This is why I Spin Yarn 🧶
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- Опубліковано 17 чер 2024
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In our modern times, spinning yarn seems unnecessary and time consuming. Let me explain my reasons for why I spin yarn starting with the story of how I began spinning in the first place.
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Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
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Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times
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The Valkyries’ Loom: The Archaeology of Cloth Production and Female Power in the North Atlantic
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Growing up my family spent our summers on an island in Maine. We had a 150 sheep. My dad has made custom spinning wheels for over 40 years. My mom knitted me a sweater, when I was 8 from my favorite sheep Moe. It’s still called my Moe Sweater. He had only 3 legs. Crochet and knitting keeps my hand busy and calms my brain. I’m starting to spin again… I’m trying to regain my muscle memory. Thank you for this video. It’s wonderful.
I loved reading this!
My wife and I spun yarn from our sheep. We took turns carding and spinning during winter evenings. Chatting and drinking tea. She knitted me a heavy vest 30 years ago that I wear often. No store-bought clothing pleases me more.
Wowww what beautiful stories!!! It is my dream to take care of sheeps and spin my own yarn.
Why did I start spinning? Poverty...i figured out it is cheaper to buy a raw fleece and do the work myself than to go to the store 60 miles away and buy synthetic yarn. Why do i continue to spin? Because I NEED to. My failing body and brain get exercise from the physical motion, the calculations of how big to spin the yarn to get the yardage I need for the project I want to make. I love that the waste from the cleaning of the wool goes into my garden and makes my plants grow. I love that the things I make go mostly to my granddaughters and friends so that they can have real wool stuff too. I love that the rugs I have made can get washed and sun dried and smell heavenly...and last more than 2 washings. I love that you and folks like you are here to teach me what i don't know. My biggest regret? That I can't send you a paycheck for all your hard work, information, joy, time, experience...because well, even small amounts of money just don't exist for me right now. Icelandic is my favorite wool to work with. I can't wait to see your Icelandic journey. Anyway, hugs, Happy Valentines day, and most of all thank you for what you do.
Your beautiful comment is a perfect 'thank you'. Hugs to you too and happy spinning! 💜🧶😊
You may appreciate this: An acquaintance had a barn FULL of raw fleeces, mostly Romney, in every shade possible. He was trying make room for more and had no use for them, so invited me to come take what I wanted (I don't remember if I paid or not). I walked into the barn, inhaled the sheepy smell, and looked around at clear bags of fleeces of all colors, piled up everywhere. I practically swooned. He said, "Oh, you're one of those." I asked what he meant, and he said, "I don't know what it is, but every time a spinner walks into this barn, they get that same weird look on their face." It's a look of ecstasy, I suppose.
In this comment section right now, I think we are all "one of those." Love it!!! ☺️🧶💜
@@JillianEve oh yeah! I just got here, and I LOVE it!!! 🤩
I think i’s not just that weird look. When I recently was shown a selection of raw alpaca fleeces, my hands opened, and then my fingers curled. Ready to skirt. Ready to sort. Ready to pluck out guard hairs. And above all, ready to SPIN.
And I’m a newbie, less than a year down the spinner.s rabbit hole. 😅
I was feeling chilly last night so I wrapped up in a beautiful blue and white wool blanket that a friend I taught to weave twenty-five years ago made for me on an old loom of my mother's. One day while my friend was weaving, she told me that the act of weaving made her feel like she was stepping off the bank into a long wide river filled with the thoughts and dreams of all the weavers in the world who went before her. I think my blue and white blanket must be infused with some of those thoughts and dreams, including hers and my mother's.
Beautiful! 😊🧶💙🤍
Did I go down a whole UA-cam rabbit hole at 4:00 in the morning just to find that comment 🥰🥰 the universe is cool like that
@@victoriajones1575 Just keep floating down that river!
THIS! It’s not especially practical, it’s not especially cost effective, but I love it. I love feeling like I’m preserving a skill that shouldn’t be lost. Things traditionally considered “woman’s work” like sewing, embroidery, weaving, are slipping away in modern society and I think we lose something when we lose those skills. Mainly an ability to do something for ourselves and not have it handed to us. Just because I sew doesn’t mean I want to hem your pants. You have access to needles, thread, and UA-cam, so don’t look at me like I’ve asked you to walk on water. It’s been done for thousands of years so I’m pretty sure you can do it too.
