First Day of Master Spinning Class

Homework. I can't remember the last time I had homework! But I'm taking a college level course now (Master Spinning, Level 1 through Olds College in Alberta, Canada) for college credit, and not only do I have physical work to do (like the skeins wound at right), but I also have research and papers with citations in specified formats to write. I even have tests with the first one on Sunday! It's very exciting. It's also somewhat exhausting--and a good part of that is because the women in my class, the host and the teacher are all party animals and I'm having trouble keeping up. There are men in the class too, but they haven't partied with us yet.

Today was the first day of the five-day classroom portion of the course, and we spent a good bit of time looking at sheep fleeces and learning about the characteristics of wool from different kinds of sheep. We looked at fleeces from both purebreds and crosses, light, dark, fine, medium, long locks, tight crimp, primitive, and everything in between. We also spun and plied yarn, learning about balance and the directions of the twist in yarn and how to correct the twist in our spun yarn. We even analyzed our wheels to figure out the ratios we get using them--one treadle with the band on this drive wheel is 11 revolutions (11 times the yarn twists) of the flyer. We will use this knowledge to put specific amounts of twist in the yarn we make... that's the theory at least. I'll write more later (probably more than anyone else wants to read), but tonight I'm pooped and heading off to sleep. G'Night!