I Bought an Antique Spinning Wheel to Spin My Own Thread

Of course, what I mean by I

bought

an

antique

spin

ning

wheel

is that I

bought

an

antique

spin

ning

wheel

two years ago with the intention of learning to spin my own

thread

so I could use it in my sewing, and of course I've been too afraid to do so. I learned how to make the actual yarn, but not anymore, today is the day that I actually learn properly how to use this, so I have the idea to start with linen because when you use linen

thread

, which historically was very common to use to sew it. It is spun from flax rather than the more common wools that were often spun into threads used for weaving.

Every person I've talked to who does spinning has subsequently given me some sort of incredulous look like why because apparently they're learning to spin. with flax or even just spinning with flax in general is like the equivalent of starting to sew with silk lovely like do you have a death wish? I am going to spend the time learning the technique of spinning on some easier fibers like wool, absolutely not where it is the fun that I will pass on to you. I look forward to the challenges that come with spinning or the joys that come with spinning.

Hopefully both. I have a spinning wheel here that I bought on eBay from a very old lady. We do not. I know exactly how old this is, but it's possibly from the 19th century. I guess the other thing that needs to happen is we need a disc stick which is basically a poll or in my case if your wheel doesn't have a disc stick attached, you use your broom. In what mode does it start? The goal of this pole is to provide you with a good organized source of fiber so that, ideally, you're not fighting a tangle when you're incorporating fresh fibers into your work.

I have some linen here, this one is a little thicker. weight since I thought this might be easier to start with or, if not easier, at least of lesser quality that I wouldn't feel so bad about turning into something potentially very ugly. I am separating the fibers from their original bundles and layering them. Large mat that tries to align the thread so that they all run in the same vertical direction. Then I roll this mat, a linen, on my broom and tie it in place with a ribbon, as many of you crafty and creative people know that crafts can be extremely meditative when you have tuned your body to know how to make them and extremely stressful while you're still learning, which is why I'm so excited to be working with headspace for this video, the mindfulness and meditation app that not only has my own therapist, enthusiastically recommended for me, but is recommended by the NHS for their own. staff.

I hope that a little regular mindfulness will help me stay calm and encourage me to take on the challenges of learning this new skill. Tonight's exercise is a really simple breathing exercise. you're nice and relaxed, in addition to traditional meditation, headspace also offers expert coaching sessions on topics such as creativity, burnout, finances and student life, as well as sleep podcasts, relaxing music sequences and video-accompanied meditations , so there really is something for all types of brains. Personally, I love the soundscape library because, and I am of the expert opinion, putting Birdsong in the background of any given task instantly solves every conceivable problem known to mankind.

Headspace is helping its users develop lasting healthy habits, reduce stress, and find focus. Head on over to the link in the description, if you fancy exploring the app for yourself with a cheeky little free trial, first things first now we've got our disk staff set up and we've got a spinning wheel, we need to thread this, these are really machines very simple to use or at least seems to make a lot of intuitive sense to someone who is already somewhat used to using sewing machines, the bobbin just sits on the flywheel like this and you will notice that the bobbin has a small crack on the end, It is slightly smaller than the wheel that bolts on to the end meaning that once you have attached the drive bands one to each wheel the steering wheel will spin at slightly different speeds this is what will help add a nice tight turn a Of course, there are many different types of spinning wheels and methods of spinning, but this particular type is what is called a double-drive wheel because it has a drive band that folds in a figure eight around the wheel, I've heard. , it was used more particularly for spinning flax, so when I teach people how to use a treadle sewing machine, the first thing I always tell them to do before they start sewing is just step on it a little bit and get a feel for the rhythm and of how the machine works because there is a kind of physical interaction between you as an operator and the machine itself.

