Spinning?

[Creirwy]

Nooo not jumping on a cycling machine for a few hours...
I mean spinning, making fibre into yarn hehe. Is there anyone here that spins?

Ive recently started spinning and Im not brilliant at it yet, but I can make yarn and keep it yarn like (although no even LOL). But I find it such a wonderful craft. Winding the drop spindle on my leg and seeing it twirl and make lots of fibre into yarn is just amazing. And has I do it I think of my ancestors spinning in the dark nights around a fire, seeing our lives being a spiral and when the yarn was made, making it into cloth, how everything is connected and together even in the most chaotic of ways.
Its such a spiritual thing to spin!

[Corwen]

My partner Kate spins, with a wheel and with shepherd's stick which I think is what people used before drop spindles.

[Alfarera]

I can spin with a drop spindle.

I also have an antique spinning wheel (from a car boot sale) but the drive band tends to drift if you pick up too much speed whilst using it!

[ancientharp]

I have a drop spindle, but I'm using some lovely raw fleece to make my husband some thrummed mittens... it's going really well.

[Caerthan]

I spin, mainly with a standard Saxony-type spinning wheel but I can also spin with a drop spindle and on a great wheel. I mainly spin alpaca - I have eight of them living with me - but I also spin some other fibres (I love Jacob fleece). I've just invested in some wool combs, too, to start doing some lovely worsted yarns with my Suri alpaca fleeces...

Nice to know there are other spinners about

Caerthan

[Lady-Jade]

I would love to buy a spinning wheel in the future. I find that using the drop spindle makes my hand crap up ridiculously so I can't do it for more than 5 minutes.

[Creirwy]

i went to a spinning workshop with a local guild of spinners weavers and dyer and had a BALL (or is that a twist ?) Finally tried out spinning on a wheel and I know now once I have space and a bit of money I'll be getting one! I absolutely loved it! The woman that was leading the workshop was telling us the different stories that had spinning in and I was playing with jacob, blue faced leicester, alpaca, all sorts of fleeces and fibres! I think the only thing she didnt have was flax! LOL.
But untill I have the means to get a wheel, Ive just bought myself a lighter spindle so I can play with doing finer yarns and even a bit of plying with my spindles.

[Creirwy]

My partner Kate spins, with a wheel and with shepherd's stick which I think is what people used before drop spindles.

Id love to hear more about this technique as ive never heard of something being used before drop spindles (even if it was just a stick with a stone at the bottom).

[Maulbeere]

Hi, sorry to bump such an old post - I'm a newbie but just wanted to add I spin too. I finally got a Schacht spinning wheel this year after learning a couple of years ago. I love it, and wish I had more time to take my wheel outside and sit in the shade and spin listening to the birds
Rebekah

[katie bridgewater]

Hi fellow spinners.
I just saw this thread for the first time - I tihnk Corwen posted about me spinning before I joined the board for myself.
Anyway, 2 things, the first is that joy of joys! the lovely Corwen gave me a new spinning wheel for my birthday in July. We haven't assembled it yet but I'm looking forward to the first jumper!

Second, the shepherd stick is a really portable way of spinning, far easier and less hassle than drop spindling (for a start you can do it on your lap whilst sitting down and in a confined space!). You need a forked stick about 14" long, where the fork is about 2/3 of the way along. You need to make a groove around the non-forked end of the stick. To start you have to make a few inches of twisted fibres so that you can tie a loop around the groove or spin on to a ready made length of wool. Get your 'rolag' ready in one hand. Then you spin by holding the grooved end in the other hand and just turning the stick. As the fork goes around it puts the twist in. When you get to the end of your reach, you wind the spun wool onto the stick in the same direction to keep the twist.
Once you have filled up 2 sticks, you can ply them together using the same method but turning in the opposite direction.

It's very simple and I learnt how to do it from my late and dear friend Lucy. We got chatting about spinning when she walked past my boat one day and stopped to ask directions. We were had homespun jumpers - mine was done on a wheel and hers entirely spun on shepherds sticks. We swapped methods - Lu really loved the whizzing wheel, and I was really pleased to find a portable way of spinning. Nether of us ever bothered with a drop spindle - it just seems like an awful faff after a shepherd stick!

I'll try to get around to making another shepherd stick sometime so I can post some pics.

[ShropshirePagan]

wow that sounds amazing Kate!

I had a top whorl drop spindle for Christmas and am currently spinning mad! Next need to figure out how to ply it - another strand to my Bardic crafts I find I'm much more a crafty bard (spinning, crochet, baking) than an arty bard

Warm blessings

Elaine x

[Tynan Elder Oak]

Hi all... just seen this post as it came up on active topics. I too spin, though currently my wheel is in pieces in the loft. I have a traditional wheel rather cumbersome, which takes up lots of room, but I LOVE it. I learned to spin years ago when my best friend returned from Australia with a lovely little traveller. I used to card wool for my grandmother, but never when younger got to grips with the spinning so was very pleased to do so. I card spin and do basic weaving.... the loom is in the loft too.

As I work as a Montessori Head, I aim to take my spinning wheel in to school for a few weeks when we look at textiles. Anything to keep these old crafts alive. We might need them after all when the oil runs out.

