I am teaching again this weekend, for the first time since my courseA Spindle a Daylast summer, and I can’t wait.
Since last summer I have said no to all other engagements, to make space for writing my book, Listen to the Wool (coming this November). I wrote a lot on that course. In fact, a whole chapter in my book is vibrating with energy from that course week. But now, a two-day beginner’s course in suspended spindle spinning for twelve students – a full class.
The venue
The venue is the regional handicraft association, that happens to be only a 20-minute walk from my house, 25 perhaps with a trolley full of course material. The space is inviting and crafty with large shop windows to let the light in. I even get a course host to my assistance on the course! I know this since I spent two weekends there in March and April as a student (more about that in a later post).
Learning styles
When I started teaching back in 2016 I only took intermediate and advanced students. I found it easier to teach students with prior knowledge of techniques and vocabulary. But in recent years I have leveled up and had the confidence to create courses where beginners are welcome. I have collected a vault of experiences with different learning styles and different approaches to techniques. Mind you, there are always new challenges to me in every classroom, and I take the time to find ways to get through to all students.
A student working her suspended spindle.
This is the reason why my in-person courses are never shorter than two days, and never more than twelve students – I want to have enough time to guide every student forward from where they are and from their learning style. I want every student to walk out of the course with more than a little ball of yarn, I want them to have a sense of achievement, of having the making still sizzling in their hands, and mental tools to continue spinning long after the door closes behind them.
Teaching again
I look at the participant list and recognize only one name. I love those first few moments in the classroom, where I can connect names to faces and start the journey of their learning right there, with them, I love watching their aha-moments, their progression from where they started. To make them realize their progression I make them put their hand-carded rolags in a row in front of them. They may not see it from the first to the second rolag, but they will from the first to the fifth. And seeing their faces when they see their progress right in front of them is priceless.
The magic of the rolag progression line. To the right, supported spindle day on A Spindle a Day last summer.
I wonder what fleeces to bring. Perhaps that from Lilla Ääh the Roslag sheep? Or the one from Parisa the Dalapäls sheep, that I shore myself with hand shears? I can’t wait to see my students!
Happy spinning!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main spinning channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. Do subscribe!
I share essay-style writing on Substack a couple of times a month. Come and have a look!
I am writing a book! In November 2025 Listen to the Wool: A Why-to Guide for Joyful Spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
I don’t know how to weave. Still, I do it. Join me as I move through warping a shawl in my handspun and hand dyed silk singles, in a slot-slot-hole-slot dance across the heddles.
Slot-slot-hole-slot. My hands move mindfully between the heddles, picking one thread at a time from the back heddle to the front. 40 + 40 threads per 10 centimeters for a width of 40 centimeters is a lot, all slinky, single, silk threads.
A drawstring bag full of marbles
A drawstring bag full of marbles was the key to keeping the yarn taught for warping. I spent a few evenings on the couch winding all of my 16 skeins onto medium sized marbles from the treasure box my now grown children had stored in the attic. The yellow cotton bag crowned with a red drawstring made me suspect that my husband had stored his marbles in it back in the late -70’s and early -80’s. Perhaps some of the marbles had been his too. The marbles can’t have been anything but surprised by being wrapped in shiny silk goodness.
A drawstring full of marbles came to my rescue as I warped my silk singles.
A couple of days ago I had brought the yarn marbles to my local weaving room to warp. Transferring the fine threads to the loom, and inviting them to an adventure neither they nor I knew anything about, had scared me. Marbles had rolled across the floor in a jumble as I walked back and forth, counting the turns.
The stories in my hands
I go to the weaving room again. As my hands concentrate on separating the threads I realize they are the same hands that danced the fibers onto the spindle through the summer, and the same hands that rubbed fresh indigo leaves into the finished skeins, to receive a glittering row of blues and teals. As I look across the heddle I see the sparkle in each and every one of them. Some are fuzzier from heavy rubbing in the dye bath, some smoother from just having been soaked in an ice and leaf blend. It’s also the same hands that planted the indigo seeds back in March, and pruned the sweet stalks as they emerged from the wool topped soil. So many stories are vibrating in my hands through this process, and more will come.
My hands remember all the processes they have been part of through sowing, pruning, dyeing, spinning and now warping.
Just as the fibers had spread their wings like fairies from the static charge as I spun it, the warp ends rise in the dry indoor air when I thread the heddles. I tie the warp ends from one broad and one narrow stripe together to prevent them from getting tangled. Through the static charge and their singlehood they are desperate to jumble and move.
Memories of a missed weaver
Slot-slot-hole-slot. One broad blue stripe, one narrow golden muga silk stripe. Kerstin comes into the weaving room and turns the radio on. The reporter talks about the dramatic wintery weather, cancelled bus departures and people helping their neighbous ploughing their garage driveways.
Slot-slot-hole-slot across the heddle.
I ask Kerstin for general silk weaving advice, she is an experienced weaver. She says she’s never woven with silk. “But Joyce would have known, she wove with every possible material.” My mind takes me to the plastic totes Joyce had woven from recycled plastic bags and sold at the spring fair. Kerstin looks at the empty spot where Joyce’s loom used to stand and we both remember her fondly. Kerstin and Joyce, two widows, spent every day of the pandemic together in the weaving room, drinking coffee at 2. The last time I saw Joyce she came in with the basket of her walking frame loaded with vital medicinal equipment, parked it beside her countermarch loom and crawled underneath the warp to tie the treadles.
