# Getting started spinning



## viggie (Jul 17, 2009)

Well, I got myself some angoras and a spinning wheel. I was even given some wool roving to practice with. I tried a couple times but haven't made much progress. Do you have any tips/tutorials for beginners? :help:


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

I feel your pain! I have been trying off and on since Dec. I haven't gotten it yet. WIHH's video link is good.


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## CamM (Dec 6, 2008)

About the best way I've come across is taking a class. Watched a bunch of videos on YouTube but it's not the same. At least you have a wheel which I think is easier than using a spindle. Certain rovings are easier to spin than others. I'm thinking maybe carded is easier than combed? One thing to possibly make it easier is pre-drafting, spinning on a low ratio. It's hard to answer without specifics.


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## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

Lynn, I have no experience with the wheel, so no help there.
I just wanted to say that I have been reading your blog for 
awhile now and I have no doubt that you can figure out how to spin.
You have a can-do attitude and plenty of patience. 

Go easy on yourself at first. Working with fiber requires a flowing relaxed attitude.
I learned that if I was fighting the wool and gripping it hard, I was doing it wrong.

Those little hairs just want to be lightly held and gently coaxed forward, not wrestled.
Keep practicing and dont expect your first yarn to look like storebought. 

You can do it!


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## viggie (Jul 17, 2009)

Thanks gone-a-milkin, thanks very sweet of you.

Thanks everyone for the advice. Wind, now that you mention it tension might be part of the problem. I can get it to spin but it's not really taking up. I'll watch the videos and play with the tension and try some more. I do have an aunt that spins and will be seeing her next weekend for her daughters baby shower, I bet if I ask she'll give me some tutoring, I just hate pestering her. She already gave me the wool and helped me when I bought the wheel!

And the wheel is this old alfred andreson.


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Vigilant20, do you have a picture of your wheel all strung up ready to spin? I also hope that the string you have between the back leg and the front on isn't there any longer. This wheel reminds me of WIHH's wheel. As WIHH suggests her wheel is very "fussy" to adjust for tension. That's fine if you understand what you are doing but it does make for a fussy wheel that doesn't like to be moved, doesn't like humidity doesn't like dryness, every little thing can cause the tension to change and need to be adjusted. I too have a wheel that can be fussy but I don't use it very often just for that reason, it drives me nuts. But you have to work with what you've got. It really is a very pretty wheel 

I too ready you blog regularly and love watching your progress. Your wordless Wednesdays are particularly inspiring and peaceful.


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## viggie (Jul 17, 2009)

Yes it is a 24 inch wheel. It has some old blue milk paint on it which makes it look antiquey I guess. I haven't taken a newer picture, that was the night I brought it home. The leg just needed to be shimmed. And the hole the flyer sits in had also been filled in at some point, but the filler popped out easily. I strung it up with crochet thread, which seemed to be the right thing to use from what I'd read.


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## Madame (Jan 1, 2003)

I've been spinning on and off for 25 years. I spin wool easily. I just started with angora and I've got a long ways to go! There are some you-tube videos on how to spin angora and I plan to watch them.


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## donsgal (May 2, 2005)

vigilant20 said:


> Well, I got myself some angoras and a spinning wheel. I was even given some wool roving to practice with. I tried a couple times but haven't made much progress. Do you have any tips/tutorials for beginners? :help:


My personal advice is to start with a drop spindle. That is how I started and it gives you the time to learn how to control the fiber. Then you practice, practice, practice until you think you cannot possibly practice any more and then you do.

If you are one of the poor unfortunate souls who cannot ever seem to get the hang of the drop spindle, then you have no choice but to learn on a wheel. Again the only way to do it is to keep working at it.

With a drop spindle, it took me about three months to get to where I felt like I knew what I was doing. Six months and I was producing some pretty good yarn. I bought a wheel and it was much faster, but I still often use my drop spindle because I am not so concerned with production and I find it very relaxing and meditative. So, far, in the years and years that I have been spinning, I have only made a couple of hats and a couple of pairs of socks from the yarn that I have spun. To me the fun is in the spinning, not the knitting. LOL

If you do not have a mentor, then the best that you can do is youtube.com but there are some pretty good videos on there to help you on your way. Check out all videos by REXANNE who is very entertaining.

donsgal


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

Love the 'new' wheel!

When I was first taught to spin I was told to work with storebought crappy yarn so I could get the idea of working with the passive hand and the working hand (I still have problems keeping my passive hand passive), I also learned how to get my hands, eyes and foot to work together...~lol~.... Working with the crap yarn also taught me how to adjust for the right bobbin pickup and tension between wheel and bobbin.
Funny thing...I've had this wheel for about 6 years, Ashford Traditional, and I just realized that she's a double drive...DUH!
Keep working at the spinning and remember that your first yarns can still make some wonderful items, in fact as you gain experience you'll wish you could go back and make those neat funky yarns.


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## viggie (Jul 17, 2009)

Oh thanks for the links!


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## mamajohnson (Nov 27, 2002)

great videos WIHH! Rexenne is a hoot
I keep watching you tube videos and I am almost sure I am spinning right.
Now I am broke and won't get to try again until I can work on the fleece I have from my sheep. Need to hurry up and get it cleaned up so I can try. I have the angora bunny I recently bought, but want to have more practice so it is spun right...


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

Those videos are a hoot and a half. 
What's REAL funny is that woman could be the sister of a commercial beekeeper friend...REALLY FREAKED my husband out when he saw her...~lol~...
I really learned a lot from her Navajo plying video, I've always wanted to do that!


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## offGridNorthern (Jan 1, 2006)

Wind in Her Hair said:


> I..... crazy as Rexenne is, she covers the questions nobody else does and does demos the way that REAL people would do them. .


.

My spinning experience was a disaster, so much so, that the instructor suggested I go back to weaving (she did it very tactfully, though). However, after watching a Rexenne video where she was talking about having to spin left-handed for the video ... I realized that yet again, I had a right-handed teacher all those years ago, teaching me, a leftie, to spin (or trying to teach me). Had I reversed my hands, although confusing the eacher, I wonder if I would have had a greater comfort level and been successful!

Perhaps I should get anothe wheel and try again!


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## BetsyK in Mich (May 14, 2002)

My suggestion would be to put the angora away for a while and use the wool. The angora is a smooth hair, you need the scales on the wool to hook together and hold. If you can get a roving about triple the size of a pencil it will help to spin from that at first. The wool is combed to be going all in the same direction and will pull itself into the draw when you release the hold on the yarn and let the twist go up into the wool. You can concentrate on the draw, the most critical part of spinning. Learning to control the draw is critical, practice adjusting the tension of the wheel slowly and then spinning for a bit. Set back, relax and let your mind slide into that mesmerized state. I can not spin if I'm preoccupied by a problem or upset about something. The yarn reflects my mood. Keep at it, it will come eventually.

My first yarn was the lumpiest, knotted up stuff, fat in one place and skinny in the other. I plied it with some store yarn just to practice. It still sets on the shelf to remind me where I started.


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