Tour de Fleece Day 16

Today I took a break from the Lendrum and took a spinning class. This was a raffle prize that my sister won at the Grand Opening for A Verb For Keeping Warm, a private 2 hour session with Michael Wade. She generously asked if it could be a 1 hour session for 2 people and when she got the okay, invited me along. Now how great is that?

But before the session started, we stopped at the shop that just opened next door to AVFKW, James & the Giant Cupcake. We sampled Love Potion and Salt Sea Caramel, then I got a box of four to go.


Cupcakes

Zingo, I was high on chocolate and icing and ready to spin!

Grace and I narrowed down the list of topics to bottom whorl/Turkish spindle spinning, horizontal drafting, Navajo plying on a spindle and Navajo plying on the fly. What a great session! We saw a variety of Turkish spindles and talked about the advantages and disadvantages (if any) of each design, I learned how to wind a cop properly, and Michael talked about different ways to initiate the spin.

The horizontal drafting was very cool. With a slight modification it made controlling the twist easier for me and I was able to handle my slippery Merino-bamboo blend better and not have my drop spindle drop to the floor.

I had never Navajo plied on a spindle before, so seeing how it was done and practicing a bit was very helpful. But the last technique totally blew me away--Navajo Ply on the Fly. You don't spin singles first and then transfer the singles off the spindle before plying. You start with singles and end up with plied yarn on your spindle. It's like magic. I'm going to finish spinning the Merino-Bamboo using this method.

If you want to learn cool drop spinning techniques, check the class schedule at A Verb for Keeping Warm. Michael is a great teacher and I recommend him highly.

I may be a spindle spinner yet. (Note, this is my first blog post tagged with the word "spindle".)

Thank you Grace & Michael, I had a great time and learned a lot!