I hope that, if you spin, you have a group with which to gather and share spinning. I belong to a lovely Sunday afternoon group and we gather once a month to spin and talk about spinning with people who don't go catatonic when you bemoan the staple length of Wensleydale or ponder the suitability of Finn wool for socks.
We meet in the back room of the knit shop and we chat and spin for a few hours. Customers wander through and wonder what we're up to. Someone (usually a customer's husband dragged in on Sunday errands) invariably pokes a head through the door and says something like, "Oh, that kind of spinning. They said you were spinning back here, and I wondered ... "
Like we haven't heard that one before.
They especially wonder what we're up to when we whoop it up after this kind of entanglement... You knew this was going to happen at some point. All those spinning wheels and all that drafted fiber dangling about.
Some of us spin with drop spindles and most spin with wheels. We spin blends and different breeds of wool and discuss the merits of drafting versus rolags.
We bring in our recently spun yarn and hand spun hand knits to share and ooo and ahh over.
We show off recent acquisitions. Can I just say that the sheepy smell coming out of this sampler box should be bottled and sold. Or boxed and sold... ; ) That's a box of several ounces each of 20 sheep breeds. We decided it should be spun and knit into a sheep breed striped sweater. How cool would that be?! Except when you explained it to non-spinners, which you'd have to do because it's so cool, they'd glaze over.
One of us just spends an inordinate amount of time playing with the Sports Action setting her camera.
Awesome photos of those wheels in action! We spin once a month at the library but we take the summers off - I can't wait to get back to it!
Posted by: Carole | September 19, 2011 at 06:21 AM
That looks like so much fun. Do you do it at Knitorious? That's so dangerous. So tempting. Yarn and fiber. Is that your box of fleece? If so, THAT IS BEYOND COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll bet after your surgery spinning is so wonderful.
Posted by: CindyCindy | September 19, 2011 at 06:50 AM
Blogs like this make my heart beat faster and my feet itch to work the treadles. Sadly, there are no spinning groups in my area, so my inspiration (and training) come from Ravelry, Plurk friends, YouTube, and Spin Off magazine.
Posted by: KateJonze | September 19, 2011 at 08:36 AM
You make me soooo happy!
Posted by: Amanda | September 20, 2011 at 05:52 PM