Our skills are precious and valuable. 😊🧶💜
That is so true! I feel like I'm wired to do such things, and it's incredibly satisfying to learn useful skills instead of wasting the urge to do something with my hands.
As a child I had a period where I repeatedly winded up a ball of string. When I was done, I took the other end and started over again. Luckily I learned how to knit. Then (I guess when my dolls and their horses had enough blankets) I had periods where I just knitted endless strips. The urge got an outlet, but it's so much more satisfying when you learn to structure such urges into usefulness.
Through my spinning, weaving and knitting I feel a connection to the past. In 1992, I taught myself to spin. I felt that I belonged at a spinning wheel. Some of my mother's family worked in spinning and weaving mills in Scotland and New England. Her 2 aunt's were handkniters. It's in my blood. I find spinning calming.
I saw someone spinning, and something inside me awoke as though a past life was coming through. I followed the feeling, and 5 years later, I'm still in love with it and can not see myself not doing it xx
Yes! 💜🧶😊
I wanted to learn how to spin for decades, it wasn't until a few years ago that I finally did it. An advid crafter for my entire life, I have learned many crafts, mostly self taught. From crochet to sewing to soap making & spinning. I have always been able to move to the next level. Although I would love to farm acres, I have turned my backyard into an itty-bitty farm. Of course, I have fiber animals. The only ones that can fit into my space are Angora Bunnies. Getting in contact with local farmers, I can source Icelandic wool, alpaca fleece & mix it with my angora fiber. Spinning is a multi sensory experience, I feel the fiber traveling through my fingers, I see it form into yarn as it winds onto the bobbin, the slight aroma, feeling the wood as I treadle & of course the slight sound as the wheel spins. With all that going on, I can ignore the unpleasant things that are happening around me. I know it's temporary, but it sure helps to get away from it for a few hours.
Yes, all those things! 🐰😊🧶💜
Wonderful and so very relatable description!
What a wonderful comment
My why might seem simple to some but is actually quite complex when you understand that I was adopted and didn’t learn my true heritage until I was in my mid-40’s. Once I learned that heritage, I felt a deep yearning to connect with my ancestors. Primarily of Irish decent, working with wool felt natural. Now, every time I sit in front of my wheel or grab a spindle or pick up a cake of my hand spun, I feel that connection.
When I became homeless what I missed the most was the beautiful art (and squishy socks) I'd been surrounded with. But a friend gave me a bag of yarn and my espinner miraculously returned in a box with my school stuff. Every day I think about what's left behind! There's just so much to catch up.
I hope that you can regain your sense of security and surround yourself with all the art of your choosing again soon. Sometimes life really sucks and I'm sorry you are going through it. 💜💜💜
I have to tell you this was one of the loveliest, most enjoyable videos I've watched in many years. And to answer your question I learned to spin last year so I could gift my husband a scarf and hat set made from the fluff I saved for many years from our Husky. She was his baby and she passed away at 15 years old. And I learned to knit 6 years ago because my daughter used to knit lovely things and when she had her baby girl she couldn't wait to teach her that beautiful craft. She died of cancer when her daughter was only two and I decided I was going to be the one to teach her so I learned everything off of UA-cam videos. In fact you taught me a lot about how to spin as well. So now my granddaughter is eight years old and I just started teaching her how to knit and now she wants to learn how to spin as well and help make my husbands gift from our dog's yarn whom she loved as well . Thank you so much for all of your videos. You always brighten my day with your sunshiny spirit…
It is so refreshing and uplifting to know I’m not the only one who feels a strong desire to find connection through the art of making, and in the process,discover the wonders of living with intention. Slowing down and reconnecting with our deepest selves and with our human history. Thank you Jillian for everything you are doing to keep fiber arts and education alive. We need it now more than ever. ❤
That blue fiber is beeeauuutiful! 💙
My brother had a similar response when he saw me knitting a sweater that I had spun yarn for...":o why?!" He couldn't believe all that work was just for enjoyment and not a side gig lol.
