I had a very pleasurable but hot couple of hours above the local small haberdashery this morning learning to spin with a drop spindle.
I have zero desire to sit at a spinning wheel or hand dye yarn but I saw the workshop advertised and thought a bit of handspun fleece could be a useful addition to woven items. The fleece she gave us to use was straight off her own sheep (Ryeland), washed and carded. Like most other things that you do it's just a case of getting the right feel for it. My initial spinning is inevitably a bit thick and thin but I have had another go since I got home and found it much easier to get into a rhythm without listening and talking. The hardest bit is drawing out the fleece to the right thickness depending on what you are aiming for. There were 4 of us learning. The male of the group seemed to be aiming to produce a tow rope.
I came away with the spindle with my yarn on it and some more fleece to carry on with, a box of dyed 'tops' and a couple of freebies that the tutor had dyed herself
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