Spinning with the SpinningSpider

Last Friday I spent a wonderful day in Howell at Beth's Spinning Loft taking a spinning workshop from Jeannine Bakriges from Vermont. The class was titled "Spinning Thick, Thin, and Medium Yarn", which I need because I am a slave to my fiber and just spin whatever it wants to be. Blog readers will recognize Jeannine as the SpinningSpider.

Beth, I lifted this picture from your blog. Please don't sue me.

♥

Jenny is a delightful, beautiful, wonderful woman and teacher with an awesome sense of humor. The most important lesson that I brought home is to pick and choose from the "spinning rules" Do what works for me. There are no Spinning Policemen! I now cut my yarn from the spindle with SCISSORS without grief or guilt. I don't HAVE to learn a long draw if my short, backward draw makes nice yarn. If I don't want to change my ratio, and if everything is to my liking, I just keep going.

The really great thing about Jenny is that she encouraged us to push ourself beyond our comfort level. First we worked on a really thin yarn and I totally amazed myself. I now know that I can spin laceweight - if I want to. My main concern is consistency and to spin a designated weight. Jenny sat right next to me to help, in fact, she even spun on my wheel so that I could see what she was talking about. I think I have been visiting and watching too much television while spinning. If I pay attention to the drafting triangle (mine is never really a triangle), my yarn is much more consistent.

The really biggest challenge for me has been to make nice bulky yarn. And look ▲ don't you think that's nice. It's from white fiber boy, Buck. Jenny helped me understand the ratios and how they help spin different weights. I actually change now depending on what I want to spin. The bulky is 6 to 1, which is simply the slowest on my wheel. I do need to remember to slow my feet down also.