Spinning

Yesterday was my first spinning lesson.  Boy, was it fun!  Donna at the Weaver at Indian Meridian gave us a little tour of her delightful shop and studio and then we got straight to work.  First she gave me a skirting lesson. This was very helpful since I was completely confused about what was good and what was not in the area of raw fleeces.  Hands on instruction is just so much better than online videos!

Jared went along since Dad and big brothers were busy.  He was really glad he did.  He got a lesson in spinning with a spindle.  This was very unexpected but completely wonderful!

You could tell Donna was a retired teacher and loved children.  She was so patient and encouraging.

Jared ended up doing pretty good!  Better than me actually.  She said he handled the fiber naturally.

I think I may have a spinning partner now.

Once he was good and going, we got to work on the wheel.  We used an Ashford Joy double treadle.  First she demonstrated and made it look super easy.

I thought to myself, "This is going to be a breeze."  Not!  It is really much harder to do than it looks.  Keeping both feet and both hands busy doing different things is quite a trick.

By the end, I was doing pretty good.

It was encouraging for her to show me her first attempt from years ago.

One of you said I had "fallen down a rabbit hole".  You were right.  But I'm thinking I'm gonna like this hole I have found myself in.  I am very excited about having my hands in the whole process from sheep to yarn! 

And now I 've got to get back to skirting those fleeces. I'm finding watching Pride and Prejudice while working the fleece helps keeps me going.  I've watched one already today and am going to start another version of P&P this afternoon and I'm still on the first fleece.   It may be a long Jane Austen week!

My next lesson will be to card and spin my own fiber from our own sheep!