We are so trained to think of the hustle aren't we? 💜🧶😊
I love the way you speak about spinning, I've found it hard to articulate these same ideas to people who ask me why I spin and hearing it from you is beautiful. Thank you
You are so welcome! 😊🧶💜
Ditto ❤
I started spinning in the fall of 2012, I was teaching early American History in my homeschool and wanted my children to get a better understanding of what it took for people to clothe themselves before the industrial revolution. I made a couple of spindles from to wheels and dowel rods and found a part of a fleece online and bought some handcards from the sister of a homeschool friend. This same lad had a loom and I bought it too. My daughter and I each have spinning wheels, spindles, fleece, top, dyes, looms, and a drum carder. I also have two electric spinners. We are so far down the rabbit hole, and loving it still.
Thank you.
I've been in a rough place and haven't touched my wheel or loom in months. This helped remind me why I create.
I hope you rediscover joy in your crafting. I'm sorry you've been in a rough place, so I mean it the most when I say...
Happy spinning! 😊🧶💜
@JillianEve thank you 💕
I'm already back in the studio! Tackling an intimidating project; double-width weaving.
I love spinning on my spindles, so calming.
What a wonderful reverie. Thank you for this. We as modern people are so spoiled. It used to take a village to make clothing. My spinning guru loved to weave. (not my thing but...) She told me that it took 8 spinners to service one weaver. When people ask me what I make with my spinning, I tell them I make yarn. I love the quizzical looks I get to that answer. Thank you again for this lovely valentine to spinning. From a Louisiana spinner...
Hi Louisiana spinner! 💜🧶😊
It feeds my soul. I hand away hand spun yard because it's the way I can continue to justify to my practical brain that I NEED to create yarn.
Thank you so much for this video. I listened to it while I was weaving this morning (raise your hand if you too listened while weaving, knitting, crocheting, spinning, embroidering, or working on any other form of fiber that I may have missed…..✋🏻) . Not only are you inspirational, but you let others know that we are not alone in how we feel about the history of textiles and trying to keep this beautiful art form going.
I got interested in spinning years ago when I read a tumblr post by someone I followed. They had bought silk moths to have an easy close source of silk to spin. It had never occurred to me that ppl still spun other than stereotypical European grandmas, or that one could make clothing from scratch beyond just knitting store bought yarn. I love being able to circumvent capitalist industries and doing things myself. But I hadn't done any level of fiber making to justify picking up spinning. Just some on and off crochet years apart.
The idea of spinning lived in the back of my mind until last winter, when I finally got my first spindle. I still hadn't done much more crochet at that point, and had just started teaching myself to knit. I taught myself to spin a bit. Then I got too busy and dropped all my crafting for a long while.
Then I found your channel. I picked it up again this winter, along with knitting, and am knitting a shawl with part store bought, part handspun yarn. I have 2 balls waiting to be plied now. I'm hoping it'll be my first finished knitting project and first project with handspun!
I just love how well you put the connections we feel emotionally to fibercraft into words. Such a fantastic video. Can’t wait to see your projects!
I learned that spinning was still a thing last summer. I didn't even know people still did this, or know really anything about it. I got my Turkish spindles and started small. I just got my first spinning wheel less than a month ago and already feel like I have a pretty good handle on it. It just fits and I really enjoy doing it. I'm not fast at all at knitting or crocheting, but I don't think it takes that long to spin up a bunch of fiber.
"The Omnivore's Dilemma" is one of the best books I've ever read. ❤ I appreciated your explanation of how you came to spinning.
i finally got myself a spinning wheel last month and i've been binge watching your videos ever since. you have taught me so much, so thank you for everything!
You are so welcome! Happy spinning! 😊🧶💜
I wonder if it's a product of reading the Omnivore's Dilemma. I, too, have been investigating a method of living more locally, and more sustainably. I've started learning to make my own clothes, my own blankets, rugs, produce my own foods. I feel the same, and I'm slowly working towards a type of more sustainable, local, living.
