Yesterday did not go according to plan. I did give the guy a spinning lesson. I should not try to teach people to spin, because they Do. Not. Listen. No matter how many times you tell them, "Don't worry about the spindle, worry about your hands" or "The reason it's trying to spin the other way is because you've put too much twist in it; you don't need to spin it again" or "See how it's kinking up? You've put too much twist in it; you don't need to spin it again," "Draw out some more fiber to take up the twist," every speck of their focus is on getting the spindle to spin as much as possible without drawing new fiber out so that the twist actually has somewhere to go. I think next time I'll have them practice drawing out fiber without the spindle first.
Also, the person I was going to teach to knit didn't show up. There was someone else who wanted to learn how to do a purl stitch, and I did teach her, so that was all right.
And then there's the cortol. This is a fairly rare musical instrument with 13 finger holes. I loaned it to someone who returned it yesterday. Somewhere between where it was returned and St. Cuthbert's guild area, it fell out of my basket. Sigh. I know I never played it, but it still sucks to have lost it.
Needless to say I was pretty cranky by lunchtime. Ralph played so much music his lips were swollen, and we both decided to call it a day around 4:15. Despite being tired, we stayed up way too late watching "You've Got Mail" & now I'm up way too early with a day full of chores ahead of us. Oh, well.
When I first began spinning, I learned on a RickShaw spinner. It was fairly easy to learn, and I did fairly well. But using a regular Spindle, I got nowhere. It was not until I got my wheel that I finally put it all together and took off. One of the best purchases I've ever made. :)
ReplyDeleteSandie, I know what you mean. I tried for 10 years (on & off) to learn to use a drop spindle, and the wheel took me about 5 minutes. I finally did learn the spindle about 3 years after that. However, I only teach on the spindle--I don't even let my husband use my wheel, and he's the one who taught me to spin in the first place :-)
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