I want a spinning wheel.
I took a class last year in drop spindle, because some
bastard someone suggested it would be a good idea before I went to the expense
of buying a spinning wheel.
Because of my job (court reporter) I have incredible manual
dexterity. I’m comfortable making my
hands do two different things at once. I worship fiber! I sniff
yarn! It seemed like a match made in
heaven. I thought I’d be good at
it. I told people I thought I’d be good
at it.
Well, they do say pride goeth before a fall.
Oh, I’m not saying I got so tangled up in my yarn that I
fell over and had to be extracted by the Jaws of Life or anything.
I’m also not saying there was any “yarn” to speak of.
Nevertheless, I bought a package of roving. I bought a book. I was sure all I needed was practice. After all, I was the only person in the class (except for maybe
one or two or three or four other people) who hadn’t ever even touched a drop
spindle before. So if they were all better than me, well, they were ringers!
I couldn’t even get the lead to stay on the spindle. If I managed to make a length of “yarn” I
couldn’t get it wrapped onto the spindle before it turned back into roving.
I hated spinning.
I rudely stuffed the roving into a bag with the spindle and
the book, and shoved the whole package into the back of my closet.
Every now and then I would take it out and try again, with
no better success.
I decided spinning was not for me, and that in the interest
of my blood pressure, and living a long and happy life, I should just let it
go.
And then my lys had an early-bird sale. Now, lys stands for “local yarn shop” and in
my case, “local” is extremely relatively speaking. It’s an hour and a half drive.
So one of the wonderful ladies who works there offered to
let me spend the night with her. And
while we should have been sleeping, she got out her spinning wheel, and began
to teach me to spin. You know that lead
I was mentioning? You know all the
winding I was talking about? The wheel
does it for you! And the actual
spinning part? It’s all good! We had yarn! Actual, cohesive, twisty yarn!
And let me tell you, I didn’t just spin your plain old boring yarny yarn, either! No! I went straight to that fancy-schmancy thick and thin stuff we pay so much for in Noro and similar!
The kid’s a natural!
