Spinning Venture

Last night, as my mom was reading a book to my sisters and I (another tradition around Christmas time, but also something she has done since we were young) I was knitting for the first chapter, and then spotting our spinning wheel across the room, decided to spend some more time at that. I have a brand new bag of wool that was given to me by the woman we just got our Shetland ram from. But I wanted to finish what I was working with before I started with a new batch of wool.

For many years I had wanted to learn to spin, so I've taken on that new project for about a year now. Years ago, someone sold to us a nice Louet spinning wheel, which we had proceeded to somehow put in our storage (a semi trailer that is filled with the things from our move that we still have not brought into the house. Seems to me, if we have done this well without those things for these nine and a half years, we would probably do very well to get rid of most of it). But last year, I finally went out and brought it in. My mom had thought it was broken, so I got it out to see what exactly the problem was and if it could be fixed. To my pleasant surprise, we found it wasn't broken, the treadle just was not attached correctly. We had wool from the sheep we had years ago, but it was still in bags and I didn't think it would even be very good quality anymore, and we had not cleaned or carded it. And the sheep we have now were to be sheared in the spring, but it was winter. So, just to start, we bought some wool online that was prepared and ready to go. I had loaded up on books from the library and even a video to assist in my learning. I think it was last December when I started that. And throughout the year, I have only occasionally pulled it out to work on it a little more. Partly because I don't know anyone who spins whom I could learn from, and partly because this year has been such a busy one (though not a very good excuse for my not getting on it), I just haven't put myself into really learning more of it.

So a few weeks ago, when we had loaded up Dakota (the ram) and visited with the very nice lady and her husband, I was greatly encouraged to continue with it, and she showed me some things that I didn't know, including her whole system which filled her basement, and I was able to ask her some questions that I had.

One of things though that I forgot ask her is one of the things that has been perplexing to me about what I have learned in spinning so far. The woman in the video I had watched showed to pull the wool out into separate sections, loosening it to be able to spin it properly. But I shortly found that it was tedious, or more so, not very productive, and took a long time to spin a fair amount of yarn. It wasn't how I remembered seeing it done, when I'd see someone spinning, either at reenactment or at the fair, and I wherever else I had seen it. It seemed to go so smoothly and consistently. I couldn't remember ever seeing someone have to stop every thirty seconds to pull out another section of wool; it just went from the source, the gathered wool, onto the wheel in a steady flow. But then, I hadn't seen it done very often, so I tried to work with what I had learned.

So last night, as I was listening to my mom read, I got comfortable spinning again, and perhaps it was because I was more focused on listening to the story and my fingers were just moving at a methodical rhythm, so I wasn't paying specific attention to the details of what I was working on. I don't really know how it happened, I think part of the roving in my lap perhaps somehow caught onto what I was working with, because suddenly I found that it was working! As I treadled, the twisting wool pulled gently out of the main roving, albeit with my careful assistance, but it went nonetheless, producing a nice even strand of wool. That was the problem I had been experiencing; the yarn had been quite uneven with my having to stop and add a new section every little bit. But now, it really did work to just use the whole thing and let it pull from there. I was so excited, my exclamation put quite a pause in the story as my mom and sisters tried to understand what was so very exciting about it. It is perhaps a silly thing to be excited about, but I'm happy about it anyways. So excited in fact, that I decided to write a post about it! :)

I'm also learning now how to knit. Also something I've been wanting to know how to do for a long time. And yet another thing library service has greatly assisted me with. I think they know me by name there now, and I don't even live in town! I appreciate that, though. It never would have happened in the city, even as small of a city as we used to live in. Neighbor-like friendliness is something that is so lost these days, even among neighbors. That stands out to us in stark clarity whenever we go back to our old town in Illinois to visit relatives. I suppose I've become so accustomed to the laid back nature of the country. Even if people in this area don't live in the "country" per se (and rather in the towns near us), they are generally friendlier. It's a strange thing to me now, when we go to the city, to give a friendly smile and receive a scowl in return. Yet another reason why I am always so happy to return home after a trip like that. But I miss our family so much. That fact alone makes every trip worthwhile.

I am looking very forward to attempting to knit with my trial yarn. It'll be interesting to see how that turns out! Though I'm thinking I may save that first bunch as a keepsake and to remind me how my first attempt looked, to see if I can progress and make it look a little more like yarn. :)

~Shalea