Slot-slot-hole-slot (and a beat-beat from Kerstin’s loom). The weather report is followed quite suitably by Madonna’s Frost. It’s been a while since I heard it.
I don’t know how to weave
I don’t know how to weave. Still I do it. The knowledge of not knowing helps me discover through my mistakes – since I never learned the rules of weaving I don’t know when I break them. And I am grateful. Every new weave is a thousand new experiences.
I draw my planned colour sequence to understand how I need to warp.
I have planned this warp based on the sixteen skeins in different shades of blue and one purple, calculated width and length. I warp one stripe at a time from the center out. And yet, my calculated 40 centimeter width quickly turn to 60 and I have skeins left. I scratch my head, shrug my shoulders and thank my miscalculations for having the good taste of going in the right direction.
As I add the second heddle I realize the first one was a 30/10 instead of the 40/10 I had based my calculations on. Slot-slot-hole-slot all over again, with the correct heddle. I wonder whether my 60 centimeter width on the warp beam will mean trouble for my now 40 centimeter width on the cloth beam. My answer is that I will learn from whatever the outcome.
Twists and tangles
I notice that the golden muga silk threads tangle more than the mulberry silk, twisting around each other. This will be a challenge, I note to myself, remembering my last weaving project with a singles warp yarn. And I will learn from this one too. In my next breath I spot a missing muga silk stripe.
Slinky little knots add to the challenge I face through the weaving process.
Slot-slot-hole and the last slot. All done and my hands are blue. I tie the ends around the cloth beam bar. It feels different than tying wool – the slippery surface makes the knots glide and I have to retie some of them several times.
I need to fiddle between the heddles for a clean down shed.
This is it. This is when I find out if I have threaded the heddles correctly. While I have worked with double heddles before, I haven’t done it to double the thread count, only for a double layered weave and for twill. The lower shed is fiddly and I need to lift and separate the threads between the heddles to find the shed. But it works. This will be a slow weave, and I embrace the slowness.
Slowly but steadily my silk shawl emerges.
The first golden thread breaks. This is my cue to call it a day. I will deal with it with a fresh mind and deblued hands tomorrow. I loosen the warp beam handle to relax the threads, pet the weave and thank it for the company and a good day’s work. Kerstin is on the floor tyeing her treadles. As I leave I hear the 2 o’clock news jingle behind me and Kerstin’s footsteps toward the coffee maker.
Happy spinning!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. So subscribe!
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes
I have been planning for this course for a few years now and this August I finally started recording the videos. October and November were the months of editing and in December I have put the course together on my course platform.
Every now and then perple have asked me to create an online course for beginners. I have been a bit scared of it, though. There is so much responsibility with beginners and I haven’t been sure I am the right person to do it. But then, last year a friend of mine asked me if I could create an online course in suspended spindle spinning for beginners in Swedish, and I did, and it was a success. And so, this new course, in English and with English captions, is based on that course in Swedish, with a couple of additions based on questions I got from the Swedish course.
Picking, teasing and carding the wool to prepare for spinning.
Even if I still feel like a beginner at teaching beginners, I decided that this is the time and I am so happy to be able to publish this course.
Onlinekursen på svenska lanserades hösten 2022 och fanns tillgänglig under ett år. Är du intresserad av att kursen ges igen, hör av dig till Ullförmedlingen.
What you need
To take Spindle spinning for beginners you only need four things – a suspended spindle, a pair of hand cards, wool and time. Even if spinning may develop into a material sport over time for some people, a beginner’s course should be accessible with as few tools as possible. I do however show a couple of techniques with other tools as bonus and inspiration, but they are not necessary.
What you will learn
The course is about creating yarn on a suspended spindle, not just spinning it. This means that I go through all the steps of preparation – picking, teasing (with four different techniques) and carding. Then we move on to spinning, both with a park and draft method to keep the sequence linear, and then unparked for those who are ready to spin, draft and keep control over the spindle simultaneously. We transfer the singles to prepare for plying, ply them into a 2-ply yarn, make a skein, soak and finish. If you want to work with washed wool you need to was your wool beforehand, the course doesn’t cover washing.
We also look at drafting theory, spindle models, trouble shooting and spinning with both left and right hand as spindle hand. All through the course we look at how to work in a way that is sustainable to you.
Who can take the course?
Anyone can take this course. You may be a total beginner in spinning. Perhaps you learned decades ago but haven‘t practiced since then. Perhaps you have sheep and want to learn how to spin their wool. Or perhaps you spin on a spinning wheel and you want to learn how to spin on a suspended spindle. Do spread the word to friends who want to learn or who you secretly want to want to learn. Either way you are very welcome to the classroom!
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
This weekend I harvested the very last of my indigo leaves for a final extraction. Throughout the season I have dyed for a serial blue.
To learn more about fresh indigo dyeing, pop in at the Dogwood dyer‘s!
