Back to the Beginning- Spinning

I am spinning again! I think of myself as a felt-maker and I teach felt making professionally but I was spinning many years before I learned to make felt. It feels so good to be able to spin now especially as I recover from some surgeries that have limited my activity.

I learned to spin when we first moved to the country and got sheep, about 23 years ago. I loved it, the feel of the fiber in my hands, the growing length of yarn filling the bobbin , the rhythm of plying, counting the yards on my niddy noddy and the beauty of the twisted skein sitting on my shelf.

Then I started going to several different spinning groups. Some were guilds, some were just living room spinning groups. And because of spinning I made friends that have been with me for 20 years or more. Spinning introduced me to my tribe. The first fiber festival I went to I took my daughters with me and the youngest told me they all looked like me, long skirts, Birkenstock shoes and spinning wheels. I think she was exaggerating just a little, not all of them wore Birkenstocks.

Spinning has become a fixture in my life. It frames my year and tells me what season it it. Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene opens summer. Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival signals fall. The Aurora Colony Handspinners Guild Christmas party is the beginning of the holiday season. A weekend spinning retreat the first weekend in January with my NWRSA Area group is my New Year celebration and Madronna Fiber Arts is a warm spot in the middle of  winter's cold. I keep track of my month by which group I am spinning with that week.

The women I spin with have become my sisters. They cheer me on when I bring something for "Show and Tell" and they encourage me when I tell them of a new project or process I'm trying. Since my knee replacement they have supported me a lot. They have sent cards, flowers, coloring pencils and most recently an electric spinner on loan.

So because of a friend I am spinning again. I'm getting stronger but I can't treadle yet.  An electric spinner is the perfect type of wheel for me to use and since I tire easily spinning is the perfect activity. I don't have to focus my eyes to spin, I can trust my fingers to feel it. I don't have to count stitches like I do for knitting or concentrate on putting a cross stitch in the right place. I hold the fiber in my hands, let the spinner hum and I pinch the twist then let it slide, pinch the twist then let it slide. Just like I did when I learned to spin in the beginning.