I had signed up for two classes at the Carolina Fiber Fest in March 2020, and it was canceled at 4:00 pm the day before it was supposed to start, as Governor Cooper started sending North Carolina into shutdown. I was happy for the cancellation at the time; I wanted to learn to spin (one of the classes) but I didn’t want to be a vector for spreading COVID-19. Still don’t know how to spin; haven’t spread any COVID-19, and it’s the beginning of May as I write.
The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, normally held on the first weekend of May, had time to implement a Plan B. They went virtual, creating a FB group and scheduling sales and special events online all weekend. The website crashed on the first day due to vastly more traffic than expected, but they staggered along. Textile workers are nothing if not adaptive.
I have been holding onto my birthday money, refunded when the classes were canceled in March. Have plans for something like a Papillion shawl, and thought about buying Noro for the colorwork, but also thought that it would be good to support local producers, instead. (That said, I do not know anything about how large Noro is, or whether they are a family-owned business.)
I have a spinning wheel purchased for $50 from the Habitat Restore in Pittsboro. It is missing its flyer. I am making a test flyer to use so I can see if I enjoy spinning. If the experiment works, I may buy a real replacement flyer (roughly $60) from eBay or one of the suppliers. While I work on that project, I read some spinning books and learned that drop spindles created miles of fiber and are more portable than a spinning wheel. Portable is good.
I had a mental note to buy a spindle the next time one crossed my path. That happened on Saturday, at CaraLeigh Wilson’s post for Finnsheep. A bit of messaging back and forth, and a drop spindle is on its way to me. I was set. I had spent some money, supported a small business, and in a day or three, I’d be ready to learn to spin. (I already have a pound of “fleece” (don’t know if it’s top or roving), processed, in the sheep’s original color.)
I also posted about recommendations for people selling yarn with long gradients, without using the Noro name. I had a few responses, but none of the yarns made my heart sing with the idea of using them in a Papillion-style shawl.
On Sunday, I woke to look at the site again and saw a dyed fleece braid in an interesting colorway. The braid was from Spinaway Farm. A bit of shopping later, and 20 ounces of fiber were in my virtual shopping cart (sales are being made by PM inside FB).
- I have never spun.
- I do not know how much raw fiber it takes to make any given length of yarn, but Felicia Lo at Spinzilla had enough information to let me know that “buying all” was the right answer.
- I remember reading in one of the books on spinning that it is possible to spin either variegated or slow-changing colors “simply” by how one arranges the colors in the fleece and pulls them into the yarn. Ergo, I may be able to spin my own version of Noro.
- I believe that more colors are almost always better than fewer colors, and one of the reasons Noro yarns are more interesting is that they use many more, apparently unrelated, colors than other brands. Therefore, I asked for both sets of top–the turquoise matches, and the other colors extend the range significantly over either colorway alone.
Writing this post this morning–May 3–as a documentation of my thinking at the moment. Will try to update as progress is made.
