The Benefits of Spinning

Handspinning So just what are the benefits of spinning?

In the past, spinning was considered a chore. Before the industrial age, women and girls spent a good portion of their days spinning so that they could make clothing for their families.

As a full time job, hand spinning is probably would not be considered as anyone's ideal job.

Spinning can be time consuming, the constant motion is hard on your posture and on your hands, and then you still have to turn the yarn into garments!

So how can I claim that there are benefits of spinning now, when we can just jump in the car and drive to the local mall and buy virtually any type of clothing that we desire?

The Sense of Achievement

Anyone who has had the experience of learning how to turn raw fleece wool into a finished project, whether it is a pot holder or a beautiful aran jumper, will tell you about the incredible sense of achievement that they feel.

Spinning is not something that everyone can do. It takes patience and a lot perseverance (and being stubborn certainly helps when you are learning!)

A big part of the achievement is the 'start to finish' aspect of spinning and knitting (or crocheting, or weaving).

With spinning you start with the raw materials and go through all of the processes necessary to turn your fleece wool into a finished product, usually without any help from modern machines or gadgets!

And it feels great - how's that for as one of the benefits of spinning?

The Peace

As you gain more experience with handspinning, whether you use a wheel or a drop spindle, spinning can be very relaxing.

The movements of your hands and feet are very rhythmic and after a while they become second nature.

When I am spinning I am able to shut out the world and concentrate on the yarn as it forms within my fingers and threads itself onto the bobbin. I have used spinning to 'de-stress' many, many times over the years!

The Challenge

Back when I was first learning to spin the challenge was to produce yarn that was light and fluffy and reasonably even. Believe me, when you are just beginning that is much harder that it sounds!

You have to get the spinning tension just right and then maintain it while you spin enough to fill two bobbins. To do that you need to judge when to adjust the tension on your spinning wheel and to keep your hand movements fairly constant. Then you need to work out the right tension for plying.

The yarn produced by most beginners has thick bits, thin bits, tight clinky bits (caused by overspinning or over plying) or bits that are threatening to unravel before your eyes. But don't despair, it is all part of the learning process!

Then as you progress as a spinner, you constantly strive to improve your craft and produce finer, more even yarn.

Now that I have been spinning for twenty years or more I tend to believe that every fleece has a preferred yarn thickness and texture and it is my job to find it!

The Creativity

The potential for unleashing your creativity is another one of the benefits of spinning. Once you have mastered the basic spinning techniques you can begin to experiment with your yarn.

Some of the ways to exercise your creativity is by mixing different fibres, dying your wool before or after spinning, playing with different styles of spinning, or using your yarn for a variety of projects from knitting to creating wall hanging to decorate your home!

Or you could teach yourself how to use your yarn to weave your own fabrics. If you can imagine it, why not try it?

The Economy of Spinning

I can usually produce a adult sized aran jumper with about 500gms of raw fleece, most of which costs between $10 - $20 per kilo. So my finished jumpers cost somewhere between $5 - $10.

To buy enough commercially spun wool from the mall to make the same jumper I would have to spend about $80.

Some spinners will require more, some less, it depends on the quality of the fleece, the method you use to prepare your fleece for spinning, how thick you spin and the size of the knitting needles you use, but even if you use a full kilo of raw fleece it is still much cheaper to spin and knit your own yarn.

Spinning for Profit

Handcrafted 100% pure wool jumpers sell here in Australia for anything between $200 - $400 in up-market tourist outlets, many of which will take your garments to sell on consignment.

The quality of your garments has to be pretty good before they will accept them, but there is a market for your spinning and knitting. From a commercial point of view it is not an ideal business because of the time it takes to produce each garment.

When I was an at home mum, it used to take me a full week to spin and wash enough yarn to knit an adult sized jumper and another week to knit it. At say $350 less the $10 it cost for the fleece gave me $340 for two weeks work. So even if you get top dollar for your garments, the price is probably never going to cover all of the hours you put in to it. As a hobby though, it can and will pay for itself if you an sell a few pieces!