So, let me tell you about the spinning class last Tuesday at Starstruck Cat Studio in Greenwood.

First, Brenda brought in a new-to-her spinning wheel.  This is an old wheel (so old that there is no manufacturer’s name on it anywhere, but it reminds me of the Kromski Mazurka that I used to have), but it is in terrific shape.  It’s a double drive-band wheel, so we got her set up with new drive bands, I oiled it really well, and got her started.  Since it is a single treadle wheel, I had Brenda practicing treadling it so she could keep it going without too much thought.  She had to place it up against a table leg because it kept wanting to scoot across the tile floor with every push on the treadle.  She had already been playing with it at home and said it didn’t scoot on the carpet, but she was going to get some of that rubber mat that you put under rugs to bring to class.

By the end of the class, Brenda was spinning a pretty nice single and had about a 1/3 of a bobbin full.  She left all smiles and with a new best friend.  I forgot to ask her what she was going to name it.  I’ll ask next time.

Next, we’ll move onto Lori.  She is doing pretty well with the spindle, and she learned how to Navajo ply that night.  By the end of the evening, she had about half of her singles all plied up.  She wants to spin more “arty” yarn, so I discussed with her spinning thick & thin while still keeping the yarn cohesive.

Caeli has been spinning some lovely merino and started a new bobbin that night.  See it in the box next to her?  It looks brown and green, doesn’t it?  Well, as she was spinning it, it proved to be more lavender and green with some brown here and there.  Honestly, no one even noticed the lavender in it until it was being spun.  Cool, huh?  Her spinning is very nice, fine and even.  This is going to be pretty yarn once it is plied.

After our last class, I got an email from Debbie saying she was struggling with her wheel.  I drove down to her place after work one night and, after about an hour and a half, we got her going.  Since then, she spun up two bobbins full, one of a thicker gray single, and one of a finer white single.  She wants to knit her husband a scarf from this yarn, so I showed her how to use her built-in lazy Kate on her wheel, and got her to plying.  She nearly had a bobbin full by the time she left and her plying was looking good and consistent.  I really liked how the thicker gray yarn looked against the fiber white.  I think it will make a lovely scarf.

Can you see why I love teaching this class so much?  Look at these ladies all making good, useful and beautiful yarn.  Brenda has plans of making a felted bag out of all of her newbie yarn (including what she dyed on Dye Day), which I think will be fun.

And, it looks like I will be teaching a beginning sock knitting class at Starstruck Cat Studio in the near future, as well as a weaving workshop later on this summer.  We are still in the talking stage, but both they and I are interested in these joint ventures.