We had a wonderful visiting artist come to our weaving class yesterday. Leslie Hauck, the owner of The Spinner's Loft about an hour outside of Halifax, came and did a spinning workshop with us! Although she did a quick demo for us on the spinning wheel, we learned the old fashioned way on drop spindles. Leslie made it look so easy. I have such a greater appreciation for the wool I have used to knit and crochet with in the past.
This is what we started with. There were 3 different types of fleece. One was really dry, and the other two still had some lanolin and were pretty oily. Carding the fleece took way more arm strength than I was anticipating. There was a lot of grumbling from the girls in my class when spinning started.
Here is my finished wool.... We have to do another ball for class next week. Perhaps I will chronicle that for a new post and show off my mad spinning skills.... Hopefully I end up with something a bit nicer .
Leslie explained that when she teaches people to spin, she always starts with the basics: hand carding and hand spinning on a drop spindle. This way we are more able to appreciate the history of the process, which I thought was really fantastic.