Why am I awake this early on my day off...
I haven't been around much these last few days, sorry guys. Life got a little crazy here. Work was suppose to be really low-impact last week and it wasn't. I was run ragged on Thursday & Friday with way to much Drama and last minute stuff thrown at me. Thankfully it was a three-day weekend which means no work for me today. YAY!
The rest of this post is going under a cut because i'm about to wax poetic on the wonders (or lack of) of spinning class. (For the record i'm referring to wool spinning, not the exercise class)
I did something really fun yesterday, I took the first of two spinning classes. The classes were suppose go over fiber preperation, drop spindles & spinning on a wheel. It was a nice group of six; the woman who was teaching was the co-owner of the yarn store where we were. She was very nice, but obviously never taught spinning before because I found her to be ill-prepared. There was several times during the 3 hours we were there were questions asked and she said I'll have to pull out a book and read it to you. ??? I'm not quite sure what was up with that.
We collectively decided to skip the drop spindles because we all became enchanted with her collection of seven spinning wheels sitting before us. Let me backtrack a second. I've only ever once saw someone spin and that was on a drop spindle. I have one and some roving, I've never been able to make anything but a mess with it. I am taking a drop spindle class in NYC next month so i'm not worried about not learning it yesterday... It was so worth skipping it to spend more time on the wheel.
Okay back to the class. We decided to go straight to spinning on the wheel. Jane (the instructor) quickly went over the parts of the wheel, and how she got hers and gave us a quick demo. That was it, then she handed out some fiber and told us to try???? HUH??? okay, I didn't get it. From my prior drop spindle fiasco's I couldn't get the hang of holding the fiber and feeding it. Finally she came by me, quickly showed me how to hold it properly, I had my hands backwards which for me made all the difference. Then I was off.
It was so amazing. I have no other words for it but amazing, the feel of the treadle under your feet as your hands gently caress the fiber. Your feet control the treadle which spins the wheel pulling the yarn in. Your hands are controlling how much fiber you are releasing this how thick the yarn will be. In all I probably spent about a little over an hour at the wheel (including the beginning when I couldn't figure it out). I can't wait till next week, I'm bringing the blue roving I have here with me.
I'm really happy I took the class, one of my resolutions this year was to learn to spin and I think i've just taking a big step. I'm not 100% happy with the instructor and her guidance (or lack of) but I spun on a wheel yesterday and i'm giddy about that.
okay sorry about the long woolly (haha) ramble
This afternoon I really need to catch up on some LJ reading, but for now I better get in the shower and get some stuff done.
Love ya all...
The rest of this post is going under a cut because i'm about to wax poetic on the wonders (or lack of) of spinning class. (For the record i'm referring to wool spinning, not the exercise class)
I did something really fun yesterday, I took the first of two spinning classes. The classes were suppose go over fiber preperation, drop spindles & spinning on a wheel. It was a nice group of six; the woman who was teaching was the co-owner of the yarn store where we were. She was very nice, but obviously never taught spinning before because I found her to be ill-prepared. There was several times during the 3 hours we were there were questions asked and she said I'll have to pull out a book and read it to you. ??? I'm not quite sure what was up with that.
We collectively decided to skip the drop spindles because we all became enchanted with her collection of seven spinning wheels sitting before us. Let me backtrack a second. I've only ever once saw someone spin and that was on a drop spindle. I have one and some roving, I've never been able to make anything but a mess with it. I am taking a drop spindle class in NYC next month so i'm not worried about not learning it yesterday... It was so worth skipping it to spend more time on the wheel.
Okay back to the class. We decided to go straight to spinning on the wheel. Jane (the instructor) quickly went over the parts of the wheel, and how she got hers and gave us a quick demo. That was it, then she handed out some fiber and told us to try???? HUH??? okay, I didn't get it. From my prior drop spindle fiasco's I couldn't get the hang of holding the fiber and feeding it. Finally she came by me, quickly showed me how to hold it properly, I had my hands backwards which for me made all the difference. Then I was off.
It was so amazing. I have no other words for it but amazing, the feel of the treadle under your feet as your hands gently caress the fiber. Your feet control the treadle which spins the wheel pulling the yarn in. Your hands are controlling how much fiber you are releasing this how thick the yarn will be. In all I probably spent about a little over an hour at the wheel (including the beginning when I couldn't figure it out). I can't wait till next week, I'm bringing the blue roving I have here with me.
I'm really happy I took the class, one of my resolutions this year was to learn to spin and I think i've just taking a big step. I'm not 100% happy with the instructor and her guidance (or lack of) but I spun on a wheel yesterday and i'm giddy about that.
okay sorry about the long woolly (haha) ramble
This afternoon I really need to catch up on some LJ reading, but for now I better get in the shower and get some stuff done.
Love ya all...