[clover]

I've had to add a bit to this ! I'm very new & should be finding my way around the site instead of diving straight in as soon as something takes my eye! I've been a spinner for about 15 years ,its the most therapeutic thing isn't it? Its been described to me as 'very Zen' & an aid to meditation.I just loveit,it got rather out of hand & I ended up with 3 spinning wheels & 3 looms -------- they were all real bargains ------ very cheap ! I hadn't considered the amount of space they took up & after hauling them around for a few years reluctantly sold them to someone who could use them.I've kept one small loom & my lovely spindle wheel which is much better for my joints than all the treadling.I'm looking after my Mum who has advanced dementia & I find my spinning great relaxation therapy & we are keeping traditional skills alive & kicking as well.
I'm probably doing this wrong as I'm rubbish with technology but had to say hello to fellow spinners !
clover

[ShropshirePagan]

Hello Clover!

I'm now developing more of an obsession with spinning and have learnt how to ply with my trust shoebox and two knitting needles, lol!! And who needs a niddy noddy for making skeins when you have a ladder backed chair??

I had an applewood spindle for my birthday and so spin lots on that now - I spun some yarn over the past couple of days to make a little pouch for a handfasting gift, so have now got the nack of plying and setting the twist in my skeins.

Next step - learning how to navajo ply for those lovely multicoloured yarns ....

Warm blessings

Elaine x

[Suzanne Tumnus]

my girls have been given "Sleeping Beauty" on video and they keep watching it. The thing is, in it, the "mad fairy" as Rhiannon calls her- Malificent, says that when "the princess is 16, she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die" so all the spinning wheels were burned!!! (sacrilage!!)

Now, my first reaction was so how did they make clothes then? nd so the story goes that "on the princesses's 16th birthday, everyone wa going around in very shabby clothes, and all carpenters and joiners, and wheelwrights were commisioned to start making new Spinning wheels, "

seriously, was the spindle in the story, just a spindle, not a spinning wheel, and thus easier to prick your finger on, and not necessarily needing the spinning wheel, its just easier to describe a spindle as being part of a spinning wheel, as its easier to imagine.

Maybe the "touching the spindle" is an aspect of girl becoming woman, as it is a craft that girls would learn, a fireside craft. might have to get a spindle, just for my Story corner now!!! and that the spindle is just the tool that signifies the rite of passage into woman hood, the prick on her finger may be mutated from the first blood meanign she wa old enough to learn how to spin, and perhaps old enough to enter the realm of spiners who gathered as they had their moon time, and got away from the boys and men to get some serious spinning (or patchwork) and chatting done!!

Ooh look the story "channel" is open!!!

Spin woman spin, turn woman turn - Carolyn Hillyer

oops I'm doing Ovate stuff now!!!!

(runs round like headless chicken!!!)

Bye for now!! oh please let me know what you spinners think of this! (polite answers only - oh what th heck, belittle me if you will!!)

Love you all spinning ladies!

Suzanne Tumnus
xxxxxx

[Corwen]

I want to know what it is Sleeping Beauty pricks her finger on... Neither spinning wheels, nor drop spindles, or even shepherd's sticks, have any sharp or pointy bits!

[Claer]

Spinning is something I would like to try - but I've only just started knitting.
My main reason for getting interested in things woollen is sheep. I am involved in conservation grazing some rare breed sheep on the Barton Hills (northern point of the Chilterns in Bedfordshire). At the moment the raw fleeces go to The Nude Ewe, a partnership between Bedfordshire & Luton Biodiversity Partnership and GrazeBeds, a project of the Wildlife Trust. They are spun, turned into yarn and sold, and graziers get a bit of the proceeds. However, I really like the idea of spinning and knitting with wool from these sheep I've helped rear (lambing is almost over!!!).
If anyone here is interested in fleeces from rare and native UK breeds - The Nude Ewe is a source http://www.bedslife.org.uk/nude-ewe/pro ... tm#Fleeces

[Suzanne Tumnus]

I want to know what it is Sleeping Beauty pricks her finger on... Neither spinning wheels, nor drop spindles, or even shepherd's sticks, have any sharp or pointy bits!

exactly! there is no need for a sharp point on a spindle, i have never understood that myself, even when I was little, so it must just be "touching" transmogrified into "pricking" over the years as a "process" touching must have been too insignificant.

I shall get me a spindle, and retell the tale, with the ancient spinners as my guides!

Love and blessings

Mrs T
xxx

[Suzanne Tumnus]

sorry this is more about Sleeping Beauty, please ignore if you're only looking for spinning.

I've been looking online for differences in the storym, and origins.

there are different aspects of the "spindle" some are on a spinning wheel, some are just spindles, and when she touches it, she "fulfils the prophecy" Some versions say it was a thorn, (this may be where the prick comes from) and other say it was a splinter on the spindle, and that the spell was broken when the flax that was being spun is removed from her finger.
Others of course point to the "becoming Woman" and sleeping through the transition.

There is a second half to the Story too, that I had never heard of, wher Sleeping Beauty has 2 children (sun and moon) and it is when she is giving birth to them that she is awakened, as one of them sucks the finger and removes the flax/thorn/splinter. then the "mother in law" who is an ogre, demands that the children be eaten and the princess too. but the cooks substitutes a lamb and a goat and then the ogress is pushed into the fire or something!!

All this from a Spindle!! its amazing what you can make with one!!!

Suzanne Tumnus!!

[panidaho]

I spin, too! I taught myself with a top whorl drop spindle a couple of years ago, but as a present this year my family gave me a reconditioned spinning wheel, so now I can actually spin enough to make something larger than a pair of socks now and then. ;-)

I love spinning, it's very meditative.