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Spinning in Nepal

I found a few videos of people spinning in Nepal. First off is a woman spinning suspended on a bottom whorl spindle. I think there is a notch at the top of the shaft. She spins wool from a ball of what I think is pre-drafted roving. She pulls out a length first and butterflies it on her spinning hand and starts the spindle between the palm of her hands.

In the second video two women are spinning on similar spindles with the same technique and the balls of roving attached to their belts. They also lead the thread over the top of their heads. As a bonus, the third woman is carrying her child in a sling on her back, something that brings back sweet memories from when we carried our youngest in all sorts of slings.

In the third video, a man is spinning on a spindle that looks the same as in the first two videos. He has arranged his roving (yak?) around his wrist and spins in-hand style.

Eventhough all the spinners are standing, the videos show spinning arranged for mobility. The tools and techniques are adapted to a moving life. Staying in the same place doesn’t seem to be relevant.

In a fourth video, a man is spinning nettle with an in-hand spinning style. The spindle looks completely different from the three above. The strick of hemp is arranged somehow, either on a distaff or over the spinner’s shoulder, it is hard to tell from the video.

That’s all for today!

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Support spinning and walking

This lady in northern India is spinning on a support spindle. However, she doesn’t have the time to just sit and spin, so she has arranged a spoon-like tool to act as a bowl, fastened in her apron. This way she can spin while she is walking. The man interviewing her says she is spinning wool, but it does look more like cotton to me.

I was really inspired when I saw this video and a little over a year ago I tried to do the same. I shot a silly little video with support spinning with a spoon while walking. Enjoy!

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New spinning video: For the love of spinning

Josefin Waltin spinning on a support spindle. Mountains in the background

I have finished another spinning video!

This time I haven’t done the filming myself, so the quality is much better. My husband was behind the camera, which means I had a great photographer and a great camera. And my fourteen year old made the sweet yarnimations. Locations are at home in Stockholm, in the Sazkammergut area in Austria and in Tiveden, Sweden, which are all my favourite places.

I had an idea of a spinning video with just beautiful spinning in beautiful scenery, to illustrate sort of a poem, an ode to spinning. So, during the summer we scouted locations wherever we went, and tripod, camera and spindle was set up where the spot was spot on. I saved all the clips for winter, so that I could make a beautiful spinning video at a time when I would miss light and summer the most.

I got the music from the Free music archive.

Spinning tools from Malcolm Fielding, Kromski, Jenkins yarn tools, Roosterick and Neal Brand.

Enjoy!

For the love of spinning

When I spin
I feel the wool in my hands
each fiber
through its journey
from sheep to yarn
I hear the quiet hum of the spindle tip
I see the wheel turning
chasing its own shadow
in the sunlight

When I spin
I absorb the rhythm
the treadling of my feet
the flicking of the spindle
the movement of my hands
between spun and unspun
a motion with no beginning
and no end

When I spin
time stops
I receive the gift of weightlessness
and enter another dimension
I allow my thoughts to come and go
focused
without holding back
without forcing
in the gentle flow
of meditation
finding the space between my thoughts
I enter the space of making
where the making makes me

When I spin
the memories
of sound, vision and rhythm
are captured in the yarn
as if they were fibers
Mistakes are spun into the thread
the stories they tell
All the choices I have made along the way
make a map of what I have learned
like an echo

The more I spin, the deeper it goes
From the sensation
through the rhythm
into my mind
fueling my experience
going back into my fingers
round and round
like the spinning itself

When I spin
the air around me smiles
the sunlight dusts my yarn with golden sparkle
and I thank all sheep for the gift of wool
I become a better me
because of the love
of spinning.

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Spindle stick and distaff spinning in Romania

A short clip of a Romanian woman spinning with a spindle stick and distaff. She is holding the spindle stick horizontally and spins it into a bulky and low-twist yarn by tossing and turning the spindle in her hand. She has arranged the fiber beautifully on the distaff, there must be over 200 grams of wool on it!

Norman Kennedy also demonstrates this technique in his video From wool to walking: Spinning wool and creating cloth with Norman Kennedy (preview of the video), available on Interweave.

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Clara Sherman Navajo spinning

Clara Sherman spinning on a Navajo spindle

Since I’m not making any new videos this time of year, I thought I’d invite you to see other videos that I like, that feature spinners and spinning techniques around the globe.

First up is a video I’m sure many of you have seen already, but it is so beautiful and inspirational when it comes to Navajo spindle spinning. I am talking about Clara Sherman and her wonderful treatment of spindle, wool and spinning. The way she trusts her body to feel when the twist is just right is so liberating. But not only does she trust her body to feel how the wool wants to be spun, she can also verbalize it and explain it to the viewer. That’s skill and knowledge on a deep level. She has a true respect for the wool and animates it when she talks about the wool crying.

The video features all the parts of the process from sheep to the finished rug, and it emphasizes the importance of thoughtful and thorough preparation to make a high quality all the way to the end product.

Clara Sherman died a few years ago, at the age of 96. I’m so happy that someone filmed her and made some of her talent available on YouTube so that  we have the opportunity to learn from her.

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New video: Spinning through the seasons

a few skeins of handspun yarn on a tree trunk

I have a new spinning video for you today. It took me a necessary while to finish it.

I wanted to make a video where the seasonal change plays a major part. So I chose to make as few changes as possible, to let the seasons shine in all their glory. I chose to film everything on the same location, a tree trunk in a grove outside our house. While the spot and the spinning are the same, all that changes is the nature around me. I filmed whenever I thought the nature had changed enough to make a difference compared to the last filming. I focused on new flowers, seed capsules and changing colours of leaves. I love the first wood anemone/vitsippa in april and Marathon lily/Krollilja with its delicate flower in July and the seed capsule in August.

