Spinning for Sanity

Sounds like a fiber fundraiser, doesn't it? Get your friends to pledge money for every yard spun, then sit down and spin until you drop? Hmm, not a bad idea.

That is not, in fact, what I meant though.

It's been a long week and the sanity I'm spinning for is my own.

My mother is in the hospital, three thousand miles away, and short of getting on a plane to go see her there is not much I can do other than provide moral support to my dad over the phone.

This has left me feeling very stressed and anxious.

I have been spinning. It helps, but not enough.

Edited to add: my mother had a better night last night, encouraging news.

Not Striving for Perfection

I wouldn't say that I'm a perfectionist, but I do have strong tendencies in that direction.

This has its ups and downs.

When I was in graduate school it meant that I never stopped revising and editing my papers until the moment I turned them in, because I always felt they could be just a little bit better. I did very well in school but I didn't sleep much those years.

My perfectionist tendencies serve me fairly well in my knitting; I am technically proficient enough to be able to solve most knitting problems and turn out projects that are generally mistake free. The Italian occasionally chides me for not "letting things go" more, but if I see a mistake I can fix without too much trouble I will do so. I like to do it right.

Where it hasn't served me well is with my spinning. I have much too much spinning fiber in the house that I haven't tried working with because it's "too nice" for me to use until I know how to spin better. I don't have any target for when I would be "good enough" as a spinner to spin any of these lovely fibers, but I've decided that enough is enough.

It's time to start spinning. For real.

I'm not going to jump right into the quiviut that's lurking somewhere in a bin - it's so incredibly soft, and so incredibly expensive, that I will wait a little longer to attempt that, thank you very much.

But I have lots of lovely wool and small amounts of all sorts of other things and there's no reason not to do something with it all. I think the only thing I will require of myself is that I be mindful about it: I'll try to pay attention, take notes, keep track of what I do so in the future I'll be able to remember what I liked, what I didn't, and what fibers I still haven't tried!

This is what I'm working on now:

Lisa Souza Blue Faced Leicester. I bought 4 oz. at Stitches and it is wonderful to work with. I had made note of some green Socks that Rock yarn earlier in the day, but when I spotted this top I just had to have it. Lisa Souza's prices are very reasonable and the quality of the product is fabulous!




I'm spinning with a true worsted draft and it is so different from any spinning I've done before. I can't do it solely by feel yet so I really have to watch what I'm doing, but it is mesmerizing.

The plan is to make a three ply sock yarn which will be lustrous, durable and very, very green!

Spin, Span, Spun

There has been a lot of spinning, and spinning-related activities going on around here lately, and I've been having a blast!

First, actual spinning content:
Back when I first learned to spin I acquired several fleeces at the Monterey County Fair fleece auction over the course of several years. One of them, a tan 1/4 blood merino, I sent out to be carded.

For some reason I decided to spindle spin this fleece into lace weight yarn. I worked at it off and on for years, not making much progress (it was about 3 lbs of fiber). Plus, the spindle was probably too heavy for the yarn I wanted to make, and my results were a bit wiry at times.

Fast forward to last fall when I took a spinning class with Stephenie Gaustad. I came home full of excitement over the soft and fluffy yarns I now knew how to spin. I finished up the project that was on my wheel at the time and looked around for what to spin next. I thought of the carded tan fleece, and decided to experiment. I spun different weights with different amounts of twist, plied doubled and tripled, and paid attention to what the fleece seemed suited to.

In the end I decided to spin a lofty three ply. I spun and spun, not worrying about the occasional slub or thin spot. This was a real change for me - I have tended to be a very controlled spinner in the past, but I liked this style. I filled bobbin after bobbin, understanding for the first time why a Woolee Winder would be an appealing accessory. I spun for months, borrowing storage bobbins from my friend Sylvia, keeping track of what I was doing so I could ply with a plan.

Finally, about a month ago I finished the singles, all 3 lbs. or so. Then I began plying, which took about a week, and now it is all done.







I wish you could feel this yarn - it is soft and light, and I just want to cuddle it. It's not next to the skin soft, but it is the opposite of wiry and I am thrilled.

I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with it, but that's a question for another day. It's washed and stored and in my mind I'm contemplating options!

In other spinning news, I spent an hour last Friday afternoon with my daughter's third grade class, demoing carding, spindle spinning, and wheel spinning. I opened by reading the book "Woolbur" which was a great way to introduce the subject, then talked about all the steps in the process, showing them the tools and how they worked as I talked. I gave each kid samples of different kinds of wool prepared different ways, and then when I was done with the demo I gave each kid a straw loom I'd prepared, so everybody got a chance to weave and something to take home.

It was so much fun. The kids were really interested and asked lots of great questions. A couple of boys got antsy at one point, but I was amazed at how much they followed, and stayed on track. One boy told the teacher that it was the best Fun Friday ever!

And my last bit of spinning news for the day is that I have applied for a scholarship to attend SOAR, the Spin-Off Autumn Retreat. I don't know how many scholarships they award and how many people apply, but I am really hoping for the best! I think about how much I could learn in a week at SOAR and my fingers get all tingly - wish me luck!