Tuesday, 7 January 2014

Spinning Show & Tell: Back to square one

Just as I was starting to feel comfortable with a spindle - generally able to control the amount of twist, the thickness etc - I've taken a gigantic leap back to "absolute beginner" status with the unpacking of my wheel. (It's a Schacht Ladybug which D treated me to for Christmas from The Threshing Barn. You can see the little ladybug in the picture, each wheel has a bug in a different place so we had to hunt for it!) 
Ladybug Spinning wheel
It required only minimal assembly, but having never used a wheel before it took a combination of the instruction manual, YouTube and a shout-out on Instagram to get it set up and ready to use and, eventually, I tried it out for the first time. Oh dear! 

My friends will testify to my poor co-ordination skills, so operating the treadles with my feet whilst at the same time drafting the fibre was quite comedic! It reminded me of the only time I ever tried playing the drums (at school to the raucous laughter of my classmates). Doing different things with my hands and feet is definitely not something that comes naturally, however the spindle experience has been useful. I was completely hopeless at that too, when I first started. It took almost 200g of fibre to get the hang of using the spindle properly, so I'm working on the basis that once I've spun badly for long enough, it'll just all fall into place and seem more natural. Unfortunately the day after getting started, I injured my right thumb (unrelated) and it's still very painful to make a pincer grip. If it's not better soon I might have to try drafting with my left hand - that should be interesting!

You may recall before Christmas the children asked to learn to spin, and in their stockings were some custom notched spindles - not too heavy, and which they could decorate themselves. I was imagining nicely painted patterns or something, but this one has turned into a Doc McStuffins spindle. LM is delighted with it. 
Untitled
Of course, they are having to wait patiently for my thumb to recover to begin their lessons but I'm hoping we might all have something to show you next Tuesday. 

As well as updating on my own spinning progress, I've lined up some guest spinners who will be joining in with 'show & tell' this year too. If you're a spinner and you'd like to be considered for a guest post please email me. In the meantime, if you have a spinning post you'd like to share please leave the link below (if you can't see where to put the link, open this post in a regular web broswer). 

6 comments:

  1. Lots of luck with the new wheel! It took me a little while to adjust from spindle to wheel, as well, but you'll pick it up fairly quickly since you already have basic drafting skills from the spindle. And how great that your kids want to spin, too!

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  2. Hope your thumb recovers soon and best of luck with the new wheel - can't wait to see the results. x

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  3. Oh, congratulations!! Hope your thumb heals quickly! It's an essential part of drafting! I have a Kromski Prelude wheel, and putting it together was horrific. But it is so much fun to use. I think spindles will be my first love, though ... it takes longer, but then I cheat and use the wheel to ply!

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  4. All the best. The wheel looks awsome! I might get my fist spinning lesson this January. But my wheel is not as fancy as yours. Hopefully, it will do. :-)

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  5. You won't believe it: I'm having my first spinning lesson on Monday, 14:30. :-)

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  6. The ladybug wheel looks beautiful, I look forward to reading about how your spinning goes. Congratulations for getting the youngsters interested. Getting them to decorate their spindles is a great idea!

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