This week I had Lazik surgery on my eyes. I have allergies and the dust and pollens outside just seem to make my eyes very uncomfortable. So I'm forced me to stay inside most of the time. Not a bad thing for me since there is so much for me to catch up on in here! Like reading, blogging, and cleaning (oh no! can't do that! too much dust haha!), sewing and spinning! And that brings me to the subject on my mind.
Spinning! If I do nothing else I sit at my spinning wheel and make a little bit of yarn every day. I'm very intrigued by these new "art" yarns that I see on the internet and I want to do more of them, but mostly, on a daily basis I just make plain yarns.
A wonderful and knowledgeable spinner once told me that the spinner should always spin the same way but her wheel should be adjusted differently for different results. I somewhat agree with her, as far as weight of the yarn goes, that should certainly be adjusted by the wheel itself, but not for types of yarns. There are short draws, long draws, there are yarns that need to be manipulated to be thick & thin in one yarn and those all require different handling.
I think the reason I like to make a plain yarn on a daily basis is because the rhythm of spinning it acts as a mantra for me. It is my daily meditation. Sometimes when I'm spinning for something specific or someone specific, I will think of them as I go, when a loose strand of my hair gets into the yarn there is a little essence of me with my prayer or intention or maybe ATTENTION to that person through that skein of yarn.
Here are some shots of the fruits of my recent daily spinning...
![](<a href="http://www.ravelry.com/purchase/elizabeth-souza-designs/66271"><img src="http://www.ravelry.com/images/shopping/buy-now.gif" border="0"/></a>)
4 comments:
I love the meditation of spinning, although the meditation of weaving has caught my attention in exactly the same way! It's interesting about handspun warps and wefts, I think aslong as the yarn is strong enough to handle the motion of the heddle, it is strong enough to weave with. You have just spurred me into investigating local belly dance classes too, thanks!
YEs I agree weaving has the same meditative effect as spinning AFTER the warp is on the loom!
And interestingly enough if you practice the art of Tribal bellydance especially ATS you will find it has the same meditative quality. It is very much like a moving group mediation and cause you to think of nothing else but the dance and staying in tune w/ the dancer that is leading!
On spinning warp! yes doesn't it seem like nonsense to think you can't use handspun in a warp? It just has to be appropriately spun, nice and strong, not to fuzzy so it doesn't get caught in the heddles etc. For myself, I'm just happy that I didn't hear people saying that until I had woven several pieces w/ handspun!
I think I should write about meditation in a blog soon too!
Your spinning is so pretty! Your spinner friend was right about spinning the same, but adjusting the wheel, but you probably won't notice much difference unless you make a really big adjustment.
But don't take my word for it, I use the big whorl and pedal like the wind!
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