Witness the first bobbin of the evening.
It was ok. I saw that I had spun the fibre into something and managed to get it on the bobbin but it was fluffy.
As Leigh, our lovely instructor said, 'It's novelty yarn!'
I replied, 'Yeah but I wouldn't buy novelty yarn, much less want to make my own!'
We tried a different wheel for me, a traveller, which is an upright model, and lo and behold, magic occured.
I made that. I really did. It came through MY fingers. After watching my other classmates Carrie and Nettie do that kind of magic with a degree more ease than I could manage, I felt like watching them enviously had finally paid off. I learned something.
I'm still not sure I'm going to be a spinner though. That said, Leigh had some examples there of her own spun yarn turned into real knitted items and they were far from the lumpy, uneven products I imagined (not to suggest that our teacher would only make lumpy yarn - I just didn't know it could be quite so beautiful) - I should have taken photos - there was one particularly fine lace shawl made from the delicate yarn you'd expect to use for something like that.
But really, when it comes down to it, it's a bit like dyeing for me. I'm interested enough to find out how it works but in reality, I don't feel 'called' to contribute to this end of the fibre spectrum. Why, when there are people out there who love it and who have the skill, talent and drive to provide beautiful work for the rest of us to use in our knitting or crocheting? Someone has to be on the user end of the process and I'm pretty sure, at this point in my life, that's where I fit in the scheme of things. User. Not provider.
But there's still another lesson to go and between now and then, I have to spin a lot more yarn for homework.
Bells
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