Spinning At Last!

For my 30th birthday (almost two years ago - yikes!) my parents generously fulfilled my birthday wish by giving me a beautiful spinning wheel.  It's a Kromski Minstrel in Mahogany stain.  A beautiful, compact, double treadle wheel, it fits perfectly in our small cabin.  However, I had never learned to use it, until this weekend.

The wheel did come with an instructional video.  Both Lee and I watched the video and tried to make it work.  It didn't.  I couldn't get the flyer to take in the yarn at all.  It was frustrating, and frankly, I really didn't understand how the whole thing was supposed to make yarn.  It didn't make sense.   So the wheel sat as decoration in our home back in NH, occasionally being treadled for fun.

When we moved to Fairbanks, I found a store here called A Weaver's Yarn that offers spinning lessons.  But I never felt we could afford it.  So I survived the winter content with knitting.  A few days ago, however, while out running errands, I turned down the back road where A Weaver's Yarn is located, on a whim, and ended up signing up for my private lesson.  That lesson was yesterday.

After two hours, I now understand how the wheel works.  Well, at least enough to make it take up the yarn.  My yarn isn't pretty yet.  But I'm getting there.  My assignment is to practice for 15-20 minutes each day until my next lesson, where I will learn to ply my singles that I create with my 15-20 minutes of daily practice.



I'm super excited to have a new pastime for the cold winter months.  I'll be busy with knitting and spinning all winter long!  I think Lee might be a little worried...