Spinning a Tale – The lessons learned from 2 years of spinning

June this year will mark 2 years since I purchased my EEW nano and began my electric spinning adventure.

Since then, I’ve tried spinning a number of different types of fibre, I’ve bought even more unusual fibre’s to experiment with, I’ve purchased a second, bigger electric spinning wheel, tried processing a raw fleece, and ventured into dying my own spun yarn. (Post to come on that!)

Which when you stop and think about it is quite a lot. So what have I learned over the years?

• Every machine behaves differently. Honestly, was half expecting that but at the same time when the little tricks I had learned with the Nano weren’t producing the same results with the Argonaut, it made me realise that with each machine you do need to go back to basics again, learn it’s quirks and build your skill level with that machine.
• Don’t be afraid to go faster. The nano works well at slow spinning settings, whereas the Argonaut likes it that bit faster, and that’s fine. The bigger wheels seem to need to be faster to get the twist into the fibre. Which makes sense, the parts have a larger circumference to travel on a larger machine. Don’t be afraid of it! Embrace it! Or you’re not going to have enough twist in your singles!
• Spinning is an art form. It absolutely is! You don’t just set it and forget it. You have to pay attention to what the wheel is doing and adjust the tension and increase your speed when the bobbin gets fuller. You need to keep making those fine tuning tweaks as you go to get a good spin. To be honest when you stop and think about it, it makes so much sense. As you create more yarn, you are literally changing the physics which are impacting the movement of the wheel, how hard the motor has to work etc, as a result you are going to have to fine tune as you go. Learning to spin is like learning to drive a car. At first it’s overwhelming as everything is new. The more you do it and the less you have to think about how to change gears or operate the vehicle, the more brain space you have to focus on the road and situational awareness. Spinning is the same.
• A larger machine really does make it easier to spin thicker singles. I’m a weird one anyway, most beginners struggle to spin fine singles, but I seem to be the opposite. I struggle to get some thickness into my yarn. This was much the case when I started spinning on the Argonaut. The machine just seems to want to take more fibre. Whereas the nano would quite happily work on very little (which would explain why my first few spins tended to average out at a sport to DK weight yarn. Looking at my current single on the Argonaut, it looks like once plyed it will be somewhere between and Aron and chunky yarn (I think). Again there will be a post on that at some point!
• Quicker means more consistent weight singles? Kind of. When you don’t have the time to worry about getting the draw perfect it tends to even out, or at least in my limited experience it does. I really do have a long way to go in learning how to spin!
• Practice makes perfect. At the end of the day spinning, like most Fiber crafts or any craft or practical related hobby is a skill, you will only get better with practice, and you will get better naturally the more you do it.
• You need to warm up. ESPECIALLY if you don’t spin day in and day out. It’s like riding a bike, you never really forget, but after a bit of a break you are a bit wobbly until you find your feet and rhythm again. Don’t worry if the first 10-15 minutes you’re all over the place. You will find your rhythm again and your current skill level will come flooding back!
• The more yarn you spin, the bigger the buddy niddy you are going to need! Yes that does sound obvious, but when half your spinning experience is on a machine which produces around 50g of yarn, you forget that a small collapsible niddy noddy won’t cut it for bigger skeins and you will probably want an even bigger one than you think you do… enter the niddy noddy extender hack!

I appreciate that most of these are pretty obvious, but sometimes it’s nice to put into writing the lessons you have learned to see and reflect on the progress you have made and then improve further. (A lesson which can be applied to many walks of life!)

Wherever you are in your fibre journey I’d love to hear about your lessons learned, please share them in the comments and you never know your most mundane lesson may help someone else.

(Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk!)