Learning to Spin

Last weekend I spent some time with my neighbor in Nevada Rosemary Hill. Rosemary is a well known knitter. She designs patterns and ebooks and she teaches too. She also makes gorgeous shawl pins. You can find out more about Rosemary on her website at www.designsbyRomi.com .

The last time I was there she offered to give me a lesson in spinning. She told me that spinning is a very zen like process. Given the crazy hectic life I lead that made it very appealing. This is something I've always been fascinated by. I love antique spinning wheels and can picture women sitting in front of the fire spinning their wool into yarn. I was able to squeeze in some time last Saturday to have my first lesson. I am usually on the teaching side of things so it was very good for me to be the student. It helped remind me how my students feel when learning something new. The one piece of advice I do my best to pass on to them is this. If you are a perfectionist, try really hard to let that go during class. I know it is hard but we are going for concept rather than perfection. Once you have the concept down, then you can work on improving your technique. I have to say, I heard those words in my mind a lot on Saturday.

I learned three different ways to create yarn from roving. This is one of the fibers that I worked with.

Hand Dyed Variegated Roving

I absolutely love hand dyed fabric. I couldn't believe that Rosemary was letting me practice on this gorgeous hand dyed fiber. The first thing I had to do was pull it to make it thinner. There is definitely an art to doing this properly. If it is too thin it breaks and if it is too thick the yarn will be thick at that point.

I can see that once you get the feel for how to do this, that it could be a very zen like process. It is quite soothing to just fondle the roving, as long as you're moving forward in the process. When I pulled it too thin I had a hard time putting it back together.

Once I pulled it and got it to what I thought was relatively even, we started twisting it. Rosemary took one end and attached the clip of a ball point pen to it. Then she took a few steps away from me and held it pretty tight. Then she started turning the pen. While she was doing that I was guiding my end and trying to make the twist even and she kept backing up. As you'll see below, that didn't happen so well. But I had to remind myself that this is my first attempt. After we had the whole thing twisted then we had my end meet hers to create a piece of 2 ply yarn. This is my first piece of yarn.

My First Piece of Yarn

As you can see it is definitely not consistent in thickness. But I love the colors. It was fascinating to me to see what happened to the variegation of the roving. When I sew with variegated thread I see the color change as I'm stitching. What happens here is that the colors twist together as well as in line and sometimes you get a spun piece of yarn that contains all of the colors. You can see this in the photo above since it isn't twisted as tightly as you'll see in other pictures.

The second technique I tried was spinning with a Drop Spindle. This takes some coordination because you have to hold the fibers in one hand, spin the spindle with the other and pinch the fibers so that they twist. You have to make sure that the spindle is always spinning and that you keep spinning it in the same direction. If the fibers are too thin then it breaks and the spindle drops. Rosemary told me she knows someone who makes glass Drop Spindles. I am definitely a long way from wanting to try doing this with a glass one. I'm pretty sure I dropped mine at least 10 times.

With this method I could really tell when it was twisting properly. It was almost magical the way the roving just twisted all on its own. My yarn was far more consistent with this technique. While I'm sure it isn't anything that Rosemary would want to knit with, I was pretty pleased with how it turned out for my first attempt. I love the colors of this one the best.

My Yarn on the Drop Spindle

Last of all I learned how to spin using a spinning wheel. I had no idea there were other techniques for spinning until my lesson. I think Rosemary told me she has four spinning wheels. She brought two of them down from her studio for us to practice on.

I used the Spinning Wheel in the foreground. You can see the one Rosemary used
in the background.

This is the Spinning Wheel I used

First I practiced the rhythm of pushing the pedal. There is a piece that moves up and down and when it is at the top point, that's when you push the pedal. Just watching the wheel spin alone is very soothing. After I had the feel for that, we threaded it and I started spinning my roving into yarn. This really is very magical. The thread just spins and twists all by itself. There is definitely a trick to it though. If you don't hold the fibers exactly right, then it twists too much and it gets very thick.

There are all kinds of benefits to hand work. There is something about the process that lowers our blood pressure and really helps us to cope in challenging times. It is far more relaxing when you are moving in a forward progression than when you are reverse sewing. However I have to say that even when I was getting frustrated with the yarn twisting too much, getting too thick, and taking it out to try to fix it, I still really enjoyed the process. Here's what my yarn looks like on the Spinning Wheel.

My Yarn - Again probably not something to knit with but
not too bad for a first attempt

While I'm sure it will take a lot of practice before my yarn is consistent, I can see where I could definitely couch it onto a quilt for embellishment. It would be very cool knowing that I created those fibers.

I know they make small, portable spinning wheels, but as far as portability for my constant on the road lifestyle, I think I will opt to take the Drop Spindle approach for starters if I decide to pursue this more. It is definitely portable. I might look into getting some roving and just practice pulling it. Rosemary told me that this is the key to the whole thing and I can see where that is the case. If it isn't thin enough the yarn is really thick at that point when you spin it.

I got the basics of the technique. Now it is up to me to practice and get better at it. I think I'll keep my eye open for roving and a Drop Spindle at shows. Maybe I'll find something at the Albuquerue Fiber Arts Fiesta in May.

Here's to a new medium to explore.

Carol