And I picked up my first spindle recently too. :D
Happy spinning! 😊🧶💜
This is soo relatable and very similar to my journey into fiber art and all the other arts. I also make my own paint from rocks, and use natural materials for all my art making. It makes such a difference to learn how things are made and where they came from and connects us to our roots and the earth! I could talk about these things all day but most people don't relate, it was soo nice to hear you talk about it.
Also, your hair looks amazing! Love that color on you.
I'm so intrigued by natural paint pigments even though I don't paint. I agree, it makes such a difference to know where things come from! 😊🧶💜
@@JillianEve I’ve used earth pigments to paint on fabric! You use soy milk as a binder. I’ve also done some natural dyeing and used the same materials as inks. Its soo much fun to use natural materials!
You thought me how to drop spin. Last summer I spun my own sheep’s (Baabaaraa) full fleece. I am grateful for your upbeat presence in my life. 😊
Yay! Happy spinning! 💜🧶😊
When you look at plastics, you can think about the contribution of the very distant dinosaurs and maybe feel connected to times before man! 😂 this was a great video, thank you for your time!
OMGoodness! I can relate so well to that moment when “something clicked”. I feel so connected with every project. There is just something about having a raw fleece and processing it from sheep to a garment. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, the process is so calming and spinning is like meditation for me. ❤
It's such a wonderful moment when things click like that. 😊🧶💜
Oh yes! I remember once I crocheted a couple of curtains. They were small, but still, I used thin yarn, thin needle and it took me over a year. I realise even a lot of people making crafts are so impatient. They're sighing and moaning about "boring" parts of a garment. And many of such people didn't understand my joy over my project. "How do you bother? It takes so long!"
Yes, and so what? I enjoyed it. I was almost sad, and had a minor "crisis" when I was done. What was I to do then? Life felt a bit empty for a little while. 😅
Let me start by saying I am an old soul. I feel like there is a being inside me from some long forgotten century that is scratching to get out. I have want to make my own yarn to find that connection. I garden and preserve food for much the same reason. I have always felt that we as a modern people have so many issues because we have lost the connection to our roots and our families. I loved this video so much
I'm like you Evie...I had a hunger for 'something'... feeling growing concern that we, as a society, have outsourced our essentials for life.
I started with growing veg in amongst my flowers in our (then) tiny front yard.
I brought my daughters up to be able to pop out and pick food that we could eat that night.
I quickly went to spinning when I happened upon an antique spinning wheel. This was before the internet and learning via an old dusty book from the library was hard and slow!
Skip forward almost 30 years and now we have 5 acres, I have 6 fleece from my own sheep (waiting to be processed!) We grow and preserve a decent amount of food and I have that satisfied, content feeling that has been growing since watching my first seedlings come up through the compost.
We aren't self sufficient, but we are doing our part and we are as organic as possible.
My prayers are that what used to be called 'womens work' back in the day as an insult will be held as a badge of honour as time passes ❤️🙏
Such a lovely video💕 There are so many feelings you have as an artist that are like those of the shepherdess...the peace and nourishment, the patience of growing a fleece for a full year before shearing, the joy of seeing something beautiful created. Thank you!😊
Thank you so much Connie, and thank Lily too. She's a star! 🐑💜🥰
I just love your sweater. Would you mind letting me know what the pattern is please?
Such a beautiful comment! 💕
Arboreal by Jennifer Steingass 😊🧶💜
@@JillianEve 💕thank you 💕
I can relate to this video on so many levels. I no longer feel alone and the seeing the response to video shows such a wonderful, vast community who feel the same. I can feel your, passion, care and enthusiasm and thank you for sharing this with us. It brings me great comfort xx
I'm honestly blown away right now to the response to this! I'm so amazed and grateful for this community. Thank you for watching and I'm so glad it brought you comfort. 😊🧶💜
Your little sheep is Oliver Twist ..of course. Spinning was therapeutic through the last 6yrs where I felt like I was being pulled apart, broken into little pieces. I visualized coming together and becoming strong as the alpaca fibers came together and plied together became strong, resilient. 34 yrs ago I taught myself to spin intending to knit my love a sweater... that is still undone, like the relationship. Remember the song "Cotton, the fabric of your life'? Its more like spinning, the meditation of uncertainty.
