When I was at Plying the Arts in Athens I took a spinning class which I have mentioned before. it was a wonderful spinning class and now I am obsessed with Shetland Roving because of it.

During the class we had 15 minutes to spin up samples of different fibers. We would get a small zip lock baggy filled with fluffy stuff, or rough stuff and we would spin. While we spun, Heather the teacher would tell us about this sheep. I never got to listen to much of what she said, except moments when I stopped spinning. I felt extremely overwhelmed for the first half of class up until the lunch break. Heather would show us samples of knit things from a particular breed, hand out the baggies and tell stories and history for the next 10 minutes. I started on the wheel but it went awful. My spinning was awful, I was aggravated and annoyed. I also refused to stop spinning a sample until I had enough to make a mini skein from, which sometimes meant about 50% of the fiber from the bag.

The women next to me, I remember very well because she had a Ashford Joy. Something was wrong with her wheel from the get-go. She was a semi-newbie spinner. I saw one of her bobbins filled up and it looked very good. Yet here in class she couldn’t get the wheel to take up the fiber. Turned out after heather sat with her for a bit, that the break band and tension stuff wasn't even on, wasn't even attached. She was definitely a new spinner! So Heather fixed the wheel for her, and the women set off trying to catch up. Within 1 hour she had 10 empty bags at her feet, fiber everywhere and she had pretty much lost all the tags. There was no way to know which fiber went in which bag. She pretty much gave up and just spun as much as she could like a crazy women.

Before she left I found one of her bags in my pile and gave it to her. She said "oh I'm not even going to try getting these organized". I felt bad for her, I'm sure if she would have asked, Heather would have sat and re-organized them with her. It's to bad because getting know the fiber was the whole point of the class, the spinning was simply secondary.

Lunch time came and I left that classroom as fast as I could. I had a nice long lunch and then came back to the classroom. I sat down and spun the next sample. Something happened. It was magic. Suddenly I could spin pretty much anything I was given. I could spin evenly and I was happy. I even got a compliment (on the Shetland) from a more accomplished spinner in the class. They all thought I had been spinning a year and I had to tie my lips shut to keep from saying "8 months!".

I don't know if the Shetland was first after lunch, or if that came later. I wonder sometimes if that wonderful roving that loved my hands simply made the day go better. Mostly however I think I am the type of spinner who has to warm up, and I just don't know how to solve this issue. I hate spinning crappy fiber, but it would be best to spin crappy fiber to warm up. Should I just always buy way more of any roving then I need to accommodate for warm up sessions? Also, I usually don't spin for more then 3 hours at a time, so how can I ever warm up? I had spun for at least 2 hours that day in class, prior to lunch.

Oh I forgot to mention, the wheel went so bad during class in the morning, that I switched to the spindle. I almost always seem to be happy spinning on a spindle. Sometimes I feel like the wheel takes up to much, to fast even at its lowest tension. Sometimes I feel like the spindle ruined me for the wheel. I am trying to discover myself and get a better idea of what works for me. Maybe I should only spin on weekends when I can warm up in the morning and then spin all night into oblivion.

One thing I know is, I simply adored that Shetland. It was combed top, and from babies, no wonder it was so nice. I did wind up ordered 1lb of it and I can't wait for it to arrive. I suppose I could do some scientific hypotheses with myself, and do test and see if it's the fiber or the warming up, or the mood. Sometimes I spin so perfectly it shocks me, and other times I can't get an even yarn to save my life. I'll figure it out one day. Any advice or personal stories are more then welcome!

This was the night before last;

That same night I actually finished the bottom, but wound up ripping it. Last night I re-knit it back and I saved the cast off for tonight because it was 11pm.

11pm in my house looks like this;