This is my first real season of both woad (European and Chinese) and Japanese indigo (Maruba and Kojoko) and it has been such a beautiful experience. I did try both woad and Japanese indigo a few years ago, but the Japanese indigo never germinated and the woad was eaten by flea beetles, so I don’t even count that.
Woad woes
There was some trouble with the woad in the beginning. Our local city fox decided to investigate the pantry properties of the hugelkultur where I had planted my woad. Nighty pantry digging raids resulted in severely damaged plants. Twice. Of the few plants of Chinese woad I had from the beginning I was left with only three. The European woad plants were more from the beginning and I ended up with around eight.
I made some lovely woad balls out of a whole harvest, but they molded quite quickly.
At one point I harvested all my European woad – over 500 grams – to make woad balls, but they started to mold after just a couple of days. I did a final extraction of the autumn harvest kast week, but it only resulted in a blue tint in the coffee filter. Still, I have lots of seeds left and I am counting on the existing plants to grow another year in the hugelkultur. And oh, they are accompanied by a sweet plant of madder now too.
Extractions
All through summer I have harvested a small amount of leaves. My first try was a cold water extraction, but the most common method of extraction has been a semi-warm fermentation – 35 °C in the water and a double boiler “thermos” of around 45 °C. The extraction has taken around 18 hours.
Cold water Indigo extraction from kojoko plants. Day 2 to the left and day 4 to the right.
When I have decided that the extraction was finished I have removed the leaves and started oxidizing the liquid. This is the most fun part. With just an alkaline addition and some oxygen the liquid turns magically blue and I know I have secured some pigment for future vats.
Baby steps
The reason why my extractions have been so small is practical – my buckets and pots aren’t large enough to ferment the whole harvest in one go. I was a bit annoyed by this in the beginning, but then I realized that multiple extraction for a serial blue has its advantages, at least for me as a beginner. By making small batches I ensure that I can extract some pigment. If one extraction fails I still have the other ones. Had I done it all in one go there would be a risk of it all going down the drain.
Oxidizing my indigo extraction is the most fun part! My small indigo garden to the right.
Another advantage is that I have learned a lot by doing the multiple extractions. I know the signs to look for, I know what the liquid is supposed to smell like and I know how much lime to add in the alkalization stage. I have also created a routine for the extractions that has worked well for my context and my tools.
One of my first Maruba extractions.
After the very last (perhaps tenth all in all?) extraction this week, just before the frost covered the ground in a sparkling blanket, I measured my serial blue dried indigo pigment to around 5 grams. It’s not much, but I have made it all by myself and I am ridiculously proud of every grain of blue.
Fresh leaf dyeing
In the beginning, before I had enough leaves to make extractions, I did some fresh leaf dyeing. I used both the salt rub and the blender method and enjoyed myself tremendously.
With both salt rubbed (left) and blended (center) fresh leaves I ahve dyed my handspun silk (right).
As I started extracting I took advantage of the fermented leaves too. The ones that still looked fresh still had some dyeing potential, and I used them with the blender method. Every batch got a small skein of handspun silk and a few linen buttons.
Serial blue
I got some lovely greenish blue skeins in the fresh leaf baths and light blue buttons. However, it was when I started to overdye that the real fun began. By dyeing skeins and buttons two or three times I got a darker and deeper dye from both indigo and woad.
Woad dyed silk and natural muga silk (left), Kojoko dyed 2-ply embroidery yarn (center) and multiple dyed linen buttons (right).
I realized that I could play a lot with this – any skein that ended up too light or unevenly dyed went back into the next bath.
Serial blue – multiple dips of my handspun silk yarn in fresh leaf baths.
The colour differs between the two Japanese indigo types and the woad, the Kojoko being a little more vibrant than the Maruba and the woad a little lighter and earthier than the Japanese indigo. On the picture above you can see woad on the fourth from the right. The second and third from the right and the first, second and fifth from the left are Kojoko, the rest is Maruba. The somewhat tousled skeins are dyed with the salt rub method (where the fresh leaves are massaged into the skeins) and the others with the blender method (where the skeins are soaked in leaves that have been blended with ice cold water).
Indirubin
The purple skein is a result of having added some heat and a little alkalinity to already extracted leaves. This can, if you are lucky, bring out the indirubin, which is purple. I did this several times, but this skein was the only one that was worth saving. The second from the left is an overdye from another bath that wasn’t as successful in extracting the indirubin. You can still see some traces of purple in the skein.
Until next year
All the dye pots are stored away now. Of the plants in the garden are just a few stalks left. But on the windowsill in my home office are two pots, one with Kojoko and one with Maruba plants. A few stalks rise high above the others, displaying a multitude of flowers. These are my heroes and seed producers for next year’s dye garden.
Pink flowers on my Maruba plants. The Kojoko flowers are white.
Seeds of Japanese indigo need to be fresh to germinate, so for every season I need to grow new seeds for the next. If I succeed and if the seeds germinate I will have a dye garden of blue in 2024 too, and lots more experience than with this first one.
My play with fresh leaf indio on my handspun silk is over and I do have plans for the skeins. I will also experiment with vat dyeing with the indigo pigment I did manage to extract, which will be a whole new adventure. I’ll keep you posted!
Happy spinning!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
I spent the past weekend in Malmö in southern Sweden. The goal of the journey was meeting Irene Waggener, author, knitter and independent researcher.
