Spinning

Some of you may remember that way back in 2015, I wanted to learn to spin. I took classes down near Austin and ended up buying a Schacht Lady Bug spinning wheel.

The Lady Bug is a nice wheel. It folds up and is more portable. I envisioned taking this with me to MO, and some day teaching Addie to spin.

Then, I wanted a Matchless. The Matchless was a dream spinning wheel for me. I had even hoped that some day, if we moved back to MO, we could get sheep or goats and Addie could help care for the animals. We would be able to shear them and spin from our own fiber. Pipedream . . yes, but that’s how I think.

As it turns out, I ended up with two Matchless wheels and the Lady Bug so you’d think with three wheels, I’d have learned to spin, but I didn’t. It’s probably that fear of never getting to be very good, or maybe just having more yarn than I’ll ever use but those machines have sat in the corner of the dining room for over three years, never being touched at all.

Yesterday, for whatever reason, I started wanting to spin. I thought about it all day. The entire time I was knitting, I was thinking about spinning. While working in the kitchen, I kept eyeing the wheels over in the dining room.

Last night, I was up until well after midnight re-watching the videos from the Craftsy/Blueprint classes I took back in 2015.

There is a problem because I need to have a spinning wheel almost in the middle of the floor to use it with good lighting and that is going to be a problem for Rita. I initially tried spinning in the sewing room and Boots thinks that’s a very fun game and it was impossible to spin with him around. I don’t think I would enjoy spinning for hours in the bedroom with the door closed to keep out of Rita’s way. I’m not sure how I’m going to work this out. Probably, with a bit of time, Rita will learn the noise the wheel makes and if I put it in the same place all the time, and move it out of the way when I’m not using it, she can get used to it.

This morning, I woke up before daylight thinking about spinning so I quietly got out bed, grabbed one of the Matchless wheels, dusted it off, oiled it and as soon as it got to be daylight enough that I wasn’t afraid of being attacked by a wild critter outside, I went over to the sewing room and got some fiber.

Before I start spinning fiber though, I need to sit and “treadle” with my feet to try to get a good rhythm and to be able to spin both directions . . Z twist and S twist. Hopefully by the end of the day, I’ll have some yarn to show. It won’t be pretty . . it will be lumpy and bumpy but that’s how everyone starts out. The only problem with that is stopping at that point and never advancing. This time, I’m going to do it!