Posted by robin sietgel on Tuesday, 15 March 2005, at 2:28 p.m.:
In Reply to: Re: new to spinning posted by penelope on Thursday, 27 January 2005, at 7:37 a.m.:
Dear new spinner, I am figuring by now that you have begun to get the hang of it. I taught myself to spin about nine years ago and I agree with Penelope that you have to sit at your wheel and just treadle it, for like 20 or 30 minutes a day for a week or more, just to get your brain so used to doing it that you can start adding the hand actions and have the foot actions already on automatic pilot. The next thing I did after getting the treadling down was to tie a very long piece of already spun yarn, like five or more yards, onto the bobbin and through the orifice, and then spin it! This lets you get used to the pull of the take-up and helps you to learn to adjust take-up rate. You begin to understand what to expect as yarn is passing through your fingers. When you're at the end of the five yards, pull it back out through the orifice and spin it again only this time have your wheel going in the opposite direction. Keep doing this simple excercise for several days and you will be much better prepared when you get some well prepared roving or top to begin your actual spinning. Don't learn to spin on your own hand carded rolags unless you are a glutton for punishment or have for some odd reason been making rolags for a goodly while! Spinning is kind of like some other worthwhile things in that it takes a while to get the hang of it, but if you perservere you will get those moments of "hey, I'm actually doing this!!", and you will improve and improve and improve and you will never be able to forget how to do it even if you try. It's like riding a bike. I wish you all the best with it.