”I will be in Copenhagen in August”, said Irene a few weeks ago. She is currently living in Yerevan, Armenia. ”Do you know any yarn shops there?” ”No, I don’t”, said I, “but I can take the train down from Stockholm and we can meet in Malmö!”. ”Yay”!! said both of us. And so we met.
On the train to Malmö to meet Irene Waggener, I read her book Keepers of the sheep.
Irene Waggener is the author of the beautiful book Keepers of the sheep –knitting inMorocco’s High Atlas and beyond. You can read my review of the book here. I have admired her work for a few years now. Two years ago I knit a pair of High Atlas pants, sirwal, that used to be traditional in the the Moroccan High Atlas and that she interprets in the book. They were typically knit by male shepherds from yarn spindle spun by their wives and worn for sheepherding and snow shoveling in the cold season. I use mine for going down to the lake for my daily bath when the air temperature goes below -6 °C.
Meeting pants
I met Irene and her husband Josh in the castle garden in Malmö. Both of us had brought our sirwal pants for them to meet too. Hers knit by spindle spun Moroccan yarn, mine knit with my spindle spun Swedish Gestrike wool yarn.
Our sirwal pants finally meet! Mine to the left, Irene’s to the right. Photo by Josh Waggener.
The pants look very similar, but there are also differences. I spun and knit mine tighter to fight off the cold of the Swedish winter. The white wool in her pants is somewhat reddish from the High Atlas soil. My black stripes are fading towards the hips. I knit them from the first and second fleece from the same sheep, Gunvor, and her black spots had faded with age. Both of our pants have traces of the pastures where the sheep have grazed. While the wools come from quite different lines of sheep, both the fleeces are strong and sturdy with both soft undercoat, long and strong outercoat and quirky kemp.
Spindles, spindles, spindles!
Irene also brought spindles – one floor supported High Atlas spindle, izdi, one floor supported Middle Atlas spindle, maghzal, and one suspended Armenian spindle, ilik. The Armenian spindle was a gift to me, a precious one. I brought hand carded batts from Swedish Gestrike sheep to try the spindles with. In my Instagram highlights you can see me spin with all three spindles.
High Atlas izdi
The High Atlas spindle is the one the yarn for the pants would have been spun with (and that the yarn in Irene’s pants was spun with). The spinner sits on the ground or floor. The spindle rests on the floor and sometimes in a bowl and is flicked with the fingers of the spinning hand. Irene had published Instagram videos with Moroccan spinners spinning on these spindles back when she lived in the area, and I had saved all of them. On the train to Malmö I studied them to be able to spin on the izdi with some amount of grace and dignity.
I’m spinning on the ground supported High Atlas izdi spindle. Photo by Irene Waggener.
The High Atlas spindle is simple – a wooden shaft and, in this case, a whorl cut out from a car tyre. This type of spindle is traditionally spun with hand carded batts. The spinner inserts the twist into the whole length of the batt before making the draft. I love spinning this way, feeling the yarn do its magic as I move my hands in different directions, aligning the fibers softly in the twist with a draw that reaches between my outstretched arms. The High Atlas spindle typically spins fine high twist sock yarns and bulky low twist rug yarns.
Out of the three spindles I got to try, this was my favorite. The spindle was very simple in its execution and in the requirements to use it, yet it is operated with an advanced technique. In Irene’s videos there is also one showing a very special plying technique. The spinner pushes the spindle tip with a flat spinning hand outwards against the arm of the fiber hand. I didn’t have time to try it, though. The technique reminds me of the plying technique used for Andean pushka spindles.
Middle Atlas maghzal
The Middle Atlas spindle was hand carved from one piece of wood, with a belly instead of a whorl. It is supported on the ground, and rolled with a flat hand against the outer thigh of the spinner, who sits on the floor or ground. I believe this type of spindle was primarily used for bulkier yarns for rugs.
The Middle Atlas spindle is rolled against the thigh when the spinner is sitting on the floor or ground. Photo by Irene Waggener.
The wool for the Middle Atlas spindle would have been carded into rolags. I had only my batts with me, so the yarn I spun was a bit on the fine side, but it worked.
Armenian ilik
The Armenian top whorl spindle is also very simple in its construction. A long shaft and a whorl that looks a little like a door knob. This one is very sweet in its wonkiness and with its worm holes.
The Armenian spindle came home with me on the train. Photo by Irene Waggener.
The Armenian spindle is spun suspended and the twist inserted by rolling the shaft against the thigh of the standing or sitting spinner. This spindle is used for different types of yarn for both weaving and knitting.
Traditional spindles
I have one antique French in-hand spindle, one antique Turkish cross-arm spindle, two Andean suspended pushkas and one Peruvian suspended chaj-chaj spindle. These are traditional in different parts of the world, and still used in traditional textile communities. All the other spindles I have are modern, western made hobby spindles, some of them very luxurious. The traditional spindles were made with simple means and for production spinning, some of these very well worn, wonky and with little worm holes.
Don’t get me wrong – I love all my modern spindles. Holding the traditional spindles is something completely different, though, in the extra layer they add. Smooth in my hand, with the shaft echoing the skilled hands that had once flicked it. I felt so grateful to Irene for bringing them and to the spinners who had flicked them before me. My hands are there now too, together with theirs, in the magic of spinning.