It takes a little practice and a little learning of that language. So I'm going to try this and make sure I understand how it works so that hopefully ideally when I get to spinning I won't have to think about how the machine works, but this will be completely secondary. By nature, it is a little faster than the pedals I am used to working with in sewing, so this is a small adjustment because I have to operate it faster, it is more tiring on the ankle. I mean is it just a matter of developing a very strong traveling ankle also does it work if I just push it once and then let it slide for the second time it doesn't go as fast so there is a tension adjustment on this there is a little knob back here that you can pull move this front end more or back tightening the tension makes it harder to operate so I'm wondering if loosening the tension will actually require less labor that's a little easier and it's moving a little slower, this is very relaxing, I figure if spinning isn't much of an ordeal then the process of this would actually be super relaxing.

I imagine myself doing this a lot while watching Netflix or something. It's such a simple little gadget and yet it works so efficiently. I love it. sounds that it makes, I mean, I imagine this is what people would be hearing, I mean, for hundreds of years throughout history, this is the same sound, we don't have recordings of most of the sounds in the history, many sounds are simply lost. languages ​​accents dialects just get lost in time but little sounds like this the little languages ​​and machinery communications that exist in these time periods this survives and these are the sounds these are the languages ​​that would have been spoken and it's great to be able to listen to them well, no more procrastination, we actually need to start spinning some real flocks because otherwise what is all this?

One thing I found in my pre-spinning research was that spinning flax is much easier to do with wet fingers, as the moisture releases the pectins in the plant fibers and helps them stick together a little better. What I didn't realize is that flax as a fiber itself is quite weak on its own and before you wet it and twist it it's quite difficult to get it to do so. almost anything, oh no, no, okay, start this so it's thick enough to hold because it keeps wanting to shred it because it's not spun yet. Ah, an absolute disgrace, so Heathcliff knows a thing or two about spinning at least one, but a complete thing.

I called a leader thread to just wrap the first part to start oh okay that makes sense oh so you made a loop okay yeah it's just a loop oh my gosh it's my first time holding one rope, can you say it anyway? you will wrap your flags around this and then your first part may be a little thick but once you start twisting it yes this will help and you will cut it yes wool fibers are much easier yes I know I heard , I know, oh oh oh no, no, you don't. No need to come here and see my shadow, the process of this would actually be super relaxing.

I imagine myself doing this a lot while watching Netflix or something. It was going well. I know. No, it really wasn't like that. Oh oh, this is how it is. much better ok the only thing i can't figure out currently is how to twist it well enough without it breaking oh no i broke it so i was doing this for about 15 minutes and managed to get past the ugliest string you will ever put on your eyes on a very thick and slightly ugly yarn, so I hope it's progress, you have to make sure that the twist doesn't go up to the fiber that you haven't spun yet and that you want to weave. with your left hand and holding the spin with your right until you are ready to release it and for the spin, Heathcliff's advice was actually very helpful and especially as they had only used a drop spindle before so while I took a moment.

To process this new information I wanted to see for myself if spinning on a wheel is really a challenge for even an experienced spinner to get used to. I'm glad I'm not doing the order we met in, also vindication, yes, this. It's really hard, okay, I feel justified now, wow, this makes it so much easier, okay, okay, it's not the worst oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I got my skirt wrapped around that one , so I think I already have the technique mastered. a little better, uh, I don't have the right tension, this is definitely a choice day to learn how to turn, as you can see, we start off pretty hard traveling forward, we start to thin out a little, but my tension goes off the rails here we continue.

Continuing with a lot of breaking and a lot of trying to put things back together this is where I started doing the trick where you pull out the flex cable before running it through with one hand and make sure the twist doesn't go up into the fibers and then here we start to eat some decent twist here a little Thinner still not the best in the world but the tension is better until we got to here where something broke and somehow it went downhill from here but You know, if we look at it from the beginning anyway, you know there's a bit of an improvement, I still wouldn't say you could use this to sew a garment, although this is what we're really going for, so I had an idea and that's exactly it.

The same advice we give to anyone who is learning to sew is to not rush into failure by giving yourself horrible materials to start working on because it is practical and you could also waste it. I think I'm actually just shooting myself in the foot with this and using a very thick, very thick linen fiber, so I have a finer linen weight, this is much fluffier and I feel like it will be easier to work with and definitely we will produce much finer linen. Cleaner yarn, let's go ahead and jump into some of the finer Flex options and see if this makes a difference in the quality of yarn or twine we can produce.

