[Womble]

Though our sheep have helped to keep us well fed over the past few years, they haven’t yet clothed us. However, our Christmas present from my Mum was a day's spinning lesson courtesy of Woolshed31.co.uk.

We had a really great time and much to our surprise, even managed to produce some almost useable yarn!










More details and photos here .

[Bionic]

That looks pretty good for a first time. It took me ages to get anything remotely similar

[Fleecewife]

That's a great art yarn Womble.  Spinners spend thousands on special equipment to help them achieve a good art yarn, and you've just sat down there and produced it  .  Think of a lovely work sweater knitted from the yarn you've spun  .  Keep it arty 

[Lesley Silvester]

Well done, Womble and Mrs Womble. Looks like you are doing well. 


Next it's the 

[Womble]

That's a great art yarn Womble.

Oh it certainly is that!     I think I'm going to use the ball as a pen holder for my desk at work  .

[Louise Gaunt]

Splendid yarn, well done. I do have an Ashfird traditional wheel for sale  !

[Buttermilk]

Great first effort. Now you need to practice, practice, practice.

[Polyanya]

That is really good for a first effort, well done.

[SallyintNorth]

Impressive, you two!  Shall you do more?

[Womble]

Well, thanks to a very lucky Ebay listing, Mrs Womble ended up with something substantially larger than flowers for Valentine's Day this year  . It was listed as "bought a few years ago brand new, but never used". Closer inspection reveals it to be an Ashford Traditional that has sat unused in their attic for over THIRTY years, because they couldn't work out how to set up the brake properly! 


Everything seems to work ok though. I have just discovered that I can spin authentic looking Bob Marley wigs out of Zwartbles fleece, so look out for my Etsy shop opening soon  .

[Lesley Silvester]

My grandson's first attempt at spinning resulted in a lovely set of dreadlocks. As it was a black fleece he was spinning and he has black afro hair, he was well pleased. I'd have preferred him to have treadled more slowly and end up with wool.

[Louise Gaunt]

Womble, I have just seen that Craftsy have a beginners spinning class on sale at the moment. Craftsy is an American site that does all sorts of online classes - once you have bought the class you can download it, learn at your own pace and also chat online with other students, the class teacher etc. I have bought two or three classes, they are really good. Good luck with your spinning, we all made over spun rope to start with!

[Womble]

Thanks Louise, I'll check that out  .

[Lesley Silvester]

Always worth checking Youtube as well, which is free.

[Womble]

OK, so I finally got fed up with spinning Bob Marley wigs and Santa Claus beards. Mrs Womble said "aren't you supposed to ply them together so you get a finished yarn that isn't all twisty?"

"OK", said I. "How hard can it be?"

Actually as it turns out...... really quite hard......