For a spinner, things could be worse than being left holding a wad of silk. Nevertheless, I had to laugh when one of my students at SAFF last weekend said she'd been told you can't spin a merino/silk preparation from the fold because of the discrepancy in the staple lengths of the two fibers...that you'd be left holding a wad of silk in your hand. "Ha! Wad of silk my ***", I exclaimed (not able to contain myself after three days of teaching). "Hand me a chunk of it if you don't mind and we'll just see." She handed me her lovely light red Ashford merino/silk preparation. I popped off a nice piece and it came loose at the staple length of the merino, no loose silky ends to mess with. I folded and drew it out to the last little fiber. Nothing left in my hand. Goes to show...a little skepticism goes a long way.We had a great time messing with Navajo or Chained Ply on Sunday. I'd been wanting to ply an "art" yarn with that method and hadn't gotten around to it. So here's one of my demo yarns from my Foundation Singles for Art Yarns class all chained up. Fun. Also, check out one of my Friday students, Andrea, zipping up a speedy chained ply. She's been spinning since February and just look at her go! What's more fun that watching somebody really get it in class? Zowwy.
Thanks to everyone who came to my classes at SAFF. I met so many fun new people, many of them neighbors now and even neighbors once upon a time (a fellow Pasadenan). Hope to see you all again and soon. Follow me on Twitter to learn about new classes as soon as they are scheduled. Next class on the roster will be my yearly Spin, Knit, Dye class at Harrisville, NH, first week of August 2011. Others will pop up before too long. Have even thought about organizing a weekend at Dubose this winter...maybe early February and more than likely again in May or June. I'll keep you posted.
