Last of Kid 'N Ewe... spinning classes.

Oh my goodness, is it December already? Okay, quick wrap up of Kid N Ewe, and then back to knitting.

On Sunday I got up fairly early, made even more early by having spent the previous night at Wurstfest, and headed back into Boerne. I got there just in time to pull out my wheel and set up at the Spinner’s Workshop.

This is not my wheel, but it's pretty.

I mentioned having hurt my shoulder from spinning too much, which distressed the teacher to no end. She insisted that I learn how to do the long draw drafting method. As it was one of the many things I’d been looking to learn, I was not opposed to the idea. So I spent the class practicing the long draw, and spinning with different fibers. I had the most success not reverting to the short forward draw when I was using merino. She said that, while I am still perfecting my long draw, I should use the best prepared fibers I have because then I can focus on technique.

Fiber I brought and wanted to try out.

Of the different fibers we tried, the sari silk and the flax left the biggest impression. I carded and spun some of the sari silk I’d bought months ago. It had scared me, I loved the colors but I was afraid of messing it up. Being in a class setting gave me the courage to give it a try. Spinning flax, which once spun is called linen, was very different from anything I’d tried before. You spin flax wet, which kind of blows my mind. Spun dry it’s really hairy; spun wet it’s not nearly as fuzzy and much stronger. The class covered how flax is made but, while it was interesting, the earliness of the hour had an affect on my retention.  It's from a plant. We'll leave it at that.

After class I had a quick bite to eat then headed back for my last class of Kid N Ewe, Spinning with Cotton. We were greeted with a bag of goodies, a tahkli spindle, and a bowl or glass of some sort.

Bag o' cotton and little bitty spindle.

In our bag of tricks we had a bunch of different types of cotton: ginned fiber, sliver, punis, boll cotton, and even a cotton ball. We learned about the difference between cotton and wool cards, the different types of colored cotton, how to plant and take care of cotton plants, and how to spin using the tahkli spindle.

The tahkli is a supported spindle; you attach a leader, set it in a bowl and spin it like a top. It feels different from a drop spindle because instead of holding the fiber and pulling downward with gravity, you pull up and away from the spindle. Unlike a wheel or a drop spindle, the only pull on the fiber is the spinner. This causes a tendency to over spin, which is helpful with such a short staple length.

I love how small and portable the tahkli is, and when I got back to Austin I spun on it for quite a while. By the third day of spinning, my left wrist was telling me to take a break. Like any other spinning that I’ve obsessed over, you can hurt yourself if you do it for too long. I’ve backed off but I already have a few baby skeins.

Aren't they cute?

As much as I love the portability, it is still a spindle and my wheel is just so much faster. I may try spinning cotton on my wheel again, but not until after Christmas. I’ve been neglecting my gift knitting and if I want to get any done I'll have to set the spinning aside. Yarn Harlot has a post that perfectly explains the gift knitter's motivation. It also happens to include what to get a knitter. (Hint: more yarn is always better.) So I’m off to go work on that baby blanket. But if it’s not done by the end of next week, I'm setting it aside until after Christmas. The baby isn’t due till February, and I’m hoping it's not in a hurry to be born. I’m knitting as fast as I can.

Life and fiber goals.

I have life altering* news! DH and I went to partner yoga and I successfully did a headstand. It wasn’t pretty, and it didn’t last very long, but it counts. Two days after the fact and I’m still giddy at the idea. When Yoga Scott said we’d be doing headstands I had that “I’m too heavy and my arms aren’t strong enough” feeling wash over me, again. But yoga is about personal growth!  So, I tried kicking up from the tripod**, no dice. Yoga Scott suggested a different position*** I'd tried before, but hadn't felt very stable. But DH was there and I trusted him to catch me, and if I kicked him by accident he wouldn't care. So I fully committed to kicking my feet in the air and, with a little help, there it was.

In school I had always failed the physical fitness tests. I couldn’t touch my toes; I could never do a pull up; headstands were something other people did, and cartwheels were scary. I still can’t do a pull up, but I am no longer certain I will never do one. Yoga has helped me achieve things I thought my body would never do. Someday I may even attempt a cartwheel.

In other news I pulled out my wheel and finished spinning the green silk-angora-merino-alpaca.

It is soft and fairly even. I’m not sure what to do with it since there’s only about 58 yards of it. I might be able to get away with a hat. I’ll put it aside for now until the right project comes along.

Also, I started spinning up some fiber I’d gotten at Hill Country Weavers recently. Three bags full. The first I opened is a Corriedale fiber dyed a bright blue. I’ve been spinning with merino or a merino blend for a while.**** But I couldn't resist the color, so it followed me home. Wow is it different. The staple length is so much longer; I have to treadle much slower and focus on my drafting. I may end up getting a new whorl so that I can go back to the muscle movements to which I am accustomed. Difficulties aside, I do like the way it is spinning up - much thicker than my usual singles.

It is SO blue.

I did bring home some merino. I know, you're shocked.

I'm still in love with purple.

Is it gray or silver?

I can’t decide if I want to ply the purple and the gray together or separately. I tend to knit with solid colored yarn, but the gray and the purple look so good together.

My shoulder was a bit sore after the extended spinning. But, if I’m careful, I think I can get back on track to spinning myself enough yarn for a sweater. That's a goal for next year. I want to take the rest of this year to get better at the basics before I start on a long project.


*Ok so your life might not be changed, but mine sure is.
**Where your head is on the ground with your hands on the floor and you put your knees on your elbows.
*** Cupping the back of my head with my hands so that my forearms would be on the ground to help support, and then kicking up.
**** DH is sensitive to wool but merino doesn’t bother him. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Finding Balance

Yoga Scott is back and I’m so glad! I’d been going into yoga withdrawal. I was out of practice both getting up early and in stretching. But the weird pain I’d had in my side went away after practicing yoga for an hour. YS said something that stuck with me, “Allow your practice to bring balance to your life.” I had been off balance. I’m still slightly off, but I’m getting better.

One of the girls I spin with at Gauge Knits was commenting on the speed of my treadling. I was getting faster and faster. She said I needed to relax, that listening to me treadle was like listening to someone get stressed out. I had no idea I was treadling so fast.

I think I’m a fairly laid back person. For the most part, I try to let things wash over me rather than get upset. But, I do knit too tightly and now I spin too fast? Perhaps it is control issues, perhaps it is OCD tendencies, or perhaps I was just listening to fast music.

Should I change hands and knit everything continental? Most of the time I knit for the challenge of the pattern, I guess could go knit a garder stitch scarf or two. It would probably help me let go of things that are not important. But… I’m not sure that I could make myself do it. I think that I’d be frustrated that it takes me so long to knit something, unhappy with the uneven results, and - rather than being meditative - I’d be bored out of my skull.

So a compromise. I’ll cast on a garter stitch scarf with some random Simply Soft yarn that I have in my stash. I’ll knit it up continental. But it won’t be for anyone in particular, it won’t be my main project, and I’ll only work on it when I feel like meditating. No pressure to get it done, it could take me a year and that would be ok.

As for spinning, for now I’ll spin at whatever speed is comfortable and gets me the yarn I like. But I will consider that slowing down might help fix the over twist issues I’d been having. And I’ll try to be mindful while spinning, focusing on what the yarn wants rather than thinking faster equals better.