{"id":8055,"date":"2022-05-14T07:57:29","date_gmt":"2022-05-14T05:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/waltin.se\/josefinwaltinspinner\/?p=8055"},"modified":"2022-05-14T07:57:32","modified_gmt":"2022-05-14T05:57:32","slug":"i-am-a-spinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waltin.se\/josefinwaltinspinner\/i-am-a-spinner\/","title":{"rendered":"I am a spinner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Many people have asked me how I started spinning. I tell them my story, how it began and how it continued. But the other day someone asked me how I became a spinner. And that is to me a totally different question with a totally different answer. During the first few years after having learned some basics of spinning I could say I know how to spin<\/strong><\/em>. For the past few years, though, I can say I am a spinner<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I stream my webinars I always begin by telling the story of how I began. The very first time I had any kind of spinning tool in my hand was on my first spinning lesson. I got a very heavy suspended spindle in one hand, a pair of hand cards in my other and a cardboard box of the newly shorn fleece from Pia-Lotta the Swedish finull lamb in my lap (You can read about how I began spinning<\/a> and how I continued<\/a> in the two very first posts in this blog). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From fleece to project<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

That is how I started and that is how I want to approach wool \u2013 I want to go through the whole process, feel the fibers go through my hands every step of the way from raw fleece to a finished yarn and get to know the wool as I work with it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On my very first spinning lesson I got to dive into Pia-Lotta’s beautiful finull fleece.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Back then, in 2011, I didn’t know that that was the way I wanted to approach wool, because it was the only way I knew how to approach wool. After a while I did try commercially prepared wool, but it didn’t sing to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doing or being?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A few years ago I listened a lot to Brenda Dayne’s brilliant podcast Cast-on<\/a>. In one of the episodes she talked about knowing how to knit versus being a knitter. I’m not exactly sure how she phrased it, but her reflection stuck with me. She talked about being a knitter as something more, something deeper than just knowing how to knit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I reflect over being a spinner as something deeper than knowing how to spin I think about spinning as the main event, something I always come back home to. Everything I do has its foundation in the wool and in the purpose of spinning. When I discover a fleece I do so with the intention to find its soul and translate it into a yarn with my hands and some tools. When I knit, weave, nalbind or otherwise make a textile of my handspun yarn it is to continue that intention and make the yarn shine in the project. I do spin for a certain project to, but always with the spinning as the foundation and guide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spinning is something deeper to me than just a craft. It is a way of being. I am a spinner. Photo by Dan Waltin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As a comparison, I know how to weave, but I definitely don’t consider myself a weaver and I don’t think I will ever become one. Don’t get me wrong, I love weaving. But weaving is far too complicated for me and I just know the basics. Still, enough to make my yarns beautiful as a woven fabric. The reason I learned how to weave was just that, to be able to use yarns from a wider spectrum of handspun yarns than just for knitting purposes. I learned how to weave for the sake of spinning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following my inner guide<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To me, being a spinner also means allowing the wool to be the guide, alongside my inner guide, which would be the experience I have built through the years. My hands know and remember earlier projects. I can trust that knowledge to guide me in the fleece I have in front of me. I know enough to trust my experience. I also know that I can make mistakes and learn from them. Perhaps even more than if everything went smoothly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I listen to the wool and let it guide me as I work with it. Photo by Dan Waltin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With the experience I can also see patterns on a larger scale, connecting the dots and see a larger whole. While grounded in my experience I also have the confidence to explore new perspectives of a fleece and see where it takes me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Grounded in my experience I can experiment and find new perspectives.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Spinning is nourishing to me. My main creative output is through handspinning (and to some extent writing), but spinning also gives me something more, a peace of mind, a moment to be in my spinning bubble and just breathe. In that flow of creativity and nourishment I find a sweet balance that I don’t want to be without. A balance where I am a spinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finding the shift<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So, back to the question of when I became a spinner. I look through my Ravelry project page to see if I can find a point in time or mind when I shifted from knowing how to spin to becoming a spinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of my first handspun projects back in 2012 was Veera V\u00e4lim\u00e4ki’s Color affection, knit in my handspun natural colour alpaca yarn, hand carded and spun on a supported spindle. Photos by Dan Waltin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For the first few years I did make handspun projects, mostly knitted, alongside commercial yarn items. But in 2014 something happened. A Fair Isle vest finished in May 2014 is the beginning of a turn where 75% of my projects are handspun. What happened during or leading up to the vest project?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norwegian breeds<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I had knit the Fair Isle vest with small skeins of yarn I spun from Norwegian breeds. In 2013, when I had got my first spinning wheel, I had taken a summer course in spinning with my spinning friend Anna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Old Norwegian Sp\u00e6lsau, part of Kia’s fiber club. Photo by Dan Waltin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I also entered a fiber club with rare and endangered Norwegian breeds hosted by my wool friend Kia. Kia has had a long career in wool and has worked as a wool classifier in Norway for many years. Tons and tons of wool has passed through her hands and she knows wool deep in her core (she is a wooler by heart). In four deliveries I got fleece from different Norwegian breeds that were either rare, endangered or both, all hand picked by Kia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than just a vest<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I spun the yarns and enjoyed the characteristics of the different breeds. Kia wrote with love about the breeds, how rare a certain quality or colour was and what she imagined that particular wool to become. Her passion is such an inspiration and it lit a spark in me. I decided to make something real with the small skeins of Norwegian yarn. Thinking back of when I knit the vest I remember a special connection to the yarn and how it turned out in the Fair Isle pattern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spinning for and knitting Ivy League Vest by Eunny Jang may have been the place in time and mind where I became a spinner. Photo by Dan Waltin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the time I didn’t know I had become a spinner. In hindsight though, Kia’s beautiful fiber club and my relationship to the yarn as I knit that vest can have been a place in time and in my mind where spinning became something more than spinning just as a craft. It became a part of me as a person and I became a spinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kia’s passion for wool is truly inspiring.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I have known for some years now that I am a spinner, but it has never occurred to me to look for the shift between knowing how to spin and being a spinner. So thank you JM for your question. It allowed me to explore and learn something new about myself as a spinner. And thank you Kia for holding my hand as I did become a spinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you know when you became a spinner?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The wool is my guide.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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“Do you think you will ever stop being a spinner?” my husband asked me after I had enthusiastically told him about finding a point in time when I shifted from knowing how to spin to becoming a spinner. “If you for some reason take a break for a while, will you stop being a spinner?” A terrifying thought, no doubt, but probably possible. We never know what life throws at us. I’ll think about that tomorrow.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy spinning!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You can find me in several social media:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n