I don’t care what the meteorological calendar says, as far as I’m concerned, autumn begins on September 1st. Right on schedule I pull out whatever WIP I abandoned in June and start to work on it again.  I buy spinning fiber and take up my drop spindles like a woman possessed. I seek out comfy sweaters and cozy cowls and begin to plan my upcoming projects. As I write this, I need to knit the sleeves on a short-sleeved pullover that I had planned on finishing before the weather got warm. Once I do that, I’m going to start on a sleek, boxy cardigan that looks like a fun knit.  I feel renewed and energized in the fall–even as the summer-loving folks around me complain that they hate it because “everything’s dying.” But I live in New England, so for every person who wants it to stay hot, there are plenty of fall fanatics to hang out with.

Over the weekend I had the chance to attend a fiber arts festival in Rowley. Unwind Weekend offered classes in spinning, weaving, knitting, dyeing, needle felting, and crochet.  Alongside the classes a small marketplace sold hand-dyed yarns and spinning batts, cute handsewn items, small needle felting kits and handmade soaps. Unwind is held twice a year, in March and again in September, and is sponsored by Romney Ridge Yarns. I was excited because I had the chance to take classes in spinning on a wheel, and crochet. I’ve wanted to learn–and tried to learn–both of these skills in the past, without getting very far.  Over the weekend, though, I had some breakthroughs. I spun on a wheel for a good two hours, and worked a pretty little crochet circle.

I produced a bobbin full of yarn on a borrowed Ashford Traveller. Can I tell you how much I love this wheel? The fiber take-up was smooth so I got the hang of it relatively quickly. I spun on the Traveller for a good two hours. It was thrilling to see the bobbin fill with actual YARN! It was exciting as I moved the yarn down each hook in the row. Joyce, our instructor, was amazing. She made us treadle without any fiber on the wheels at first to get the pace. That was really helpful. She showed us how to draft fiber. Then she explained the parts of the wheel, and explained how tension controlled how fast or slow the fiber fed into the orifice. Tension always confused me because I thought it affected how much twist went into the yarn.

I’ve been spinning on spindles for years so I knew how to draft. because of the treadle practice, as soon as I put the fiber into the orifice, it took up nicely and I was actually spinning! A lot of you are very experienced on wheels, but you know how it feels when something finally clicks.

I bought a batt of beautiful merino/silk fiber from Rag Hill Farms, who were vending at the event. This color is all the colors of the ocean, with lots of deep blue, light blue, and green. Here I am posing proudly with my first ever skein of wheelspun yarn.

The finished product.

I’ll save the crochet for another post. In the meantime, here, enjoy this photo of an alpaca.  See you soon!