Make Your Own Yarn: Spin With Maggie

re: Make Your Own Yarn: Spin With Maggie

elisabeth kendrick — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 08:56:19 GMT

Really good to see some info on learning to spin and making your own yarn. Once you have knitted with handspun no bought yarn ever feels as good!

Have any of you ever used a Schatch ladybug wheel or a Magicraft? I would love to know what you think of them.

re: Make Your Own Yarn: Spin With Maggie

Mmach — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:03:12 GMT

I propose we start up a sign-up list to be in Sandi's first spinning classe

re: Make Your Own Yarn: Spin With Maggie

LindaA@2 — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 01:15:29 GMT

If Maggie spins as well as Sandi writes, I may have to take up spinning! I so enjoy reading your posts, Sandi. They are interesting, inspiring, and very informative! Thank you for entertaining me daily! Your "writer's voice" is welcoming and beats any video. I feel like you're sitting in my living room having a chat with me.

My grandmother's 150+ yr-old spinning wheel sits in the corner of my sister's dining room, collecting dust. If I can't entice her to spin, I might have to visit her more often and run some fleece through that old wood. My grandmother spun because she had to ... or could this have been her respite from other farm chores? I wonder.

Like knitting, spinning certainly looks like a way to slow down, reflect, and get in tune with what matters.

re: Make Your Own Yarn: Spin With Maggie

misfitknits — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 21:34:55 GMT

on the subject of learning spinning: SOOOO jealous that you got to take spinning classes with maggie!!! i've NEVER taken a spinning class. after knitting for a while i found out that people actually DO still spin. i bought a drop spindle and tried to teach myself from a VERY small book. i was terrible. thank the heavens i took the plunge anyway and ened up buying a wheel because i've been spinning *successfully* ever since! i wish i could have had maggie's video when i was trying to teach myself!!

on the subject of TEACHING: i have been also wanting to teach spinning now for quite for some time, even though i have only been doing it for aout 2 years now. i just want people to know that it's not a lost art, there are actually places that manufacture NEW wheels!! and most of all, being 23, i want to be able to teach MY generation about the art of spinning! alas, i haven't tried to teach anyone yet, and i'm deathly afraid that if i find someone willing to learn from me, i'll be a terrible teacher!!! i actually wish that were some articles out there for people who wanted to teach spinning. i think it would be a great article for spin-off! can some one pass that on???? and is there an actual CLASS maggie does for TEACHING SPINNING?

re: Make Your Own Yarn: Spin With Maggie

Bobie — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:49:17 GMT

I totally understand what is being said here. I am a lifelong knitter and got excited about spinning when I visited a local fair. I bought my wheel this past winter and mostly taught myself how to use it with a little help from local Guild members (I highly recommend joining your local guild.) So far I have made a sweater, hat and scarf from yarn I have spun myself. It is indeed a very heady feeling when someone asks if you knit the item yourself and you say that you did and that you actually made the yarn yourself, too.

I happened to have purchased Maggie Casey's book as I was learning and I think it's about one of the best on the market. I can't wait to purchase the video.

re: Make Your Own Yarn: Spin With Maggie

Stella Pardo — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 02:53:42 GMT

This is just too hillarious! I can say this as a spinner. Yep, there's gonna be a bevy of new spinners. Boy, once you get hooked, it's hard to stop! Well, I'm still a spinner, but I have slowed down to knit for a while.

But, really, spinning just does something for you, to you. For a spell, when I would be grumpy, my husband would tell me that I needed to just go spin for a while!!! Does that tell you something?

Now, I'm just waiting for some new pictures of homespun, knitted footwear. Oh, and don't give away your first project from your first spinning. Once you get past the lumpy phase, you can't get it back. tee hee

Stella

re: Make Your Own Yarn: Spin With Maggie

ealake — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:10:27 GMT

I had bought a wheel about 10 years ago, took a few lessons and then it was gathering dust in a closet. I just recently took it up again and Maggie's book never leaves my side when I'm spinning. I've just finished a pair of fingerless gloves knit from Alpaca that was my very first yarn spun, and I'm hooked! BTW - if anyone's in northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin or that area - and want to learn more, visit The Fold in Marengo, IL. Toni Neil is an absolutely fantastic teacher as well as one of the nicest people I now know. Between her and the book, you can't miss. They also have a very sweet Shepard named Eric!

Sally (suriving the storms in n. Illinois)

re: Make Your Own Yarn: Spin With Maggie

mzautner — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:35:25 GMT

I think it is wonderful that you are encouraging knitters and crocheters to spin and Maggie is a great teacher. But you are doing a DIS-service to all the other great spinning teachers out there, famous or not! I have been teaching hand spindle classes at my LYS and have not had a failure yet ( the light bulb always seems to go on at some point - over 30 classes. Some go on with it and some were just interested in how yarn is made, but they all learned to actually spin a yarn and ply it and have their own spindle and "First Handspun Yarn" to keep.

Please let your readers know that there are good spinning teachers out there !!

molly z - inventor of the 'flying molly' for hand spindlers

re: Make Your Own Yarn: Spin With Maggie

Karen@4 — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:00:14 GMT

So, I understand that Maggie's book has a section on using a drop spindle and I am wondering if the DVD covers that as well?

re: Make Your Own Yarn: Spin With Maggie

ofthesun1 — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:38:09 GMT

I'm very interested in spinning my own yarn, as I have issues with wool and many wool blends - your spinning seems to be geared to the very thing I'm trying to get away from - wool! Where do I learn about spinning silk and vegetable fibers like cotton, linen, hemp, etc., with or without wool?

re: Make Your Own Yarn: Spin With Maggie

Cattina — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:52:11 GMT

I would like to see a Knitting Daily about what you need to get started with spinning -- roving, gadgets and whatever else you need. That picture of the muted-plum sock made of handspun yarn did the trick, though I've been resisting spinning for years.

re: Make Your Own Yarn: Spin With Maggie

SharonV — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:48:37 GMT

When I bought my wheel, the first book I bought was Maggie Casey's "Start Spinning". It was so helpful with pictures and explanations that were perfect for a beginner like me (who woke up one day and decided to spin).

I am now the proud owner of the video "Start Spinning". Maggie Casey's style of teaching on the video is so calm and encouraging, and Eunny asks all the questions I was asking myself when I first started to spin.

Either version of Maggies spinning wisdom is worth having.

And Sandi, good luck with your new talent. I'm sure you'll make a wonderful teacher.

re: Make Your Own Yarn: Spin With Maggie

SharonV — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:46:06 GMT

Either version of Maggies spinning wisdom is worth having.

And Sandi, good luck with your new talent. I'm sure you'll make a wonderful teacher.

re: Make Your Own Yarn: Spin With Maggie

RebeccaG@4 — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:25:11 GMT

I'm just back from the Wool Market at Estes Park, Colorado, and two days of spinning with Maggie. What a fine teacher and wise spinner! I learned so much in two days, as we went from washed fleece to yarn, learned and practiced woolen and worsted spinning, and tasted different fibers. What a challenging, pleasurable time it was. Go, Maggie!

re: Make Your Own Yarn: Spin With Maggie

WendyH@37 — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:15:56 GMT

Maggie is the BEST!!!!

One of Maggie's girls,

Wendy in NM