To the lady who commented that she doesn’t spin because she has 2 boys, let me say I have a 4 year old boy and 3 dobermans in my house. my 4 year old loves that he can get the wheel going and “spin” too. And the dogs…well that is why I got a travel wheel. I can pack it up, put it out of harms way, until I’m ready to spin again.

About a year after moving to Minneapolis, I took a drop spindle class on a lark with my friend Carla. I just didn’t “get it.” The teacher’s instructions did not instruct me…so my friend Carla, between week one and week two of the class, taught me in a way that made sense to me. During the second class, while I still could not DO IT, I had the sudden vision of what I needed to do with all that wool. A sculpture introduced itself, fully formed and urgent for existence. I needed to spin ALL of that wool, like the girl in Rumpletilskin (What was her name?), and wind it into a giant ball of yarn…like five feet across.

Now it was clear to me that the drop spindle was not going to be the tool of choice. I needed to learn to spin on a wheel. So I started looking for a wheel. Wheels were so expensive! I needed to find a wheel at a price that would not hurt my heart if I never spun again. I got a PVC wheel from Babe’s Fiber Garden, and I taught myself to spin. It was much easier on the wheel for me. My hands understood the wheel in a way that they did not understand the drop spindle.

Months later, maybe a year, I finished spinning the bags of wool into lumpy bumpy singles. By the end the singles were rather slender and fairly uniform. Learning had happened. It was now time to create the giant ball of yarn in time for the show Thread’s in Space in my gallery. I purchased a 48 ” sport ball and began winding on. Oh my gosh! It was awful! It took forever and I got nauseated doing it! I tried bouncing the ball and wrapping. I tried spinning the ball and wrapping. I tried rolling the ball. It all made me sick to my stomach. My friend Carla came over to help me. She spun the ball and I guided the yarn. But I couldn’t look! I was getting motion sickness from wrapping the ball!

We did finish in time for the national invitational show Threads in Space that I presented in my gallery. The sculpture is entitled Tenderheaded. The ball sits with a little limited edition artists book atop it, with loosely felted covers.

Do I still spin? Um…Yeah! I now spin mostly on a Roberta Electronic Spinner, understand and do drop spindling and have lately taken up the charka. I wash and prep fleeces. I comb, I card, I dye, oh my! I spin obsessively for another sculpture…an installation scheduled for 2010…entitled STASH!

Oh, but do I knit? Not much;-) I much, much prefer spinning…Much!

I’ve known how to spin for about 10 yrs. now. I enjoy spinning. I enjoy picking out fleeces & cleaning (well, I’m not so fond of washing fleece, but somebody has got to do it!), carding, dyeing, etc. But I don’t do it much. I’ve come up with my 2 best answers as to why.

1) There just aren’t enough hours in the day. My first passion is KNITTING! If I use my spare time to spin, it takes away from my knitting time. Knitting is my therapy & I gotta have my daily dose.

2) I’ve found it very frustrating to knit a specific pattern w/ my handspun, especially something to be worn like a sweater. Non-wearables I’m comfortable with knitting using my handspun. My yarn is so uneven & the garmet just ends up being a chore, which takes away from my enjoyment of knitting. In short, I just find my handspun too non-uniform to enjoy knitting with.

Well, that’s me!
Cheers!
wen

i was interested in your discussion about ‘green’ wool and fairtrade as I try and use fairtrade principles for lots of my shopping, don’t always manage that though!! It is interesting to me that sometimes to support some fairtrade products means they have to be shipped across the world and therefore not very green. Also, whilst avoiding very cheap products means I’m not supporting industries that work because they employ very low paid workers, however will that force the employers to pay better wages or will they just shut up shop and move on to another quick way make a buck!! In which case said workers then don’t have even low wages!!

Sorry if that’s a bit political for a knitting podcast but I just wanted to share my wonderings with you!

Keep up good work, I’m looking forward to listening to all the back issues

Love Janey x

Why don’t I spin? Technically, I learnt a couple weeks ago. I have not felt the urge to touch it since. Partly this is because I would like to do it well, and don’t have the time or headspace to concentrate on learning it properly, at the moment. But mostly it’s because I’m not ready. I’m still working on really being a Knitter. I have this really sure feeling about the journey I’m on. Yick, normally those are not words that would come ouot of my mouth. Uh…. fingers. But when it comes to knitting, I know that I *am* on a journey. I have dabbled in cables and lace, but not enough. I haven’t even attempted colourwork. I’ve not figured out shaping to my satisfaction. I have not designed anything, or even significantly modified it.

But I know I will do all these things. And I will be a spinner. One day. But not until I am the Knitter that I want to be.

On the other hand though, your links to Weavezine have me thinking that weaving will likely be in my future, right after I figure out my latest curiosity – embroidery. I atribute the embroidery kick on Kristen Nicholas’ latest book “Kristen Knits”. It’s one of those books that inspires.

RE: Spinning…
I’m a very new spinner. I think what first caught my attention with spinning were all the beautiful hand painted rovings available from indie shops on the Internet. I’m a huge fan of hand-painted sock yarns and it seems a lot of Etsy shops and such who do sock yarns are branching out in to roving. When Sheri at TheLoopyEwe.com started spinning and began selling roving, I think I was sold. Not to mention, lots of knitters whose blogs I read began posting the beautiful yarns they were spinning… wow! So I started saving up at the beginning of this year and purchased my wheel (an Ashford Kiwi) shortly after Easter. I had never touched a spinning wheel and had no idea what I was doing — no mentors locally to teach me. So I’m muddling through it with the help of the Ashford spinners group online as well as the fantastic book “Start Spinning”.

I spent the couple weeks hesitant. I felt like I had to set aside special quiet-time to work on spinning because it took a LOT of concentration for me to coordinate my hands and feet and get it all right. But now after little more than a month with my wheel, I have become utterly addicted. Spinning fascinates me. The “whir” of the wheel is soothing and the rhythmic motions that my feet and fingers make are meditative. But at the same time, the activity is stimulating and challenging. There’s always a new fiber to try or a new technique to master. I’m still at the very beginning of the spinning learning-curve but now I find myself spinning every chance I get (no longer do I have to set aside special time — spinning-time is ANY time!) and when life becomes too hectic to sit and spin, I find myself missing it immensely.

I have yet to knit with any of my handspun (but I can’t wait to do so!). Right now I just have it all on display in my craft room — I love to look at it and pet it. It makes me feel proud.

You know it is probably you who really got me from the point of going to a knitting class to actually knitting all the time. I knitted for a few months when I was a kid, making a very very ugly and lop sided scarf and a very very thin scarf which I made into a sleeping bag for my toys. With the encouragement of my husband to make something useful (rather than just the decorative cross stich I also do) I went to a knitting class for 2 hours. The class was just long enough, to just get it but I needed encouragement. I did buy some wool and needles but didn’t really do anythign with them aside from casting on, knitting, purling and casting off. I then listened to your podcast after thinking “people who craft must podcast too” I bought a kit for a knitted monkey and was off, listening to your podcast. I am know starting a sweater, of the square 80s variety and I haven’t made a mistake yet!