Thursday, November 29, 2012

My spinning wheel.


The beginning of this month marked my birthday. It was a weekday so was reasonably normal. I went to work, had birthday cake with my colleagues and did a few support visits. When I arrived home I was treated to a home made dinner and an amazing gift - a brand new spinning wheel! When I decided to learn to spin back at the beginning of this year the agreement was I purchase a second hand wheel and see if I liked/could spin wool. I loved it. I joined the spinning Guild, and spent the rest of this year handling the most wonderful Merino and Alpaca fleeces and turning them into yarn. My new spinning wheel is an Ashford Joy Double Treadle. It is so unbelievably compact - it can even be carried around in its own carry case!






And what about my old wheel? It was enthusiastically accepted by a wonderful local friend who is treading the path of sustainable living. She is loving learning to spin.

If any of you are interested in learning to spin, I would say to you "have a go!". Buy yourself a working second hand spinning wheel and a bag of fleece (washed or unwashed - it doesn't matter). Then sit down and watch a few YouTube videos to get an understanding of what spinning looks like, read a bit about it, then give it a try. I promise you will look at yarn in a whole new light after spinning your own skein. If you're not sure, why not support a spinner and try buying hand spun yarn for your next knitting/crocheting project? There are plenty for sale on sites like Etsy.

Sam xox

4 comments:

  1. I just found your site through Sewaholic - nice jaceket by the way, and I noted you have a spinning wheel. I was given a 2nd hand spinning wheel for my birthday this year, too. I have tried spinning once so far, and will try again soon. My daughter knits and is looking forward to me contributing to her large yarn stash.

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    1. Nice to meet you! How exciting for you! It took me a good three weeks of practice before I got the knack of spinning, but I promise it is well worth it. You will be spinning up skeins for your daughter in no time :-)

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  2. What a cool spinning wheel! So compact.

    I am enjoying your "old" spinning wheel. I have spun 2 skeins of the white wool, and I will be starting the blue wool after my visitors leave after Christmas.

    I am loving spinning.

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