The Day of Spinning

Sure it seemed like a normal day, but it turned into a day of spinning.  I'm trying to relearn -- not that I was every very good at it in the first place -- hand spinning on a hand spindle.  I've had spinning wheels, but now I'm using hand spindles.

Good grief, Why? you might ask.  Well, because I love doing stuff with my hands.  That is why.  Always have and probably always will as long as I have a mind.  So I made some little spindles out of a wheel and dowel I bought at Michael's and a tiny cup hook I bought at Lowe's and there I was with my old spindles and my new ones looking at my new yarn.

     The spindle with the bright pink/red/hot pink yarn I just finished and is left over from back in the day before I started beads and other things.  The one with the blue/turquoise/aqua yarn and roving (The thick strings of fiber of various kinds used for yarn making.) is the home made one from the toy aisle at Michael's and Lowe's.  I learned about making these from the book, "Respect the Spindle," from Interweave Press!  Good book if you want to learn to spin on a spindle and there is also a DVD available which I really like.  Now why on earth would anyone want to learn to do this, you may wonder.

     I do enjoy using my hands and my head at the same time, but also did you realize until about 100 to 150 years ago that all fiber was woven by hand?  The author of the book mentioned above said something about the sails of boats, the first until lately sails of all boats, were all spun by hand.  Did you ever think of that?  I hadn't and it is sort of stunning.  This is an ancient craft and there are hundreds of people in my area that practice it.  True many of them use a spinning wheel.  Pictures are below.

This is one from New Zealand and probably looks like what most people now days think a spinning wheel should look like.  Here is a more modern looking wheel.

Okay a really modern looking wheel.  There are also many kinds of hand spindles.  Currently the most popular seems to be the high whorl hand spindle with a hook on top.  But different spindles are most efficient for different types of fiber and what you expect to make out of them.  For me and my future in spinning, I want to first make and ply (plying is just putting together two single pieces of yarn and wrapping them together in the opposite direction from which they were originally spun) good yarn for some stockings and then spin some for lace knitting.

      I love doing complicated things way into the foreseeable future.  It just satisfies a part of me that needs that sort of planning and thinking about.  Besides, do you realize how many tools I need?  And you know how I love tools and gadgets.  Oh, I'm dreaming about beautiful and spindles.  I'll need some new ones of course . . .