You're articulating so many reasons why people spin and I resonate with so many of them. The Omnivore's Dilemma spoke to me, too, and the meditative dimension of spinning really speaks to me, as well! Thank you!
You are so welcome! 😊🧶💜
I so connect with your thoughts about going backwards in the process. Going from knitting/crocheting/quilting/weaving to spinning was natural. Your videos made spinning doable. Thinking now about growing flax. There is also love of history and archeology that I share with you. And thank you for recommending “Women’s Work” - great read!
I've never thought of growing flax, but years ago I watched a video about extracting fibre out of nettles, and I got very inspired by it. For me, that makes even more sense than growing flax, as nettles grow in abundance in my region (and in my garden!). Thus growing it requires no effort, I could go straight to harvesting.
@@rajoba7981 was that a Sally Pointer video? I wish I could ‘hedge bother’ but not possible in Boston!
@@CheapEngineerCrafts No, it was a man. It might have been this one: ua-cam.com/video/DQ3ubWmfW_U/v-deo.html
Anyway, thank you for pointing me to Sally Pointer! 🥰 I've watched a few of her videos now, and find them interesting.
Is "hedge bother" to forage in other people's hedges?
I guess I am lucky living in an area with lots of land where no one will mind if someone forages wild or semi-wild plants. Sometimes you can also be allowed (or even asked to come) into people's gardens to forage.
I got into spindle spinning a few years ago. My neighbour had “lawnmower” alpacas. I asked what she did with the fleece. She answered that she used it as a WEED MAT in the garden. I bought a garbage bag full of her fleece for $20 and a year later I presented her with a pair of hand spun, dyed and knitted mittens. From her own alpacas. She was gobsmacked. I have not stopped since then. I love it. Especially the different dyes you can use. Great video, I feel where you are coming from 👍
I rent farmland to some people and we have talked about the Fiber Side of things and it's true it's being forgotten about. This year on Breakfast on the Farm I plan to bring my spindle and some wool with me and spin it while near the Sheep where I can talk about it. I spin my own wool and fiber to support the Shepherds. I was washing wool with my friend who helped me washed it and she understands it and she wants to be part of it. I can't wait to read the book and I am glad you like the book I recommend.
First, I have to say that Breakfast on the Farm sounds amazing! Secondly, yes, bring your spindle and spread the fiber joy! 😊🧶💜
Thank you so much for this! It is so wonderful. I haven't spun much in my past, but I plan to do more in the future, partially inspired by you. I do so many other crafts though, from weaving to crochet to gardening to blacksmithing to cooking and just about anything else you can think of. I do it because my parents did it. They were both very creative people. My father built the looms that he and I loomed on, a full size one for him and a child sized one for me. My mother made the best fitting clothes I've ever had in my life. They both had more skills and hobbies than you can think of, and their love for it rubbed off on me.
That's such a beautiful heritage to have from your parents! 😊🧶💜
I loved “Braiding Sweetgrass” and all of Michael Poland’s books! It was lovely to find out that they were important to you too.
Now I am more excited to spin. Spin was a way of fidgiting with yarn, without my loom. Its more accessible and movable and more on the side
Your words brought tears to my eyes.
I relate to this so much. I don't spin, yet, but I knit for the same reasons
I don’t spin (just knit) but i adore your videos. Great storyteller, cover history, economics, ecosystems… fascinating stuff
One of the ways my mom and I often spent time together was by going shopping. We loved (still love but it's harder to shop together with her living out of state) going yarn stores and oohing and ahhing over the hand dyed and hand spun skeins especially.
Going back another generation, my maternal grandmother was a newly married 16-year-old when the depression hit, so my mom and her siblings were always raised with "You can make that" whenever they wanted to buy certain items of clothing while shopping.
I know my mom loves seeing me take joy in spinning and she appreciates the hand-spun yarn I gift her with from time to time, but I also feel like my Nana in spirit is proud of me. Now when I go to those yarn stores and admire the hand-spun and hand-dyed yarns, the first thing I think is "I can make that'. XD
Oh yes! 💜🧶😊
I'm learning to write in English so here's my try: I'm deeply in love with you and your way of sharing knowledge and interests. Thank you and keep making our days happy ✨🥰❣️
this story is so heartwarming and so right. It is about connection. Thank you so much.
