Recently I’ve found a lot of joy in spinning wool into yarn. I learned how in December 2020 and quickly became obsessed. Dare I say I have a natural talent for it. There’s still a lot for me to learn, but I caught on to the basics quickly. I think that my decades of sewing actually helped me, though I’m not sure I can explain how. My hands seem to have some knowledge stored up in them that is helping me learn this other craft quickly.
I love spinning so much. It feels like magic to be able to take a completely raw material and process it with my hands into a beautiful object. I’ve loved raw materials for a long time. They remind me of nature, they feel like a gift from nature or from God. They cannot be made by humans, they just naturally appear in their beautiful, useful state.
It’s similar to the way I like to cook. I prefer to cook with raw/whole ingredients. They’re beautiful and natural and remind me of my garden. They feel like gifts.
Other recent news, I gave up on the bees. They kept getting infested with hive beetles, despite me trying all the tricks and products to help them out. The bees are all dead. I was going to get more but when I paused and was honest with myself, I didn’t want to. Bees are really cool but they don’t make me that happy. If pounds of honey were guaranteed every year, I might change my mind. But honey is not guaranteed. I’m hoping to sell all of my equipment. It was very expensive.
I’m debating whether to get more angora rabbits. Currently I have two. They are very cute but difficult to handle. They are not very sweet. They do make me happy, but not as happy as just spinning wool does. They are a lot of work. But they do produce beautiful fiber, which does make me very very happy. I have the opportunity to buy more bunnies for a low price. I have time to decide. But in order to bring them home, we need to create a climate controlled barn out of our workshop. Which we are already trying to do in order to move the two bunnies I do have out of the house. It seems like a good opportunity but I’m not sure if it’s what I want to do.
Aleatha Shannon 