriously about the time I joined the group at 14 (about 10 years ago). Similarly, I first learned to use a drop spindle when I was about 5, but began seriously spinning at 14. I’ve always dabbled in lots of crafts – papercrafts (especially origami) when I was younger, and fibrecrafts since joining QSWFA. I know the basics of weaving and felting – just enough to get myself into trouble. I love tatting, and don’t do it nearly as much as I would like. I’m also slowly teaching myself bobbin lace. I’ve tried crocheting a couple of times but am still trying to learn to decypher patterns. There are so many fascinating crafts out there, I want to try them all!
4. What is your finest crafting moment?
I’m hoping it will be very soon, when I finish the lace dress I’m knitting. I started it in August (it’s had a couple of time outs), and am finally nearing the end! It’s made from 1ply merino yarn, and it will be the largest thing I’ve ever made.
5. What, if you have one, is your worst crafting moment?
That’s a bit of a hard question, as I’m generally in it for the process of crafting, not the resulting item, so mistakes don’t generally bother me. But I have thought of one… incident. I like to spin silk caps/hankies on tiny dropspindles. It’s good fun. I usually leave the yarn (or thread) as a single, but this one time I had a gorgeous blue-purple hankie that I wanted to ply on itself. I spun half the hankie, took it off the spindle and wound it in a ball. It took me about a week to spin the second half of the hankie.
That weekend was our annual Mapleton camp, and I took it along to ply. I pulled out the ball of the first half, and couldn’t find the end of the thread. I spent a whole afternoon looking for that end, I had my ball of silk thread stretched out all over the floor of the hall, and various other people helped look throughout the afternoon. Eventually I gave up and broke the thread. I plied the yarn fairly successfully after that… except the only other end I found was the other side of where I had broken it. There were no original ends!
Proof that silk has a mind of its own, and a silk single should never be left unsupervised!
6. What do you love about being a member of QSWFA?
All the different crafts, and all the amazing things that people make. There is always something new and exciting, always something new to learn, always someone happy to teach you!
