When visiting Sara two weeks ago, I also met Rita, who came only for a night to visit Sara for the first time as well. As I knew Rita to be a magician on spinning yarn, I asked her if she might show me how to do it, as I'd been trying to learn it out of books but never managed to get it right.
As none of us had a drop spindle at hand, Rita improvised with a Chinese chopstick(!), a piece of cardboard(!) and a ball of yarn(!) to teach me the basics. She's just a marvellous teacher, and somehow she actually got me spinning something looking almost like a yarn ...!
Back home again, I took out my heavy, wooden Swedish dropspindle and tried it out once more. And wow! It worked!
First I concentrated on forming a thin and very even thread, using carded white fleece - after a while I got bolder and started experimenting with thickness, colours and material, adding nubs and slubs, segments of darker wool inbetween, woolen curls, mixing fleece and roving ... it's so fun and very hard to stop when you've figured out how it works!
Today, I unwinded my single thread for the first time - it already had 138 g! - and gave it that shock-therapy with boiling water and then stretched it up to set the twist.
Sara gave me a wonderful little book called "Handspun Revolution" by pluckyfluff/Lexi Boeger before I left, and another very nice one is "Creative Spinning" by Alison Daykin and Jane Deane - if you read those, you really start dreaming of spinning the most exciting yarns yourself, adding about everything you find to make one-of-a-kind yarns.
Of course I'm dreaming about that too - and of getting an opportunity to learn how to spin on a wheel someday as well ...
Speaking about yarns, I found a knitting yarn shop at my trip to Vienna selling those magnificent Japanese "Noro" yarns ... they are really expensive, but irresistable - I had to treat myself to a few skeins nevertheless ...
Now I'm trying to work out some special way to knit them in order to display their most beautiful and unusual colour scheme ... I'm thinking of knitting them like mosaic pieces, combining them with a few other Italian yarns in corresponding colours.
This picture is unfortunately quite dull, as daylight is long gone for today - but maybe you get the idea at least, and I'll be back with some better photos as the project proceeds:
As none of us had a drop spindle at hand, Rita improvised with a Chinese chopstick(!), a piece of cardboard(!) and a ball of yarn(!) to teach me the basics. She's just a marvellous teacher, and somehow she actually got me spinning something looking almost like a yarn ...!
Back home again, I took out my heavy, wooden Swedish dropspindle and tried it out once more. And wow! It worked!
First I concentrated on forming a thin and very even thread, using carded white fleece - after a while I got bolder and started experimenting with thickness, colours and material, adding nubs and slubs, segments of darker wool inbetween, woolen curls, mixing fleece and roving ... it's so fun and very hard to stop when you've figured out how it works!
Today, I unwinded my single thread for the first time - it already had 138 g! - and gave it that shock-therapy with boiling water and then stretched it up to set the twist.
Sara gave me a wonderful little book called "Handspun Revolution" by pluckyfluff/Lexi Boeger before I left, and another very nice one is "Creative Spinning" by Alison Daykin and Jane Deane - if you read those, you really start dreaming of spinning the most exciting yarns yourself, adding about everything you find to make one-of-a-kind yarns.
Of course I'm dreaming about that too - and of getting an opportunity to learn how to spin on a wheel someday as well ...
Speaking about yarns, I found a knitting yarn shop at my trip to Vienna selling those magnificent Japanese "Noro" yarns ... they are really expensive, but irresistable - I had to treat myself to a few skeins nevertheless ...
Now I'm trying to work out some special way to knit them in order to display their most beautiful and unusual colour scheme ... I'm thinking of knitting them like mosaic pieces, combining them with a few other Italian yarns in corresponding colours.
This picture is unfortunately quite dull, as daylight is long gone for today - but maybe you get the idea at least, and I'll be back with some better photos as the project proceeds:
10 comments:
Hi Anneli, looks like you had a wonderful weekend at Sara's place! Wish i had been there. I want to learn dropspinning too. Is it hard to learn? I have some old African dropspindle made from clay. Going to try tomorrow.
XXXm
Hi Martine, no, it's not that hard to learn, actually - you just have to have some patience until you get the right motion between left and right hand ... Good luck - and don't give up! It's wonderful when it suddenly works out!
You are a lucky girl. It is always so exciting to learn something new.
This is probably the beginning of a new leg of your journey.
Dear Elizabeth - yes, I'm always happy getting to know new textile techniques - and I'm quite sure I'm going to do more of this ...!
I look forward to seeing more of your project
Carolyn x
Thanks, Carolyn! And thank you for solving the commenting-problem on your blog, too!
ooooh!! i've been wanting to learn to use a drop spindle since i watched a fellow classmate do it from her chair during two weeks of lectures last year. she made it look so easy, but i fear it is not!! your yarn is so scrumptuos looking...i love all the natural shades. can't wait to see what you make with it :) xx
this looks really good. my friend tried to use s spindle and cold not work it out. i think it may be one of those thins which is easier if you are shown.
ich werde ganz rot!
und finde dein strang wunderschön.
Liebe Rita: nicht rot werden - stolz! - stimmt ja! Und nochmals danke!
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