Well, on the second day, we start with this new, nicer, softer, better quality linen. Flags Hopefully we'll have better luck today apparently I was doing this on the wrong side last time you're supposed to go this way for this to intersect okay okay the turn is definitely a lot neater this time and I'm finding. It's definitely a lot easier to make and handle, it's wanting to behave a lot more, this Flex is a lot more subdued, so it wants to hold its own a lot better than grassier flocks. I was vaguely getting the hang of it and while I felt like I was making the thread as thin as possible without it coming apart, it still wasn't as thin as it would need to be for sewing, even when applying three-ply sewing threads for extra strength. for most modern threads. but historically most yarns were only two-ply, which still means that each individual strand must be half the total thickness of my final yarn and the thickness of this single-ply yarn was already a heavy yarn in itself , so I'm looking for some advice or maybe just a little encouragement I decided to ask for help Jillian Eve Hi, so you're like the YouTube spinning guru.

I feel like I'm what I've gotten myself into, so when we talk about linen thread we want it to be as smooth and as uniform as possible because any little bit that sticks out and is constantly dragged through the fabric wears out not only the thread itself. but also the warp and weft of that fabric every time it goes right, so we need it fine, smooth and applied, you know, I can only thin it so much before it falls apart into nothing, essentially what you want to have a perfect consistency, you will have the same amount of fibers at each point, if you have five fibers that are forming that threat there is a certain point where you want there to be enough overlap so that when one you know is used up you have another to take its place, so if you're finishing them and finishing them and there's not enough space there to give it the twist that it needs, it has the friction to hold it together, you're going to end up with a lot of you know, just falling apart or sometimes just falling apart.

They will slide because they have not won. the twist it needs is like glue. The other thing that can also happen when we twist too much, the fibers can become brittle and break, yes, so please, okay, it's a matter of finding that balance and that's something like that. of the active work the spinner does while spinning toget the final product of the yarn when I twist. I have one hand that handles the tension between the thread that is generated where the twist comes in and then I have another hand that is doing the drawing, so the hand that is closest to the steering wheel would be the hand that you are putting, you know , any moisture, okay, smooth it out and that tension between that hand and the steering wheel helps distribute the spin.

I'm even so nervous now oh no where did that come fromAside that's a point where you're going to want to overlap it more if you want to start close to the hole and then start turning and just start slowly sliding your hand back to keep that turn between you and the wheel, etc. Once it has built up enough, you will let it return to the thread that is forming so it doesn't build up so much and become brittle, but you will guide it into your fibers so you don't go too fast. to slide out, give us a chance, that looks good.

I'd say you could probably be a little faster. move your hand back a little faster. Yes that's fine. How does it look good? And then there is another factor that comes into play. Have you been spinning wet? Okay, dry, I have a little pot of water here, so flax, of course, comes from a plant and it has pectins. People probably used saliva before, which is interesting because the enzymes in our saliva break down pectins and turn them into a glue. A lot of people don't like to use saliva, I understand that, so another thing that historically people would do is take flax seeds, which of course, if you're working with flax, you probably have flax seeds and put them in a little bit of water. boiling it and let it sit and steep it and it creates a kind of gelatinous glue, it's a little slimy, it's better to use it than just tap water, it will help, but if you really want the highest quality of women you can.

Eventually I'll be able to soak it. I would recommend trying some linen glue and seeing what you think before I forget, but where does that thing about pricking your finger with a spinning wheel because there's no needle in this come from, first of all, Disney? created a spinning wheel shaped object, it would be some kind of abomination in the movie, of course you know we're probably all familiar with them, they used a spike on the top of the spinning wheel, which is not a thing, why would you have a pick? sticking out where people would like to bump into it that doesn't need to be there no one is going to put it there from the oldest version of the fairy tale it was actually a sliver of the outer plant matter that is supposed to be removed from the processing of flax, if you slide it up, you get a splinter under your nail and that's what originally in the first iteration of the fairy tale put her to sleep, but yeah, it was the bending itself that put her to sleep in the original and I I align.

