It was a wonderful first day for the spinning workshop at Lincoln’s New Salem. The teachers, Dona Walzer and Barbara Brown, sure know their stuff and have made it such fun. Here are a few pictures from the day.







I tell you, the dynamics of the group makes all the difference and this group has been so good to be with.

Not having had much instruction, particularly with a spinning wheel, I’ve enjoyed practicing different types of fiber preparation. We’ve worked with merino sheep raised at New Salem (which was a bit more dirty than expected, really) and they’ve got quite a good variety of fleeces and prepared fibers to practice with as well.

We went over the differences between worsted and woolen preparation (cards/combs), worsted and woolen drafting (short/long draw), spinning to the crimp and counting the twists per inch for singles and plies. All the things I’ve heard about over the years but never really understood or practiced. My problem is just that, although I understand that there’s a difference between the two, I can never remember which is woolen and which is worsted!!

Sigh…

Tomorrow’s another day with more to learn and more to spin!