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Go on a course: spinning your own yarn
Transform fleeces into balls of wool. By Catherine Butler
'When I imagined learning to spin, I envisioned sitting serenely at a wheel attempting to treadle yards of golden thread, like the miller's daughter in Rumpelstiltskin. Instead, I began my morning at the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum getting my hands very dirty in the rather pungent fleece of a Herdwick.
'According to our tutor, Steve Kennett, we would all have spun something to take home with us by the end of the day. I eyed the tousled fleece before me rather dubiously, but Steve promptly plucked a staple (a length of wool), teased it between his fingers and by a combination of pulling and twisting conjured a yarn of freshly spun two-ply wool.
'Before we could try this ourselves, however, we had to learn how to choose and understand a fleece, learn the characteristics of different breeds and identify potentially problematic qualities such as cotting (severely matted, felt-like wool) or double cuts (fleece that has been cut twice). My first foray into the world of spinning was to be by hand, and I managed to produce a rather knobbly strip of yarn before we broke for lunch.
'The afternoon began with a demonstration on a 19th-century spinning wheel akin to my daydream, but too difficult for beginners to learn on - we would start with something more basic. We carded (brushed) the wool with two paddle-like brushes, rolled it into a rolag (a kind of sausage-shaped bundle) and began work with the drop spindle, rather like an overgrown spinning top. This proved a co-ordination nightmare for me, but after a little perseverance I fell into a routine, and the teasing and spinning became addictive. All in all I produced over three metres of yarn. Bobbly and mismatched as it was, my small ball of wool felt like spun gold as I proudly pocketed it at the end of the day.'
For details, visit www.wealddown.co.uk or call 01243 811363.
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