Why Sprouting Wheel

You might be wondering how I came up with the name Sprouting Wheel. I tried to think of a name for my blog or business long before I ever even started to think about what exactly it is I wanted to do. Now that might be the wrong way round, but it just felt right. 

Wool to yarn

At the time it was a beautiful summer, and I spend a big chunk of my time spinning wool into yarn. I was also researching how to dye said wool with herbs that I could grow myself. So while I was spinning, I was looking at all of my little seedlings. They had sprouted from the earth just weeks before. And all the while, I had been spinning my fleece into yarn. And while I saw the yarn disappearing into the orifice, the name popped into my mind. It just felt like it was the perfect name.

The sprout in Sprouting Wheel

I’ve always been interested in gardening as well as traditional women’s crafts. The sprouting part represented all the herbs and vegetables that I like to grow, and by extension the food I love to cook. Because every plant starts as a sprout or seedling, and most of them end up on our plates. Then when they are at the end of their lives, we trow them on the compost pile. And just like that, the circle is closed, as the compost will be food for the new seeds. Just like the wheel on my spinning wheel.

The wheel in Sprouting Wheel

That closed circle reminded me of my spinning wheel. And my spinning wheel stands for everything I can craft with my hands. Because knitting, weaving, sewing, embroidering and spinning, all start as raw fibers that need to be spun into yarn first. You can turn that yarn into cloth to then sew into clothes. Or you can leave it as yarn and use it to knit something, or you might use very fine threads for sewing or embroidery. In the end all these products you can make look very different, but they all started life the same way.

Coming together

Because my main interests have always been creating and growing it just felt natural to have a name that combined the two. A perfect harmony between my two greatest loves gardening and needlework. In my mind, I could see exactly how my spinning wheel was overgrown with a climbing plant. The image has stayed in my mind ever since.

What are your two greatest passions, please let me know in the comments.