Spinning on the River

Our Beginning Spinning classes started March 16! Now 14 new spinners are taking part. Session 1 covered: wool grades, with samples of Merino, Corriedale, Romney, Suffolk and Lincoln; a quick demo of processing by teasing, carding and combing; hands-on practice pre-drafting wool batts into roving; an explanation of S & Z twist as we made leaders for our drop spindles; park & draft, and drop spindle spinning; and a discussion of washing raw wool. Session 2 covered plying, hands-on teasing and carding and spinning on a wheel. Homework was washing the new bag of raw fleece and dyeing it with drink mix and easter egg dye to bring back from blending in session 3. In that class, we looked at a whole raw fleece and divided it up, examined goodie bags of fibers - llama, alpaca, silk, angora, mohair, cotton, flax, nylon, soy silk - tried each others' spinning wheels and blended custom batts on a drum carder.

Lynne learns about high-whorl and low-whorl drop spindles.	Jackie attaches her pre-drafted roving to her spindle.
Angela and Mary explain twist.	Melissa gets the hang of drop spindling!