At the time of writing, I have been spinning for 2 years. I am an okay spinner, I guess, and completely self taught: I have never even seen another spinner in real life!

I don’t really remember what prompted me to try it. I’m the type of person who tries a million different crafts which may or may not last. At the moment it’s pottery (about 8 years now, pretty good for me) and spinning. Before the spinning came felting. Before the felting was cross stitch, boutis, patchwork, crochet, dyeing yarn with plants… get the drift? (These are, of course, only my fibre arts; there are others, believe me.) And then I’ve always sewed and knit. I think I must have just come across it one day on the internet and said (as I always do) “Hey, I can do that!” And I can, and I do.

(3 spindles full before plying for a sock yarn)

I started with a toy-wheel spindle and some alpaca that I found on eBay and with the help of YouTube, managed to transform that alpaca into usable yarn. Then I came up against a sizeable problem: how to get my supplies? Here in France, people are astounded if they find out you knit. As for spinning, well that’s just unbelievable, medieval! So the internet it was, again. Colourful wool, a book or two, half a dozen beautifully crafted spindles and a basic spinning wheel later, I am producing yarn… Slowly… but regularly.

(Bollywood challenge: Lagaan yarn)

I spin for the same reason I learned to knit: to feel less guilty about sitting in front of the telly for hours on end. Well, that’s not entirely true… umm, I like being able to do something no-one else I know can. But seriously, I have always gotten immense pleasure from making things, and in particular from making them from scratch, be it a meal or a jumper. There is pleasure in the doing and then pleasure in the having. I think a lot of people who don’t ‘get’ handcrafts don’t realize the process is as important as the end result; they only see the time it’s going to take them to get there. My spinning is done in front of the TV in the evening or at the weekend, a little at a time. Lately I’ve been getting tendinitis if I overdo anything (pottery, knitting and spinning are all quite hard on the hands) so I’m learning to pace myself. The end of what you’re spinning is always the worst: I just want to plough on and get it finished and I inevitably end up hurting myself.

So what do I do with my yarns? I knit them, of course! – usually for me, but I will condescend to use inferior skeins for family members or friends. You know, the stuff you spun because it was there, but you didn’t have it earmarked for anything in particular. Like with a lot of my other crafts, I wait until inspiration strikes. Then that green polwarth that I just had to have because of the colour will tell me what it wants to be and I will try to spin it accordingly. This is why most of my handspun gets knitted up relatively quickly. Some projects mature for a long time. A basic idea will kick around in my subconscious for ages until that aha! moment strikes, usually when I’m at work and can’t do anything about it. I also love participating in spin alongs or challenges, as they really force me to try something I wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. My main inspiration is colour, though. I spend hours drooling over colourful braids, hankies, tops, batts and often buy colours that I already have in abundance or that I would never use for myself. But the pleasure in spinning them aces their practicality every time.

Living in a flat has so far held me back from my current spinning dream, which is to take a raw fleece and process, spin and eventually knit it. I aim to remedy this over the summer, as I will have access to a garden where I can wash a fleece. From the outset I was really drawn to the idea of art yarns and made a few attempts at some early on, but then decided to concentrate on being able to spin more proficiently before I try again. A lot of people seem to think that your first effort at spinning – that lumpy, bumpy tangle masquerading as yarn – is art yarn. Not so! Come on people, it’s really hard to do! I have so much respect for my fellow spinners met through Ravelry, in particular the art yarn crowd who not only possess an amazing sense of colour and texture, but are equally amazing spinners to be able to produce such beautiful skeins. Anyway, now that I can spin a fairly respectable single I intend to learn to do coils in the near future – if I can manage to spin a little thicker! My other project for the future (kicking around for a while now) is to somehow combine pottery and spinning. All ideas welcome!

(These rolags….became this yarn)

Editor’s Notes:

You can find Cass on Ravelry as robocass