Last night the Mr and I had a class together, introduction to spindling, and you know what? I wasn’t the one that suggested we take it either. I have always had a passing curiosity with spinning ever since I started knitting (which I guess is only honestly about 2 years now) but the Mr? Not so much. He was content to watch me knit & listen (at least I assume he was listening) to me babble on about knitting.  Then something changed.  The Mr and I while on vacation visited Ranch Of the Oaks near Lompoc and were given a short lesson on how they prepare their fiber and how the machines in the mill worked.  This little tour was given by my friend Mette’s husband, Tom.  Tom spoke a bit about how he spins and weaves, Tom is also not the image my Mr had of a man who does these things.  Suddenly that day, the Mr decided something.  He was going to try spinning too.

So we picked up a small bag of Mette’s amazing fiber in a grey & black mix and went home.  I checked the classes at my LYS and found out that there was an upcoming spindling class. What better way to see if either of us likes this spinning thing? Also, a spindle is relatively cheap (especially compared to a wheel) and it would give us an idea if either of us had the patience for it.

I have to really credit Susie, our teacher, for her fabulously welcome attitude and wealth of information.  She made the Mr feel right at home and even told him about how her husband spins and weaves.  I was eternally grateful for this as, I don’t know how your knit shop is, but when a man comes in on knit night we all do kind of stare.  After a bit of a history & a little demonstration of technique she gave us all spindles to play with. 

Who was the first person to get theirs to spin with out wobble? That’s right, the Mr. Fast & strait, and it took him about 10 seconds to accomplish this. I knew this would happen. I figured his experience with a potters wheel (lets not forget his major now! LOL) would really help. I was in a close second, which surprised me because I figured he would like it, I would not.

lumpy, bumpy, and FUN!

So we spun a few different fibers, the merino was harder for both of us (that’s it in front) because she said the fibers were shorter & they were definitely more slick. It also doesn’t surprise me that the Mr really loved the courser Romi wool. I can definitely see him doing amazing things with texture and color. If you’ve ever seen his Raku or paintings you can definitely see this too.

So yeah, we bought spindles (though I thought we would both pick on of the fancy decorated ones we didn’t!) and a small bag of romi to practice on.  There is now talk about a wheel.  I think I might now have my very own yarn making slave What more could you possibly want? Damn good looking & makes yarn!