Yarn. It conjures up visions of baskets filled with colourful squishy softness, knitting needles, crochet hooks, pattern browsing, hats & mittens, companionship and warmth.

There are lots of different yarns available on the market, ranging from inexpensive acrylics to highly luxurious cashmere, silk, qiviut... and alpaca. Yarn spun from alpaca either by hand or by our USA cottage industry mini mills is far more luxurious than the commercially produced yarns! As a hand spinner, not only do you get to decide whether you will spin a single, 2-ply, 3-ply or even a cabled yarn, you get to choose the colours, the thickness, and even the option of whether or not to add blending fibers or embellishing sparkle. Handspun yarn has a rusticness and texture that no commercially spun yarn can even begin to compete with. As many a seasoned knitter will tell you, once you've experienced handspun yarn, it's difficult to go back.

WARNING and DISCLAIMER: once you commence on the journey of hand spinning your own yarn, it will easily become an addiction! This means that you may still find yourself bent over your wheel in the early hours of the morning while the rest of your household sleeps. It also means that you will begin stashing enticing fibers, hand dyed rovings and tops, and irresistable carded batts in your closet... and that the spring and fall fiber festivals will make your heart leap with excitement and a sense of adventure. And more than likely you will find yourself running in terror from the isles of acrylic yarns in the craft store! Be prepared, I am very much an enabler :)

This introductory class is designed for complete beginners, and focuses on alpaca fiber and alpaca blends. Yes, there is a learning curve as you train your hands, feet and brain new 'muscle memory', but as you practice and fine tune your technique it will become a very relaxing, almost meditative past time. Every new spinner goes through this and it is perfectly normal.

During your one day Beginning Spinning class you will:

	get familiar with your spinning wheel
	practise treadling on the pedals
	learn to draft fiber
	put twist in the fiber to make a 'single'
	ply two singles together to make a '2 ply yarn'
	ply a single into a '2 ply' from a center-pull ball
	learn the purpose of, and use, a niddy noddy
	set the twist to finish your yarn

The technique you will be learning is traditional spinning. Core spinning, tail spinning coils, supercoils, beehives and other super fun techniques to create lumpy, bumpy, highly textured art yarns are all advanced techniques and can be learned once you become familiar with traditional spinning. Baby steps, to boost your confidence :)

Materials:
Spinning wheel
3 empty bobbins for your wheel
Lazy kate to store your full bobbins on, and to use for plying
Niddy noddy if you have one
Ball winder if you have one

All other class materials are provided, but you may like to bring a notebook and a pen if you like to take notes.



Tips:
- If you want to kick off your shoes and spin bare footed, I encourage that (in that case, wear shoes you can easily remove)
- A camera is always handy, and besides, you may want to share your creations with your Facebook friends during class
- Bring business cards to share - after all, we need to create a support network!

At the conclusion of the class you'll be able to purchase materials to take home including spinning wheel oil; power scour; carded batts; dyed and undyed blending fibers including wool, milk, bamboo, and rose fiber; sparkle and embellishings; and drum carders. Cash, checks and credit cards are accepted.

Drum carders are shipped via UPS ground directly from the Strauch warehouse and usually arrive within 2-3 days. All carder purchases include tools, clamps, shipping, and $50* worth of product of your choice that you can take home right away so that you're ready to start when your carder arrives.



A little bit of background trivia:
When I purchased our first two alpacas in 2007 for investment, the use of their fiber was never discussed. When I realised that they needed to be shorn yearly and that this was costly, a search began for a hand spinner so that I could turn my fleeces into yarn and sell it to reclaim my costs. To cut a long story short, I never did find a hand spinner (if you were not in the fiber circles back then it was hard to find one!) and decided to take a spinning class to learn how to do it myself. My teacher was Stefania Isaacson, a very down to earth, instantly likable lady who had a treasure trove of information to share. Her one day class provided me with enough confidence to fully embrace spinning, it was the day that my graphic art began the transition to fiber art.

(* standard carder purchases include a $50 credit,
motorised carder purchases include a $100 credit)
images on this page (c) 2007-2017 Roo Kline and Jessica Booth