I’m taking a break between writing conference papers to write a bit about spinning. I started to go into it in my last post, and I’ve since acquired a few more tools of the trade. There are two main methods that I’ve seen to spin yarn; the first is by hand with a drop spindle, and the second way uses a spinning wheel. Either way, some extra tools help to deal with the spun yarn, and there are some nifty gadgets for that. I’m sticking with old-fashioned entirely manual wooden tools. They are beautiful objects that I find appealing in a purist, Luddite kind of way. The simplicity of the tools and the fact that each is itself handcrafted makes me happy.
In addition to my drop spindle, I now have a nostepinde and a niddy noddy. Aren’t those just great words to say? Both of these are for winding yarn. A niddy noddy allows you to make neat skeins and also measure out how much yarn is spun. The second tool, a nostepinde, is a “small stick for winding balls of yarn” according to its Scandinavian name. Mine is exotic zebrawood, voluptuously curved and polished to a soft glow. After measuring out each spun skein using the niddy noddy, I can wrap the yarn around the nostepinde for a neat center-pull ball that is easy to use for plying or for knitting. It’s really a brilliant little tool and fabulously simple. As with most simple tools, technique is everything, so it will take some practice before my yarn balls look as crisp and prim as those in the yarn stores.
I also discovered that I can spin dog hair. I know, that’s really weird, but Chili’s underfur is very soft and long, perfectly suited to spinning. I was just messing around after spending some time brushing her, and now I have a little ball of Chili-fur-yarn. I’ve even seen ads for services where they make your pet’s hair into yarn. Who wants a sweater that smells like dog? Well, plenty of people want (cashmere) sweaters that smell like goats!
Other than a bit of craftiness, my break has been largely consumed by writing conference papers and traveling to Michigan for the holidays. It was great to see everyone back in the mitten, and I’m glad my conference papers are nearly wrapped up (for now…) I also tried to catch up a bit on my ongoing battle against entropy by transfering all of my back stock of 35mm negatives into archival binder sheets - over a hundred of them. I think it takes an average of 3 hours or so per roll of film for negative scanning and the basic required clean-up of the scans, so scanning this backlog could be a very long term project!