Spinning Wool

Grab some wool and pull up a spinning wheel; it's time to spin yarn!

Courtnay, our Program Director and resident wool-spinning pro, led a homemaking session on this age-old art. It takes a bit of practice to get it right, but once you have it, you're well on your way to making your own yarn!

First we talked about carding wool. This is important for preparing the fibers to be interlocked with each other. This step involves what look like large dog brushes called hand cards. You just put some wool on, and slid the hand cards past each other, bristles facing one another, until you form a nice "beard" that can be removed.

Courtnay (Program Director) teaching us how to card wool.

Next, you take your piece of prepared wool and pull at different sections to make it into a long, loose string of wool. This is what you will feed into the spinning wheel. The rest involves learning to treadle (keeping the spinning wheel spinning using a foot pedal), and feeding the wool in at a consistent thickness. There are plenty of options for thickness and tightness of the spin which are up to the person spinning! With plenty of sheep around here producing heaps of wool, it's a great skill to know!

Joy (Hope) and Colin (Bethel) try spinning some yarn with the help of Courtnay.