Beginning Spinning

Beginning Spinning: Tips and tricks for the beginner

I started spinning a few months ago and thought I would share with you my progress and a few things I have learned.
Hopefully, this will encourage you to start spinning as well!

Here’s what to know about spinning

One: Your fiber has to be loose to keep consistency

I had seen women spinning before at various heritage festivals, using raw wool, and from that, I kind of came away with a notion that carding was mostly done for the cleaning of wool, but after trial and error, I came to realize that it is essential to spinning. The more I would card the better the yarn would turn out.

If you are working with roving carding isn’t as necessary, but I would still prep it. Which brings me to my next tip,

Two: Prepare your fiber

After I learned the carding trick spinning was much easier, but I still had a bit of inconsistency in my fiber.
I would try and try to keep the spin away from my second hand, but the wheel was always too fast
and I could never pull from my fiber bundles fast enough.
Frustrated by my thick uneven yarn, I decided that I would try again.
This time I prepared my fiber, pulling it into long strands and laying them on my lap.
The difference was striking. With this small change, I was able to start customizing the thickness and weight of the yarn.

Three: Invest in good fiber

Nothing is more discouraging than difficult fiber.
I’ve worked with quite a few different kinds of fiber now and have found a
couple of fibers that I would highly recommend and that works well for beginners.

•Alpaca
Alpaca has a lightness and softness to it making it really easy to spin with control.

•Merino Wool
There are quite a few different wool breeds, but I have found merino to be my favorite.
Easy control and doesn’t break the bank.

If you are interested in spinning merino but don’t know where to purchase it
check out Beesy Bee on Etsy.
My mom bought her Gray Merino as a gift for me, and I absolutely adore it.
The roving from her shop doesn’t need a lot of prep, making it extremely easy to work with.
Plus, it spins up like a dream (see pictures below).

Below are my first six spinning projects.