My New Love.....

Yesterday I went for my first spinning class, and I don't mean the one that involves sitting on a bike in the gym!

I have been wanting to learn how to do this for quite some time now. It all started when I was reading a publication called 'The Green Parent' which had an article, albeit brief, about spinning natural vegetable fibres such as nettles. Couple this with a genuine love of wool and the light bulb came on.

I searched the Internet for classes and found a few teachers relatively local, but they were all fully booked. The lady did offer me the opportunity to book a class in the week but I had to have a partner. One of my friends, Mona, said she would come with me as she was in between jobs at the time but the proposed dates were after she started he new job so couldn't make it.

Last week I decided to have a look for another teacher when I stumbled across a lady who has recently retired from sheep farming and has been spinning and weaving for as long as she can remember. She wasn't too far away and only charged £10 per hour. Perfect!

I booked straight away and then started to look forward to learning something new.

I arrived at the studio and was greeted by Carole. She has a lovely log cabin at the bottom of her garden which is filled with looms, spinning wheels, wool and all sorts of creations. It was my idea of heaven.

Carole is a very thorough and patient teacher. She started by going over the history of spinning and showed me how to operate a drop spindle. Next was having a look at some unprepared wool...pretty greasy and not the lovely fluffy stuff you would imagine it to be. Then I was let lose on the wheel.

The wheel was a beautiful looking machine, dark wood with a skein winder attached to the top of it. I was shown how to attach the leader to the bobbin and then we were off. It seemed to come fairly naturally to me, there were a few mishaps but that is only to be expected when you are learning something new. I was so grateful that I was having one-to-one tuition.

After spinning two bobbin-fulls of yarn (and a quick cup of tea) I learnt how to put the two yarns together in a process called plying. I then made my skein and that as they say was that.

It felt so good, just sitting feeding wool into a machine may sound dull but I found it so relaxing. There is a rhythm to it and it is mildly hypnotic. I feel that I could do it forever. So, it seems I may have found a niche for myself after all, who knows, I may be able to make a living out of it. All I have to do now is get myself a wheel and get practising!