Let my mind rest and stop thinking about the to-do list or the things I have to do and instead ask my mind to enter a dream space, a place where my imagination can open up and become a little crazy and really contribute a lot. of lightness and foreign joy learning to use a sewing machine learning to sew learning to do any craft really while I've been doing this I've been thinking that it's very similar to having a pet when you've had guinea pigs your whole life like me, you start to learn their body language as if I instinctively know what every little squeak means to my pigs.

I know when my pigs are angry. I know when they are hot. I know when they are hungry. I know when They're laughing. I know when they're making fun. I know the little dance they do when I hold them and they're about to pee on me, so I have to run them back to their cage. You learn all these little ones. manners of subtle physical communication between you and your pet, be it cats, dogs, birds, rodents or whatever, while I am spinning I notice that the fibers have almost different temperaments or the relationship between the fiber and the wheel has A very specific temperament is a matter of learning by hand and being able to feel when the grain has enough kinks and it's time to let it go versus when there aren't enough kinks and you have to hold it.

Hold it, you can't force it, like many aspects of manual machinery, you have to respond to what the fiber wants to do, what the garment wants to do, if you are using a sewing machine, you have to learn to respond. to the machine to keep it running, so it's been a really interesting and difficult process learning what this physical language of fiber is turning out to be, but I feel like I'm finally starting to understand what this language is, strange experiments and this is where we are until now. I mean, the process is still ongoing, so don't get me wrong, but I feel like recently I finally got a relatively decent understanding of how to do this.

It's not perfect, but it's still that way. The last thing I want to say is that maybe six feet of this is nice. I'm pretty happy with where we've come so far, how it started, how it's going, so it's definitely going a lot better than it was like 10. days ago, but you know with any skill there's always room for improvement and they will continue to improve. I will also remember that it is a single ply, so the next step in the process is to apply this in a double layer that is stronger and I can use it as a thread, thank you, thank you, that is a thread, a thick thread, but it is a little bit of thread, so I have some thread, this is a little bit heavier linen thread, so the thread that I have here is a pretty thick linen thread.

It's quite spongy when you run it through the fabric, it wants to catch on the fabric and weaken a little. That's why we wax the linen thread when we use it, we wind it a little. Wow, it's thread and now the question I have is will this fit? on a needle, yes, this will be fine, okay, now let's sew a little. I'm sewing through some very tight cotton fabric, which is proving to be a challenge because it's a thick thread trying to get through this small fabric, but that's definitely a bit easier to work with with a stitch.

As I go along because I guess the fibers are settling into place, everything has been waxed and now I guess running it through the fabric just makes the wax cover it a little more evenly. pretty functional like I could really I could make something out of this probably and I could actually I could yeah yeah I'm pretty satisfied with this this isn't the worst thing in the world, especially for the first time trying something new, let's see how strong this is oh that's strong that is a good yarn that holds up very well this garment is not about to break wow well that is very encouraging I am actually very surprised at how this yarn turned out something that did not surprise me at all is the absolute excitement of being able to wear a piece of machinery and practicing a skill that has been around for hundreds, I mean thousands of years, and one thing that I found very interesting is, of course, historically, someone in your community or in your family I have taught them these skills and although many of us in These days we may not have someone in our family who can teach us how to sew or spin, we have a different form of community, we have our online communities and although these might be extremely specific crafts today, there are still entire communities of people who they spin and entire communities of people who sew, knit and do any type of crafts.

I can call on amazing spinners like Evie who have been studying these crafts or a fabulous assistant. Who has this amazing spinning knowledge? Who can help me? In my journey I want to say that it is the same fundamental principle of being taught by your community that has existed again for basically most of human history. That's great about connecting with the past. Am I making this shot much more complicated than necessary to avoid spinning? Maybe omg you are so cute this is the first thread oh my god no this is not. it's going to happen oh oh it happened but that's a hole