Unfinished conversations
And we talked, the three of us. With ease and dedication we talked bout spinning, writing, knitting. World politics, pandemics and spiked bike tyres. About everything and anything. I loved every second of it.
And we talked. Photo by Josh Waggener.
Suddenly, the magic was broken and I had to go back to the train station. There was still so much more I wanted to talk about. If it hadn’t been for a working day coming up I would gladly have postponed my train ride back home. The three and a half hours we spent together were over way too soon. But we will continue the conversation the next time we meet.
On the train back home
On the train back home I did my best to process our time together, all the things we talked about, everything I learned from both Irene and Josh, all the laughter, and spending time in the beautiful castle garden. As I browsed through all the photos and videos they both were so kind to take with my camera, my heart tingled. It was a wonder that we did get to meet – Irene living in Armenia and me not flying don’t give the best odds for meeting. But we did, and I will cherish our day together. I’m so glad I came and that we managed to synch our calendars. Thank you for everything, Irene! I hope to see you again soon. My pants send their love to yours.
Happy spinning!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
This week it was time to pinch my Japanese indigo plants. This will hopefully result in bushier plants. It also paves the way for new plants and some blue play.
Please don’t ask me anything about the dyeing process as I have no idea what I am doing, I just follow instructions (and deviate from them) in the courses I am taking.
I am childishly smitten by my indigo plants. I have one rectangular container just outside the front door where I can keep an eye on them, plus a couple of pots in the pallet collar greenhouse. The other day I couldn’t help myself, and prepared to pinch the Maruba plants and use the leaves for dyeing.
Maruba salt rub
It’s generally best to pick fresh indigo in the morning, but this first time I did it in the afternoon, just because I couldn’t help myself. I got quite a lot from my little indigo garden. I decided to do this as simply as possible, to be able to focus on the process that was all new to me. This means that I didn’t weigh either leaves or textile, I took no photos during the process and I had no particular expectations.
I decided to to the salt rub method – a method where you use salt to extract the liquid and then massage the leaves with the textile for 5–20 minutes. It was lovely to watch the liquid and the textile – supported spindle spun silk yarn in this case – slowly change in colour and depth. This needs to be done fast! As soon as the leaves are broken and/or dried the blue colour comes out of the plants and is consumed.
In one of my vases of indigo stalks, one stalk doesn’t reach the water. The plant dries out and the blue colour emerges.
I cut the plants, placed the cuttings directly in cold water and removed the leaves from the stalks. When I had removed all the leaves I put them in an empty bowl together with a little salt and the hank and started massaging.
Three mini hanks of supported spindle spun mulberry silk yarn dyed with indigo from the salt rub method and its afterbaths.
I massaged my mini silk hank for about 17 minutes and got a sweet mediterranean blue. The silk looks a bit tauseled from the massaging, but I don’t mind. I just love the colour and the fact that I got it from my very own plants. As I washed and rinsed the skein the water turned a bit yellow and the skein a little more blue.
Newly cut indigo Maruba plants. In the background vases of deleaved stalks waiting to grow roots.
I cut the plants to make them bushier – when I cut just above a node of the stalk, two new stalks will grow out. I saved the deleaved stalks and put them in water to grow roots. When the roots are long enough I will put these new plants in soil.
Afterbaths
I put another skein in the leftover liquid and leaf mix and placed it in the greenhouse overnight. the skein turned into a lighter turquoise than the salt rubbed skein. I continued the process with the same bath on the stove at low heat together with a new skein and a little baking soda. After a while the skein turned into sort of an olive part of the spectrum. I added a simple thread that got some beige colour, perhaps learning slight towards pink.
Kojoko salt rub
This morning I pinched my Kojoko plants. There were only four plants to pinch, so I just put a simple thread in it. And some of my hair! I envisioned a blue curl, but all I achieved was a green forehead. And, in a certain light, if you squint, you can see a shape of blue. I was really hoping for my white strands to deliver here, but I guess I’ll have to wait for some more white before I can get that blue curl.
Yarn samples! The top yarn has swum for a short while in an afterbath from the leftover leaves and liquid of a salt rub (Maruba). The bottom yarn has been dyed in a later salt rub (Kojoko).
Even if the hair dye wasn’t successful I really love the colour I got on the silk yarn sample, a very crispy mediterranean blue. It felt different than the colour I got from the Maruba. It might have been the difference in species or difference in harvest time, I have no idea.
Oh, and I might have lost the turquoise sample thread down the drain as I rinsed. I might also have lifted out the drawers from the washstand and unscrew the pipes to get hold of the thread.
Eco print
I also tried some eco prints with a few stray leaves. These turned out way richer in colour than the baby leaf I printed a couple of months ago. I love how the colour is richer close to the nerves and the stalks than in the rims and the tips.
There is a lot more depth in this eco print than the one I did a couple of months ago with a baby leaf.
There is so much potential in this plant! I have just started playing with it and there is so much more to explore and discover.
Woad status
Meanwhile, in my fox violated hügelkultur, my woad plants are mostly alive. Some have died in the drought, but I still have around eight European woad plants left and a few less of the Chinese woad.
