It has been a couple of years since I tried to spin. I did pretty well on the spinning wheel at the park district but did not have one at home and found the drop spindle too slow. The drop spindle is not really that slow -it was me being not only slow, but impatient and I happily distracted myself with other fiber adventures.Above is a pic of my first ball of yarn from a spinning wheel. (Pay no attention to the drop spindle.)
For whatever reason I got the spinning bug again. In looking around for a wheel to possibly rent, I ran across the Windy City Spinning Guild. Probably most people would go about this the other way around (i.e., contact spinners, get info, get a wheel, learn to spin). Not me. Thankfully this is what ended up happening anyway, in spite of me.
While searching for a wheel-for-rent I found myself at the guild's website. I sent them an email and was told that they would be meeting that Tuesday. Great!
I drove the 5 miles or so to the public library location which is the designated meeting place and upon going in asked the young lady at the desk "Could you tell me where the spinning guild meets?".
The reply was, "What is that?" with a look of kind confusion and then, "They're probably upstairs. You can take the elevator." (pointing to it).
"May I take the stairs?"
"Yes."
Up I went. I was actually a little worried about showing up with nothing but my current knitting project. But there was no need to be concerned. Before long I was handed a homemade dropspindle accompanied by a short demonstration and told that when I finished spinning this that she would show me how to ply it. Wow! I get to learn to ply already?
I did finish and was shown how to make a two-ply from my single strand of yarn by using an Andean plying method. There is a very good article on this in the Summer 2007 issue of Spinoff magazine if you're interested in learning. I have to tell you that I am terribly excited about having learned this and hope to accomplish it next time without cutting off circulation to my middle finger. Here's a nice little illustration of Andean plying:
Bumbling Bees has a pretty funny blog entry about Andean plying. Take a look.
Above and below is my tiny hank of 2-ply yarn from the guild meeting.
I had a great time and all the ladies were very nice and helpful. They even sent me home with more fiber and a dropspindle! Can't wait to go next month! I plan to take them some of our English Angora's fiber to see what they can do with it.
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