Turn, Turn, Turn
Or, you know, spin, spin, spin. A few weeks ago, Star and I made a road trip to the Palm Beaches, where I purchased a used spinning wheel. In case you wonder, yes, spinning wheels are still produced. This isn’t an antique, merely a gently used Ashford Traditional. I brought it home, and have been teaching myself to spin. Why? Why not. Actually, I wanted to spin the tzitzit for the Rose Garden tallis. Didn’t happen.
But here we have, in the golden light of my studio, my first handspun yarn.
It’s lumpy and uneven, but I love it. The roving (the stuff you feed into the wheel) came from The Yarn Wench (over there on the right in my links). That’s it on the far left in the picture, that fluffy stuff. On the far right, we have the single, or the first stuff I spun. In the middle, that’s called 2 ply, and it’s what happens when you take two singles and twist them together. It’s real yarn. Maybe even enough to knit the edge on a hat.
I haz a new addiction. Perfect for South Florida. I love my spinning wheel. I love the whir and the meditative state I can reach. Well, the theoretical meditative state I can reach. At the moment it’s more like the level of frustration I can reach. But I see it in the not too far distance.
The only spinning wheel reference I can think of is the miller’s daughter in Rumpelstiltskin; she did quite well of it, from what I remember. It seems such a romantically antiquated thing to do! And wonderful. Too true; I had no idea they still made spinning wheels. I understand the meditative qualities ~ I used to get the same thing from a potters wheel. Spin that straw into gold!
I have a friend who built a two-story addition to her house to house her fiber addiction.
Her wool stash FAR outweighs Sarah’s fabric stash, though it is much less organized. :-)
I’ve tried spinning. You do much better than I do.