Spin around

I can't believe how fast the weeks have been going by! We've all been busy working on our projects and I will be posting another entry this week to show you how my "hat" is coming along. Fingers crossed it works out as it has been extremely labour intensive compared with the traditional knitting technique I am used to.

This past week my friend Melissa was kind enough to show me a quick demo of hand spinning wool with a drop spindle whorl. Melissa took a lesson in how to spin wool about a year ago and although she hasn't been a prolific spinner as it is a rather labour intensive craft, she definitely showed me the basics.


First we started with some corriedale wool roving which I purchased from the Knotty by Nature yarn shop a few years back when I first started needle felting. To make roving, wool is shorn from the sheep/alpaca etc...and after washing, is carded or combed together to lengthen and smooth the fibres. This forms long bundles of fibres which are typically twisted or braided together for retail sale.

To start, Melissa had previously some spun wool on her spindle. We decided to continue working with the natural white fibre so she wouldn't interrupt her fibre bundle. She started with pulling off a section of the roving about the width of a pencil and about 24 inches long. Like we have been doing with the nalbinding joins, she took the two rough ends and laid them against each other and then put some twist in the bundle. When she began to spin, this pulled these sections taut against each other and quickly formed new yarn.


Through the process of adding the fibres together, using the spindle whorl to both add twist as well as lengthen the yarn, Melissa was able to demonstrate the basics of how to make your own wool.


I have a new found appreciation for all of the handspun local fibres available in store after seeing this process first hand. Although it appears very labour intensive, it is really rewarding to see how the Viking's would have made their own wool.

Happy spinning!!!!

tk