Chinese woad plants under the compost grids, reasonably safe from the fox. Note the baby oak in the foreground.
I think the fox has tried to dig its way in, there are traces outside the oak branch wall of the Hügelkultur, but so far the woad babies are all right.
Tomorrow I’m leaving for Sätergläntan where I will teach the five day course A spindle a day. I am very excited and hope to learn a lot!
Happy spinning!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
After a number of utter failures I have mustered up the courage to plant indigo again – two types of Japanese indigo and two types of woad. This will be the summer of blue dreams.
Green leaf freshly picked
Imprinted on cloth, softly
turned blue overnight
A few years ago I tried growing both woad and Japanese indigo. The Japanese indigo didn’t germinate at all. I told the seller and I got new seeds. They didn’t grow either and I gave it up. The woad did germinate, but bite by bite the flea beetle ate every single plant. I gave that up too. I am quite fascinated, though, by the fact that I managed to kill an invasive plant like woad.
A sprouting yearning for blue
Despite these failures I haven’t given up my blue dreams. In early January I got inspiration again and looked around for courses. I found one quite far away from me and asked the teacher, Sofia, if she would consider teaching in Stockholm sometime soon. She wasn’t planning on it, but she kindly offered to send me indigo and woad seeds and planting instructions. I got the sweet seeds and they are now snugly tucked in pots in my kitchen window.
Indigo course
Just a couple of weeks ago my friend Cecilia found a course in growing, harvesting and extracting indigo from woad and Japanese Indigo, just a couple of kilometers from my home. We registered immediately.
The course has three lessons – one in April to plant, one in July to play and one in August to extract the indigo. I knew from the beginning that I couldn’t make the July lesson, but it was still worth it.
My blue dream start right here, in a pot of Japanese indigo Kojoko seedlings, together with baby leeks, chili and basil.
We had the first lesson a week ago at a nearby community garden. The teacher Katja told us about the plants and gave us an overview of growing and creating the best circumstances possible for the indican. Each of us got a tiny pot of Japanese indigo Kojoko seedlings and seeds for Japanese Indigo Maruba and European and Chinese woad. I have planted all my seeds and I can’t wait to tend to my new blue babies.
Blue dreams
While waiting for the seeds to germinate I dive into YouTube videos on how to use fresh indigo leaves with different methods. There is so much to play with! I was particularly fascinated with the salt rub method. So fascinated that I have started spinning a silk yarn to dye with the salt rub method and weave into a shawl. Perhaps Japanese indigo in different shades for the warp, and woad (that will probably be lighter than the Japanese indigo) for the weft.
Mulberry silk spun from the fold on a supported spindle. Picture these skeins in a range of blues.
I may be mad to think I can weave a silk shawl in a singles yarn with my very basic weaving skills, but I need to try it to find out.
If you are a patron (or want to become one) you can see how I spin silk yarn for my indigo experiment in the April 2023 video postcard.
Baby leaf eco print
I also stole a leaf from one of my Kojoko plants and made a single leaf eco print. I knew there was a risk that there wouldn’t be enough indican in the young leaf, but it doesn’t hurt to try, does it? Since the Indcan reacts with oxygen I also knew that the print needed time to find its blue colour. So I let it be overnight. Although I have to confess that I checked it every ten minutes or so in the evening.
The next morning the leaf was still chlorophyll green. Perhaps a tiny hint of blue around the edges. I had read that the chlorophyll could be washed away, so I wanted to try that. Just a drop of dish soap and water. I was astounded to find the green disappear and leave room for the indigo colour I had dreamed of. It was really there, on my patch of vintage cotton sheet. My heart tingled and I have come back to the blue leaf time and time again during the day to see if it’s still there.
My sweet blue baby leaf of Japanese indigo Kojoko.
There is so much potential in the tiny plants and pots I have. I will do my very best to tend to them with love and affection. Whenever I feel like an obstacle I will turn to my eco print.
One of the best fertilizers for the garden in general and for the Japanese indigo in particular is diluted urine. In fact, most of the commercial fertilizers copy the nitrogen/phosphorus/kalium ratio of urine. In Sweden we call it guldvatten, gold water. I will happily and lovingly pee on my plants and keep up my blue dream.
Resources
As I am a total beginner of growing indigo plants, please don’t ask me about how to do things related to indigo. There are many people who are experts on the subjekts. Below are some links and accounts I have found and been recommended:
Margaret Byrd has a lot of videos about dyeing with indigo in various shapes and forms. Here is one of her videos, on the salt rub method with fresh indigo leaves.
BillyNou had a lovely video too on the salt rub method. She, in turn, recommended the following two Instagram accounts
I followed Make with Mandi’s video on eco printing with indigo leaves.
The dogwood dyer, who has lovely photos and videos with various techniques with indigo. She also offers online courses.
Seaspell fiber also has photos, videos and online courses on indigo techniques.
If you have suggestions of additional resources, please let me know.
Happy spinning!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to missanything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
You are also welcome to make one-off donations on my Ko-fi page.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the new book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
In 2019 I started spinning yarn for a pair of two-end knitted sleeves. I have worked on and off on them since then, but now they are finally finished!
