What have I learned from the workshops I've taken? Time will tell.
The one thing that sticks out is that there are as many ways to spin a
yarn as there are spinners. Same follows true with knitters. If you
don't believe it, watch how knitters hold their needles and throw or
pick the yarn, each as different as their hands to one another. Each
teacher has "their" way. It goes into the "tool box". What one
instructor recommends, another contradicts. If it sounds confusing to
you, I haven't found it so. Much later, as I sit down to work, I find
that the skills that feel right to me become part of my repertoire.
Others remain in the background waiting their turn.
Last evening I sat at my Schacht and prepared to spin some lovely silk roving I'd picked up last weekend. Hmmmm.. pre-draft or not? At SOAR I took a workshop with an instructor who was very much against pre-drafting. At the Gathering, my workshop mentor drafted her silk no matter what the form of the source. I tried both. Long draw or short, back draw or forward? Both mentors used different methods. The effect is not the same. My choice. I have the tools. The wheel was set for double drive. Last weekend I'd used the JOY with scotch tension. I'd liked the way it felt with the silk. I changed my Schacht to scotch. Then, a smaller whorl set. I know I can do better. The yarn isn't "right" yet, but I have the tools to decide which direction to try next. Like the story of the Three Littlle Bears, if I know me, I'll use a little of this and a little of that until it feels just right.
7 responses to “loading the tool box”
I heard about this insanity of not pre-drafting but I’m not convinced.
I don’t pre-draft. I am too lazy. I just put it on and go. I think it is a spinner’s choice, and whatever method works should definitely be applied.
That’s a great way to make sense of all the different approaches. I just switches my Schacht to double drive and am liking it better!
…nodding in agreement with you….so many different variables in play!
At some point the fingers decide …and choose how the fiber will slip through the index and thumb 😉
That’s an excellent way of phrasing it. I think of it as arrows in a quiver.
And just to give you more options, my favorite way to spin silk top (as taught to me by Sara Lamb) is from the fold.
It’s become my favorite way to spin “slippery” fibers, and, unless I am spinning a true, technical worsted yarn, the way I tend to spin all commercial top these days.
I started to feel like that at SOAR, like I have enough tools to choose a path with intent. Perhaps rightly, perhaps wrongly, but on purpose either way. Very Satisfying.