As I’ve previously mentioned, I’m new to spinning. Today, marks the second week that I’ve owned my Kromski Sonata and while I initially “spun” yarn on my lovely Sonata (which I’ve named Ruth) for the most part I stopped spinning and just concentrated on treadling.
The past week, I wasn’t even doing that. Why? I was frustrated. When attempting to turn the fiber into yarn, it was getting overspun and underspun yarn and it was not being fed into the orifice. Yes… I had purchased spinning videos on Craftsy; however, they weren’t helping. I’m sure partly due to my frustration. Also, at times, things just don’t “click” from reading or video observation… at least for me; however, I figured that if a knowledgeable spinner watched me they could tell me what I was doing wrong. Following up on my intuition, I scheduled a two-hour private spinning lesson at the CloverHill Yarn Shop. My appointment was yesterday, with the co-owner Wae Wang. Guess what? She pinpointed my problem the moment I sat down and started spinning! Then, she spent the next half hour or so to get me to STOP doing what I was doing wrong. My goodness was she patient. Thanks so much Wae. She gently swatted my hands when I was doing the wrong thing. I laughed and told her, “I know, I know, I’m sorry…” Guess what? I finally got to the point where I was spinning yarn! No more looking at tightly coiled fiber that wasn’t being fed into the orifice. Hooray, progress!
The above pictures show what I spun there and I finished it when I arrived home yesterday. As you can see there is still a lot of unspun yarn; BUT, I got to the point (with her assistance) that I knew when I was making mistakes and I was able to correct my errors and keep spinning! Now that’s progress, Hooray!
This is what I made last night at home. As you can see, still unspun fiber; however, I’m continuing to improve.
And here’s what I spun today!
I only started pushing loose fiber through towards the end of my spinning session. I guess that was an indication for me to take a break and I did… about ten minutes later.
This evening is movie night for my daughter and myself. She usually sketches while watching the movie. I normally knit, but tonight… I’ll be spinning!