You are so welcome! 💜🧶😊
I've always been curious about spinning. My family worked in the cotton mills so I knew about the modern machinery that created the cloth, and my great grandmother was a seamstress. Than I went to our local hostefest and I saw a demonstration of the loom and spinning, as a gentleman was combing the rabbits for the fur for the yarn. By this point I was an avid knitter. All of this has been a journey and it is so much fun.😉
So much fun! 😊🧶💜
My very first introduction to spinning was through a book series I read in school, one of the characters learns how to spin (and later weave) and I was just fascinated by it! Fast forward a number of years and my bestie and I are video chatting while she spins...and I'm just...watching. She 3d printed a Turkish spindle for me and sent a bunch of different fibers to try, this is how I learned about my allergy to BFL...and the rest is history!
This! This is why we do what we do, too. We started off with growing our own food and foraging, and now we have angora rabbits so we can learn to go from fluffy bunny right through to a wearable knit garment. It's a long journey!
That book changed my life !!!
It's so wonderful how books can do that. 😊🧶💜
Your mini spinning wheel whattt 😍😍😍 I need!!
I’m just getting into spinning yarn and I love just learning about the process and where my yarn comes from! I look forward to making fun projects out of the yarn eventually too!
You will have amazing projects, I'm sure of it! Happy spinning! 😊🧶💜
I really appreciate this video. While I have only started to spin, I had this feeling years ago. I worked in a factory that produced nylon yarn when Inwas in school, and it really got me thinking - everything comes from SOMEWHERE. Someone has to make everything we have. I was recently doing some historical costuming and it got me thinking about it again so I went to our lathe and made a spindle. My ultimate goal is to make a piece of clothing completely by hand (including all the tools I can reasonably fabricate). It has become something of a meditation on how precious the things material we take for granted are.
I spin, knit, and weave for my over all mental health. It can relax my stress, satisfy my need to problem solve, & give a boost to my self-esteem.
I'm going to be VERY popular when the SHTF. So will you!! I'm 75-90% done on two different sweaters, lol!
Beautifully said, and exactly how I feel about connection to past family.
Beautifully expressed 💕 I'm looking forward to your next woolly adventure
Thank you! 😊🧶💜
I was so moved watching this video, especially the fact that you know the sheep that your wool came from. Thank you.
My love of spinning is very connected to my autism and my disability. I have a physical disability that makes holding a job extremely difficult, so I am in a position where I have more time than money. I first picked up a spindle because 100% wool yarn was expensive and I wanted to knit some fulled/felted projects. It was cheaper to buy wool and a spindle. The money savings has not continued. I just bought my second spinning wheel. I love the soft textures and it's definitely a stim for me. I spin far more than I can knit, and I end up giving a lot away to my knitting friends. I live in Scotland and I also happen to have a history degree. Spinning makes me feel connected to this beautiful country where I'm an immigrant. I didn't come from here, but I still want to help retain that history and connect to that culture.
What a beautiful talk, I came for the spinning and stayed for the wisdom,
I hand spin yarn because my maternal great-grandmother spun, wove and knitted wool fleece to cloth, blankets and clothing to keep her family (my grandmother and her siblings) warm and protected from the Northern Michigan elements. My great grandfather built her loom from local trees. Her spinning wheel was brought over from Finnland.
I bet they were so warm and cozy! 💜🧶😊
Wow this was so deep and powerful! Im so happy to be connected to spinning and be a spinner!
Fibrecrafts and textiles is something I am very new to, but your message on being connected is something that my family and I have been trying to do for years. Twice now we have raised our own meat chickens and while sad, is weirdly enough a fulfilling thing. They taste far better than any bird you buy in the grocery store and they are the same breed. You know that they had a good life and got to be chickens and they ate good food and got to run around and forage and it shows. We have other chickens for egg laying and as pets and the eggs that they give us are also better than store bought. I recently started working at a sheep dairy and the milk, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream is so good! It's so satisfying when you can look at a meal and say, "This came from Shadow!" or "Phyllis made this!" There is no feeling like knowing where all your stuff comes from and learning to appreciate the lives and the sacrifices of others around you.
