Spinning Workshop

We have just arrived home from a Spinning Clinic / Workshop / Revival Weekend and it was a great success.  There were nine people that attended the clinic, plus Louise and I as instructors.  Most of us arrived on Friday night and met for breakfast on Saturday morning.  Sue came down on Saturday morning and Genny and Margaret arrived very late on Friday night.

The spinning weekend was held at the home of George and Phyllis Sims of Virden, Manitoba.  Thank you very much George and Phyllis for opening your home to us.

Genny Carpenter opened the weekend with a talk on fiber types, harvesting and  preparation, while Ivy started all of the spinning wheels. Genny started everyone using hand carders and getting to know clean raw fiber by making rolags. Everyone choose the type of llama fiber that they wanted to spin and spinning started. The girls that had never spun before watched Ivy spin for a few minutes and then started off on their own.  Louise and Ivy moved around the room and offered pointers and addressed problems as they occurred.   The spinners had a chance to work with llama, wool and silk.

We had five new spinners from Manitoba, Tracey, Vivianne, Judy, Edna and Barb. The type of spinning wheels we had were Ashfords; a Joy and Traveller,  Louets; two hand made traditional machines; two compact upright machines, both very beautiful (one is Genny Carpenters and the other was for sale on consignment but had some problems); one machine made of pvc pipe and a plastic wheel with a wooden flyer and bobbin; and an electric machine which we did not have time to use.  The pvc wheel was very different looking in appearance but put out a beautiful even thread.  It also was very easy to use.

The owner of this wheel is Vivianne Evans from Winnipeg.  All of the potential spinners had an abundance of enthusiasm and varying degrees of skill. By the time the weekend was over (noon Sunday ) every one was spinning.  Even Sue.  Most of the spinners spun a bobbin or two full and had a chance to ply it into yarn and to use a skein winder to make a skein of yarn.

The weekend was such a success that we decided we should hold a second annual llama / spinning weekend, that it should be sometime in July / August of 2006. Also, location is to be at either Duck Mountain, Riding Mountain or at Assissippi. Judy Olson will make inquiries as to who would like us and see how llama friendly these sites are.

Hi there to you all.  

I don’t know if you remember me from the spinning class held in Virden this last April.  I was the one that came with Edna Peters.  I just wanted to let you all know that all your patience and efforts were not in vain.  I borrowed an old traditional wheel from a friend of my husband’s, whose mother used to use it when he was a kid.  I did that so I wouldn’t forget all you had taught me.  I wanted to buy a Louet wheel, but as they are rather pricey I had to wait for that.  One day my son was at a garage sale in Winnipeg and he called me to tell me that he was looking at this thing, it had a wheel and it said Louet on it.  The price was $35.00.  Now you have to know that I was in a very nice furniture store at the time and when he told me that, I started jumping up and down and yelling “Buy it!  Buy it!  Buy it!”  I am sure the people were thinking that Barbara had really lost it this time.  When I finally got it home, I worked on it for about 30 minutes and the thing fell apart.  Now we know why it was so cheap.  However, I am lucky enough to be married to a real handyman, so in less than 10 minutes he had it working perfectly.  Now I can spin to my heart’s content,

I also wanted to share with you a little story.  My granddaughter goes to a small school in the next town.  Just before school ended for the year, they were having an “old-time” day.  They asked me to bring the traditional wheel and demonstrate spinning for the kids.  They asked me if I could fill 20 minutes, and by the time I was done answering all the questions, it was 40 minutes later.  Not only were the students interested enough to ask questions, the teachers were just as enthralled.  There were even teachers coming from other class rooms to take it all in.  All in all, it was a good afternoon.  Next year we want to get together, and Peter and Edna will bring a couple of their llamas, and then we will take them through the process from animal to finished product.

So I want to thank you all for letting me fulfill a life time dream of learning how to spin.  I do really enjoy the whole process.  You were all very kind to this abject beginner.  Hopefully I will see you all again.  Sorry I can’t make it to Melfort this weekend, but I hope you all have a great time.

Barbara Rempel
Winkler, Manitoba