You can see videos where I spin the yarn here and where I knit the sleeves here. You can read more about two-end (twined) knitting here and about the project here.
It started with some sweet locks of dalapäls wool I got from a shepherdess, Carina. She had collected the longest locks from several of her sheep and I got to buy them. I had been keen to knit a pair of two-end knitted sleeves and when I saw the locks I knew they would be the perfect candiates for the yarn.
Two-end knitting
Two-end knitting is a very old Scandinavian knitting technique where you use two strands of yarn and twist them around each other on the wrong side. This creates horisontal twisted ridges on the wrong side and makes the fabric very sturdy and wind-proof. You knit quite tightly with small circumference needles.
The right side to the left and and the wrong side to the right.
I choose to have the right side facing, which is traditional in Sweden. In Norway it seems to be more common with the wrong side facing, often for workwear garments and accessories.
It takes time
I have worked on these sleeves for a very long time. With long pauses obviously, but spinning the 430 grams of yarn that the sleeves required on a spindle does take time. I spun the yarn on a supported spindle from the tip end of lightly teased locks. Mainly in bed in the evenings before I went to sleep. It was the loveliest way to end the day.
Here is the whole process – lock, teased lock, singles, plied yarn, skein, ball and the two-end knitted sleeve.
The knitting technique in itself is slow too, and add to that 2 millimeter needles and a tight gauge. As always, I have knitted the sleeves parallel. I do not want to risk either a second sleeve syndrome or different sized sleeves due to different tensions.
Many a journey
The sleeves have accompanied me on many train journeys, to the farthest north in Sweden and down south to Austria. The journeys and my experiences are now forever knitted into the sleeves.
The sleeves have accompanied me to many places.
I cast on for the sleeves just before I went to a teaching gig at Sätergläntan back in 2019. Two-end knitting is the perfect train craft – it usually dosen’t take up very much space and the knitting is slow and mindful. As the yarn gets too twisten I hold it up and let the ball untwist the yarn. I remember a lady watching me on the train, smiling. When I readied myself to get off she approached me and asked if I was going to Sätergläntan and if I was two-end knitting. She said she was nearly blind, but she had recognized the motion I had made to untwist the yarn. She was of course a knitter too and had taken many courses at Sätergläntan herself.
Frogging and finding sheep
I had calculated the increasing of stitches, but as I approached the upper arms I realized the sleeves were a bit on the slim side. On the 2020 wool journey I asked the teacher Karin Kahnlund for advice and she said I should frog a large part of the sleeves and make more increases. For a long while I didn’t knit at all, the project didn’t sing to me at the time.
Spinning away.
Eventually I did pick up the project and started the long journey to the upper arms, now with frogged yarn. It went quite well, until I realized I didn’t have enough yarn. I needed to find another sheep with the same staple length. I put the project aside again. Six months ago I did find my fleece – a lovely one from my dalapäls shepherd friend Lena’s ewe Nehne. I started spinning again. This time my heart sang. I had found a sweet spinning rhythm that moved me from winter to spring in a mindful flow.
Sleeve caps
I have been knitting on most of the coffee breaks at work since January, spinning at home on the couch. And suddenly, a couple of weeks ago I had reached the armholes. I wasn’t comfortable calculating the decreases for the sleeve caps on my own, so I looked for help. Luckily, Karin Kahnlund, one of the most skilled two-end knitters and knitting teachers in Sweden has her studio just a couple of kilometers from my house and she offers tuition twice a month.
I went to Karin’s place and found myself in the midst of five ladies and their two-end knitting projects and Karin walking between all of us and guiding us. She helped me calculate the decreases and gave me lots of feedback on my plans for the sleeves (which will be another post).
Cut the steeks
Two-end knitting is almost always done in the round. It is a lot easier than working back and forth. The back and forth method also results in stitches tilting in different directions. So her advice for me was to knit the sleeve cap decreases in the round and then cut the steeks.
Cutting the steeks is always scary, but it turned out lovely!
I know cutting steeks works perfectly fine, but still, it’s totally nerve wrecking! I did finish the decreases and I did manage to cut the steeks without either fainting or ruining the sleeves. The shape of the sleeve caps looks really nice. All is as it should be.
Fulling and fluffing
To make the steeks a little more reliable I decided to full them slightly. I also wanted to make the wrong sides a little fluffier against my skin. So I dusted off my sweet waulking board, turned the sleeves inside out and worked them against the board. As a bonus the soap and the hot water helped clean the sleeves too. They were a bit dirty from all their adventures through the last four years.
I fulled the wrong sides of the sleeves slightly to make them softer and fluffier.
I do have plans for a bodice to attach the sleeves to. I’m just not ready to share that yet. But I can tell you that it will be splendid! To be continued when it’s finished.
Happy spinning!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to missanything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
You are also welcome to make one-off donations on my Ko-fi page.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the new book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
79 people entered the raffle, which would mean that you raised 395 USD. But 11 of you decided to donate more than the 5 USD ticket fee, so the total sum you raised is 443 USD! That is amazing and I can’t thank you enough. I emailed with Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez, founder of the organization and she asked me to thank you all for your generous donations.
The spindle case was the perfect container for the raffle tickets.
Now, for the winner in the raffle: My daughter helped me draw the winning name. The winner is
Susan P.