I spin yarn because it connects me to the ancestors i never got the pleasure to know or hear about. My family is a blend of many different immigrants who either had to assimilate into american culture (the Irish and Scottish side) or lost their parents on the trip over to (we believe that was our German side) and I feel so connected to them when I spin because I know that is something they likely did at some point in my families history. Even tho there are no heirlooms or stories passed down I still have that link.
Dang girl! You rocked this video! Thank you so much!
Newer follower here, found you from searching up hand spinning when I was debating trying my hand at it. I was attracted to it for all of the reasons you listed. Pollan's book had a big impact on me when I read it years ago - I don't think there's a more satisfying meal than one you've grown yourself. I find gardening, knitting, creating things to be meditative, therapeutic, and satisfying, so spinning my own yarn seems like a natural evolution for me. Thank you for your very informative videos! (Also, Braiding Sweetgrass was a great book, too!)
Welcome! I'm so glad you are here! 😊🧶💜
I loved that book too!
I love everything you said here! You shared such important ideas and in such a well thought out way, thank you!
Fabulous! I love your passion! I’m just learning spinning and I very much connected with this. I am excited for the project you are about to embark on!
I am embarking on this journey myself, learning to spin and weave, sew and knit and crochet and nalbinding, basket weaving, and we hope to buy a land and start our own homestead one day.
I dream to one day be able to afford the equipment such as a spinning wheel, a floor loom, and even the equipment to grow and process my own flax.
I want know where our food comes from, where our clothes come from, our blankets, our baskets, and to know what’s in them.
I dream of finally one day growing or sheering the fiber that I will spin, weave into fabric, cut and sew into garments.
I have a long way to go, for practicing these skills and investing in the time and money, but I love it so far
Thank you for this video. Sometimes i feel like a weirdo with all the thoughts that go into my crafting. But you managed to show me a connection from one continent to another. 😊
Beatrice bah bah for the little sheep name 😊
What a beautiful essay!!
So glad i found you!
All of what you said resonates with me! I just learned spinning with a drop spindle. But I thought about it for years - mostly because of the history, but also because I want to be able to do it myself and connect to the clothes I'm wearing. At this point I'm still working on the spinning for the first project and I learned so much already.
I think about how I felt when I finished my first sweater ever and imagine what it will be like to wear something from selfspun yarn - looking forward to it. Also looking forward to that project of yours - you exploring history that way made me subscribe so fast and I'm here for it, however long it might take!
Beautiful. Thank you.
I loved this. You’ve echoed so many of my own thoughts about why I feel such a deep connection to fiber arts, and you’ve given me some new reading recommendations!
I'm so glad! 💜🧶😊
i picked up crochet a while back and fell in love with yarn. i think to a certain extent i can feel the discontent you described, which is what drew me to the topic of spinning and your channel! i am so excited to learn how to spin. your videos are great to watch while crocheting!
Hey man, it’s cheaper than therapy 🙌🏼 that’s what I keep telling myself when I invest in a new project. I keep bouncing back and forth between knitting, sewing, hand sewing, and now spinning 😄🙌🏼
So glad to hear from you again!! Happy Valentine's week to your family! I do not spin (yet), but I am mostly a knitter. I love watching you and learning about EVERYTHING. You are so valuable, along with the content you provide. Please continue, Evie!!!?!
Welcome back!
This resonates a lot. I first felt that jolt of connection when I first got to weave on a floor loom as a pre-teen, but for years and years I thought there were no hand-weaving avenues aside from small scale traditional industries. It's only a couple of years ago that I found out that people were weaving and spinning still as a hobby, and only a few months ago that I learned there options for people whose hands and feet don't function well, like espinners. It's been wonderful to finally reconnect with something that had immediately felt Right over twenty years ago.
I wish I could truly start all the way from fleece (or grow my own flax lol) but unfortunately that's not possible, but I love seeing others do it. It would be so great to be able to connect directly with the farmers who raise the sheep, grow the crop etc.
Also yes the feeling of freedom and control in "I can sew the clothes I want from the cloth I want, made from the yarn I want" is incredible.
Thank you for all the tutorials and encouragement. I hope you can keep doing what makes you happy.
