Learning to spin - What I learned in my first month spinning yarn.
Here are five things that have helped me in my spinning journey so far.
Find a great teacher
There is a wealth of knowledge on YouTube if you can’t get to an in-person class but what if you’re so new to spinning you don’t even know the terminology to search? That’s where I was a month ago.
Whenever I’m coming to something with zero experience I look for a course to take. I like that a course gives a set path to follow with each lesson building on the last. I also think the consistency you get when learning from one teacher is really helpful as a newbie.
Once you’ve got the basics under your belt it’s great to learn from others and experiment but it can be confusing when starting out if the people you’re learning how to spin from all do things slightly differently.
I’ve been working through the Foundation of Spinning classes with Amy King on Craftsy and as the name suggests I think it’s given me a brilliant foundation in spinning.
You can learn to spin with yarn
Amy King taught me that you can absolutely learn to spin using a commercial yarn before diving into your new fibre stash.
Figuring out what to do with your hands whilst treadling at the same time is quite a challenge when you sit at the wheel for the first time.
I loved that I could get comfortable with the feel of spinning and learn the basics before graduating to spinning with fibre.
Tie some left overs from a project or an inexpensive yarn to a bobbin and get comfortable with treadling the wheel and feeding the yarn onto the bobbin.
Get Comfortable with your spinning wheel and what all the parts do
A few spinning sessions in, my wheel developed an annoying squeak. I guess when your wheel has been in storage for 5 years it’s going to need some oil.
I didn’t have a local spinning friend or teacher to turn to so I knew I had to figure this out on my own.
Up until this point I’d been a little nervous around my wheel. I was scared I could do something to throw this magical spinning machine off balance and ruin it forever.
To find out what was causing the squeak I started carefully investigating each of the parts and how they moved.
I was turning the wheel (without fibre), watching and listening intently to figure out where I needed to oil my wheel. Through this process I came to see that my wheel was more robust and simple to operate than I imagined and I’m glad I really studied what was going on when the wheel turned.
Take the time to read your manual, watch some YouTube videos on your particular wheel and then get curious. Watch, listen and learn from your wheel.
Really understanding what all the moving parts do has made me much more confident using my wheel and I think in the long run it will make me a better spinner as I’m not scared of the wheel now.