Congratulations Susan! I have contacted Susan but she hasn’t replied yet. Please get back to me so I can send you your prize!
The spinning community is built by such generous and kind souls and I am so happy to be part of it. You all help me become a better spinner. So once again, thank you for your generosity.
Happy spinning!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to missanything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
You are also welcome to make one-off donations on my Ko-fi page.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the new book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Through learning, sharing and making I often feel a strong connection to the spinning students in my classroom as well as to past and present spinners around me.
Just recently I taught a two-day course in floor spindle spinning. There were seven students in the classroom, with varying degrees of spinning experience. Through wool, wool preparation, spinning and learning we all felt a strong connection to each other as spinners.
Knitting in my hands and teaching on my schedule. The Gandhi quote on my trolley reads “Every revolution of the wheel spins peace, goodwill and love”.
Connection through sheep
My very generous friend Lena was one of the students. She lives near the church school where I taught the class and had brought a soup for us to share at lunch break. She had also brought beautiful raw fleece from her gene bank flock of the Swedish conservation breed dalapäls sheep that we prepared and spun in the course.
Lena’s dalapäls sheep. Screenshot from video shot in 2019.
Lena told us tales about the sheep and the shearing. Usually she shears the sheep herself with hand sheers, which tends to take around an hour for one sheep, but this year she had booked a professional shearer to do the job.
Seed pods with nasty barbs.
Just a few days before the shearing the sheep had walked through a patch of some sort of plant that spread its seed pods with the help of barbs. Suddenly all sheep were covered in nasty little seed pods that had caught the fleece with the barbs. Lena had to brush every sheep for an hour each to get rid of as many seeds as possible. Even if there were still some seeds left, the brushing left the shorn fleeces very clean.
The light room is ready for day two of the spinning course, with Lena’s dalapäls wool in the middle of the circle.
Through Lena’s stories we connected to the wool in the basket in the middle of our spinning circle, as well as to the sheep that had given us their fleeces. We all carded and the same rolags, with the oh, so soft undercoat fluffing up the shape and the shiny outercoat armouring and adding strength.
At the end of each day and/or course I always encourage my students to reflect over the day in quietude. We sit there in a silent room while they make notes of what has happened during the day, catching and developing all the thoughts, questions, aha-moments and frustrations that are still vividly floating around in the room. I watch them as they write, stop, think and write again. I can see their minds settling as their thoughts take a written form.
Despite differences in spinning experience we all connected through wool and learning.
When all notebooks have closed and the students sighed in the calming silence I ask if anyone has something they want to share: What have you learned? What was difficult? What are you proud of? The students are generous, sharing personal insights, struggles and successes: “I finally carded an even rolag!”, “The joins were so difficult to get right.” or “When I learned how to open up the twist everything became much easier.”.
Connection through learning
On this course one of the students, a total beginner, said she so enjoyed the connection we shared in the course. Learning together, connecting to each other, back to spinners before us and out to spinners beside us. She was proud of having given herself the time to learn something new.
New experiences are simmering in the room, waiting to be articulated and shared.
I too experience a deep connection in the courses. Just like this student said, to each other, to the spinners before and beside us, but also to the wool, to the sheep, to the making and to our learning process. The students in the classroom all have different spinning backgrounds, skill levels, learning styles and learning pace. Still, we all take part in each other’s joys, frustrations and vulnerabilities with kindness and compassion.
We’re in this together
After all, we are all there, in that same room, with the same wool and the same tools. In that room we take that wool and those tools and make our connected, collective, but still individual journeys. As soon as the first chafing of being in a new context has settled, we find trust and a connection to the group. We are in this together. During the course we are making, learning, frustrating, progressing and exploring together. We may be vulnerable in the new learning context, but by having an open, generous and curious mind we can disclose our fears and struggles, explore together and learn through both our own and each other’s experiences.
In my classroom I want to make the learning a connected experience. As I see or hear struggle or success, I encourage exploration, articulation and reflection of what happened. How can we all learn more from this? There is such a power in learning in and through a warm and safe connection. We give ourselves time to learn.
As the day settles
When we had finished the first day I went home with Lena to her house. We talked for hours over a sweet dinner she had prepared for us while the fire mumbled quietly in the background. I picked up a two-end knitting project with spindle-spun dalapäls yarn. The yarn reminded me of that connection we shared to spinners before, beside and after us.
Raw fleece from Lena’s dalapäls sheep Nehne.
When I went home the following afternoon I had an extra paper bag with me, with the soft and shiny fleece from Lena’s dalapäls sheep Nehne, reminding me of all the connections we shared during the course. The connections will be spun into the yarn, passing the sweet memories on to the touch of my two-end knitted sleeves.
The fleece from the dalapäls sheep Nehne has been washed in water and is drying in front of our fireplace.
The following day I washed Nehne’s fleece that I got from Lena. It has been drying in front of the fireplace, smelling faintly of sheep. She reminds me of the course and the connection we all shared in the classroom. I even enjoy picking out the last remaining seed pods.
Next weekend I will attend a gym instructor course and can’t promise a blog post.
Happy spinning!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to missanything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
You are also welcome to make one-off donations on my Ko-fi page.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the new book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
