Spin Me a Yarn

I remember vividly throughout my early knitting career saying I'll never do that: "I'll never knit socks," "I'll never be able to do X," "I'll never knit this pattern again" "I'll never spin"(...)

And anyone who knows me knows that if I make one of those statements it's almost like an informal bet with myself. And I don't usually intend to lose, but... Sometimes I think it has to do with timing and confidence more than desire. Sometimes even saying the thing puts the challenge out there, and if you know me you know I love a good challenge.

And this post is about spinning, so you can now surmise that at one point I said to myself, I'll never learn to spin.

And here we are.

(a random 100 gram skein of yarn I spun on my wheel out of palworth/silk)

I am a spinner. Through and through. I learned by drop spindle in 2015, got my wheel the next year, and have been spinning ever since. I love the meditative nature of spinning, especially on a wheel, working my hands in a thoughtful but relaxed way, feeling the fiber glide in my hand. It's sort of like playing with clay the way I sculpt the yarn, add twist and let it go. And yet, there's nothing quite like it.

(I spun this out of 2 ounces of rolags I got off one of my favorite shops on etsy)

And for a time I ignored my spindles. They are much slower than the wheel. And spinning on a wheel is a graduation from spinning on spindles, right? Not so! Spindles are fun! They can be beautiful, they can be light, and portable. They can do things with yarn that sometimes the wheel was not meant to do. And sometimes there is nothing like spinning up a small sample of something just because.

(this is a singles project I'm working on my spindles. I'm a little over halfway through now)

I don't usually do large projects on my spindles, but they definitely have their place, and they have a place in my crafty heart for sure.

(This is a ply on the fly I'm working on off and on throughout the year)

So I've been spinning lots this year! In the spring, I spun a lovely three-ply rambouillet top on three different spindles, then plied it on my wheel. I actually just knit that into a hat, which is awesome!

I also spun up some gorgeous baby camel silk into a two-ply yarn that is currently being knit into an Evenstar shawl. I used my wheel for spinning that, although I did begin on my spindles. It said it wanted to be laceweight so I switched to my wheel. Life is Way Too Short to spin lace weight yarn on a spindle.