The tree was cut down quite recently, and when I chose the spot in early spring I didn’t really know how the ground would look like in high summer. It turned out to be a favourite spot for a nasty and invasive weed (ground elder/kirskål). It grew so high I couldn’t even find the trunk in July, so I had to cheat a little and use the weed wacker. I can highly recommend ground elder soup, though!

People sometimes have favourite seasons. I hope you find yours. Enjoy!

Navajo spindle is from Roosterick

Fiber is my hand carded wool from Shetland wool and Swedish finewool.

Knitting pattern for sweater is the Fileuse pattern by Valerie Miller, yarn is my handspun

Knitting pattern for shawl is the Marin shawl by Ysolda Teague, yarn from Wollmeise

Knitting pattern for hat is the Crofthoose hat by Ella Gordon, yarn is my handspun

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Planning next video season

A dark picture of two hands knitting in front of a fireplace
Indoor fiber work in November

It’s mid-november and it’s getting cold outside, about 0°C in the mornings. And dark, at the moment the sun is above the horizon between 7:45 a.m. and 3:15 p.m. and getting darker for another month. This makes it hard to make spinning videos. It is too cold for the lanolin (and the camera battery) and too few hours of pale sunlight for the camera. And I only shoot my videos outside. This means that my production of spinning videos will hibernate until about March. I do have a few cards up my sleeve that I may release during the winter, but other than that, I will blog, spin and do fiber stuff indoors and unfilmed.

Also, I will be planning what and how to film next season. And you are welcome to come up with ideas and requests of themes, techniques or other aspects you would like me to make videos about. Or blog about, for that matter. It could include most fiber related stuff such as spinning in different techniques and with different tools, knitting, rigid heddle loom weaving, wool preparation, nalbinding etc. Make your requests in the comments section here or at my Facebook page (in English or Swedish, it could also work in German) and I will see what I can do for the coming outdoor video season.

Happy spinning!

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New video: How to start plying on the fly on a supported spindle

A couple of weeks ago I published a video on how to ply on the fly on a supported spindle. I am pleased about how it came out and it was very well received. But there was one thing missing with it, and two viewers were kind enough to point that out for me: I hadn’t shown how to start. And there is a reason fort that: I didn’t know how to, which was very unprofessional of me. I had searched youtube for a video on the technique and found Ioana’s video, but she doesn’t explain that either. So, when I recorded the video I just made an unorganized start and hoped it would be tight enough. I definitely did not put that part in the video.

The problem with two directions

After a few days of analyzing and experimenting I have now come to the conclusion that the easiest and most straightforward way to start to ply on the fly on a supported spindle is to use a leader. I usually don’t use a leader when spinning on a spindle because I want the spinning as “clean” as possible. However, in this case I find it justifiable. When plying on the fly you are working with both singles and plied yarn. This means that  there are sections with fiber spun clockwise and counter-clockwise in the same stretch of yarn. Also, the sections are wound onto the shaft in different directions. So, at the loop, the yarn of different directions wound in different directions meet, which makes the point of the loop a critical one and the loop needs to be properly secured at the loop itself (onto he tip) and at the two yarn ends below (by winding the yarn tightly around the ends). And because of this point being so critical, I choose to use a leader that won’t break when changing directions of the spinning and winding on.

My solution

So, I make a quite long leader, make a slip knot at the middle of the leader and tie one end of leader onto the shaft just above the whorl. I wind the leader counter-clockwise around the shaft until I get to the loop. I secure the loop onto the bottom tip of the shaft. After that I secure both leader ends onto the shaft again, now winding the yarn clockwise, just as I have shown in the first video. After that, I spiral the leader up the shaft, clockwise and start spinning! The video is about 3,5 minutes, but only the first minute shows how I start.

Edit: I just discovered a mistake in the video. At 1:41 text should read: “Transfer slip knot to *index finger* of spinning hand”.

Spindle is from Silly Salmon, bowl from the Skansen pottery and fiber is hand combed from the Swedish finewool sheep Engla from Överjärva gård. Pattern designer for hoody is Kate Davies, yarn from Jamieson & Smith Shetland woolbrokers.

Thank you Sandra and Nicole for asking me about how to start plying on the fly on an empty spindle. Your feedback helps me to make better videos.

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New video: Ply on the fly on a supported spindle

 

My friend Anna is a master drop spindle spinner and she often plies on the fly. Ply on the fly is a technique to spin a yarn on a spindle and ply alternately. You spin a bit, secure the end of the single, and chain-ply the part you just spun. I have never practised it, but it is a smart way to finish a yarn without having the trouble of unwinding the spindle in between. I have seen a few videos on this technique, but only on drop spindles. So today I made a search on plying on the fly on a supported spindle. And I found Ioana’s video. She has a good technique and explains it very well.

The basics are: you spin clockwise and wind onto the temporary cop and butterfly the single onto your fiber hand, just as you would normally do. For plying, you pick up a loop from the bottom of the shaft and chain-ply counter-clockwise. When almost all the butterflied single is plied, you secure the loop at the bottom again and go back to spinning.

I wanted to make my own video, soI went to the allotment with my garden chair/camera stand and started spinning! I put in explaining in text and slow motion sections to show the technique as clearly as possible. However, there are many steps in a short segment of time and you might want to watch it more than once to get the technique. Also, look at Ioana’s video for additional explanation of the method.

Close-up of a person chain-plying on a supported spindle
Ply on the fly on a supported spindle

The spindle is from Malcolm Fielding, bowl is an egg bowl from Gmundner Keramik and fiber is hand-combed from the Swedish finewool sheep Engla at Överjärva gård. Sweater pattern is my own (unpublished) and yarn is from Östergötlands ullspinneri.

Happy spinning!