Turn, turn, turn . . .

Six years ago, my mother-in-law and I attended a fiber festival to see what the buzz was all about. It was the Fingerlakes Fiber Festival in Hemlock, NY and I was amazed at all the yarn. Yes, yarn. That's it.

Yarn was really all I was shopping for as a knitter. And then I saw a Golding spindle. Oh yeah . . . that caught my eye! I had dismissed the idea of spinning for a while with an arrogant huff of "Why would I make yarn when I can just buy it?" and "It would take forever to make the yarn and then I still have to knit with it; I'd never get anything done." (that last one is still a pretty valid point!)

But the Golding had me at "flick." My mother-in-law, being the great enabler that she is, bought me the spindle and How-to package that included a cloud of wool and an instuction book. I taught myself to spin and made a hat with my first hand spun.

Six years later, I have two spinning wheel: a hand made wheel from my husband and a Country Craftsman, and four spindles. Each has their own special story, but right now we'll just enjoy a photo gallery of them all.

Mike's (her name is "Serenity"):

The Country Craftsman (it's an original J. Rooney, and is, as-of-yet, unnamed):

My newest spindle from Threads Through Time (unnamed--though I think it's a boy):

Sea Sediment spindle from A Dyeing Wish (no name, but needs something peppy to embody it's speed):

A fun resin spindle from Spinatude (named "Mariposa"--not very original, but it fits!):

And tragedy recently struck the Golding ("Goldy"--again with the lack of originality) . . .

You'll be relieved to know that Mike has re-glued Goldy and she's spinning once again! However, I'll always be able to see the break marks, and I'll be retiring her as a teaching/demo spindle. She's just too delicate now.