I don’t know if I ever told you how I became so knowledgeable on fiber topics. Pagewood Farm started as Robin’s knitting hobby. She would buy yarn and knit the yarn. Like many knitters, she became bored with the milled yarn that was available and found hand spun yarn. That was pricey! So, she bought a spinning wheel and took spinning lessons. So, she would buy hand dyed roving and spin it. And that was pricey! So, she started buying undyed roving and hand dyeing it herself. On her 4th or 5th addition to her spinning wheel collection, that became pricey!
She sold her extras on e-bay and on business trips or vacations, she would stop off and sell to yarn shops. Hand spun yarn led to hand dyed mill spun yarn and we have Pagewood Farm.
But, that’s not my blog topic. While a hobby, she would drag me to all of these fiber shows. The one thing that they had in common was that after a couple of hours, I would be bored. The other thing they had in common was that the vendors sold nothing that interested me. One show, the spending urge overtook me and I bought a drop spindle. Now I had something to do while Robin was taking in the various yarns. That was back when I was a big biker looking guy, so it made quite an impression on people watching me drop spin.
Robin used to treat my work like an indulgent mother of a toddler. As if to say “let’s put it up on the refridgerator, honey.” She didn’t seem to think much of drop spindling. It wasn’t real spinning like on a wheel. Too slow and she didn’t know how to do it. I would eye her spinning wheel and try it when she was gone. I finally taught myself to spin and when I am practiced up, I can spin a very good product.
So, when Grace, at Wildfiber in Santa Monica, California, started using a drop spindle I was there to help her. Whlle on the road trip to Sock Summit, I would give her pointers, constructive criticism, and ways to improve her technique. So, when Wildfiber wanted to give a drop spindle class, who did they call? I agreed to it. And then I realized that I hadn’t touched a drop spindle since Pagewood Farm got busy. Could I have forgotten how to ride a bike?
Nope. I practiced up to and from TNNA; got it solidified in my mind how to communicate what I knew; and reviewed a couple of websites and videos to make sure that my self-taught methods weren’t off the mark. And they weren’t. The class went well. The students seemed pleased. And I return for the second half in two weeks.
So, guys can do it. And I’m not the only one.