Ps: your hair is absolutely on point today. Great colour and shape.
Thank you so much! I'm so glad you have found tools that let you spin comfortably. Happy spinning! (Also, I think my hair will now be purple forever, I'm loving it so much!)😊🧶💜
Thank you so much for sharing why you spin and all you have learned so far. I learn so much with you.
❤❤❤❤❤ I love this. This is also why I spin yarn!! This was an eye opening vlog.
I come from a long line of Lancashire weavers on my mums side and scottish spinners and knitters on my dads side. I feel like textiles are in my DNA.
Last year i went to shetland wool week. It was amazing to go somewhere, where spinning and knitting every day is still the "norm". It felt like coming home despite it still being in the same country as i live.
This is a beautiful message, thank you for sharing ❤
I love your channel Evie! I have learned so much & have fallen in love with spinning and am saving for my first spinning wheel! Thank you!
Yay! First spinning wheel! 😊🧶💜
Thanks! You put into words what I am thinking!
This is absolutely beautiful. I love the connection to the sheep it's precious.
This is awesome to listen to while crocheting. Thank you ❤🧶
I didn't really choose to spinn, I had to learn at school about 40 years ago, when I was 17. I was good at it at school, and that's why I liked it ,so when I left school I got myself a spinning weel.
We also had to learn to make baskets, pottery , metal work, wood work and so on. I loved it all, but, because I did knit before, spinning went well with the old hobby.
Also, I did knit 3 jumpers and a cardigan last year and I haven't got a lot off time because I work a lot.
Also think it's a lot cheaper to spinn your own wool and dy it , then getting it in a wool shop.
All hobbies are expensive!
YES!! ALL of this. THAnk you!!
So right on. I love the garden to table, sheep to yarn to.. whatever, deer hide to boot or mitt. I love the start from the beginning right to the end product, it is very satisfying.
So satisfying! 😊🧶💜
You're making me cry 😭 this is so beautiful and makes me want to start doing this myself
I first learned some spinning when I did living history at my local museum as a teenager! I say learned, but what happened was they had the tools and let me play with them to figure it out as none of them really knew how to do it😅. I mostly work with a drop spindle that gifted to me by my mentor, she called it a Navajo drop spindle and when she gave it to me it didn’t have a hook so I didn’t use it much when I first got it. But then there was a fiber arts club that had a meeting at the museum where they spun wool together. I ended up helping one of them fix her spinning wheel and then I started talking to the group. One of the other people said she had some wool she would sell me. My mom lent me the money and that was the first wool I ever tried to spin! What’s funny is I actually found your channel because I wanted to know how to use the drop spindle better, after that video the algorithm started suggesting your other videos and now you’re one of my favorite channels!❤ I appreciate the work you do and how you’re willing to take the time to have a UA-cam channel for teaching other people how to spin! Thank you!
You are wonderful - thank you for sharing :) :) :)
Your sweater is amazing. And you really spoke my heart. I was so changed by Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass. I read it once, then went back tot he beginning and began reading it again. A GREAT book to listen to on audio while knitting or spinning. Such a beautiful perspective. Thank you for sharing that with the fiber world.
Your videos are all so good. I really appreciate how you try to keep tongue clicking to a minimum. Isn't it odd how so many yarntubers have that little quirk. Anyway, that yarn and wool are both so lovely.
Microphones pick up every little sound. I blame the technology because it gets me too, but I spend more time than I should to edit that out. Thanks for noticing the work I put into my videos! 😊🧶💜
Thank you for your thoughtful and insightful comments. Although I'm quite new to spinning, it makes me realize that my own journey parallels your own from food to craft - although I don't think I could have said it so succinctly or clearly. Your attitude of both curiosity and connection explains why you express so much joy in your videos. I love thinking about the path of items and how they got to me. I work at a university with a lot of anthropologists, and I have a student now working on understanding the husbandry practices of sheep through the signatures left in their wool. In part, we'll be comparing those clues from locally raised sheep (shoutout to Woolhalla Tunis) with big box store wools. Spinning is indeed a deep rabbit hole!
This video is the most relatable and touching thing I've watched in a while. Made me tear up a few times♥