Spinning in place
I’ve been spending a lot of time spinning this last week. And when I wasn’t spinning I was crocheting a scarf with yarn I had dyed and spun earlier. I feel so SMUG! There is a Cheshire cat style smirk plastered all over my physiognomy for some reason. On Tuesday I spun eight bobbins and ended up with three balls of a lovely blue/white mix that I will start crocheting into another scarf for a young lady of my acquaintance.

I’m not sure which has given me the greatest pleasure, spinning the wool or crocheting yarn I had created into something beautiful! One of the things that fascinate me is that whilst spinning there is a real sense of being ‘in the moment’. I need to concentrate on the amount of twist that is being put into the yarn and at the same time the amount of fibre that is being made available to feed into the yarn so that the twist doesn’t run into the fibre. And all the while I have to keep treadling so that the wheel keeps turning not too fast and not too slow.

I can remember my frustration when I first started spinning as the hands and feet and fingers just didn’t “get it” – it rather reminded me of the frustrations I grew through as I learnt to drive a car. But that only produced the ability to go from one place to another; learning to spin offers a form a meditation as well as the opportunity to create something beautifully unique.

Then there are all the related possibilities that are offered after the creation of a yarn … crochet (which I can do), knitting (which would be a continuation of a family tradition), weaving – something that is seriously tempting in some ways as I can then sew the created lengths into clothes for me to wear … that would bring a whole new dimension to ‘home-made’!
Then there are all the interesting explorations possible in the colouring of the fibre, before or after the creation of the yarn, and the range of fibre available to be spun into yarn … although I must admit to a certain fondness for wool, but I would like to try some of the other fibres that are now available.