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Spinning, thinking, relaxing…

150px-Marianne_Stokes_St_Elizabeth_of_Hungary_Spinning_for_the_Poor St Elisabeth of Hungary, spinning for the poor, on a castle type wheel with a distaff.

I am fairly new to spinning. I had a variety of spindles and enjoyed playing with them. I was torn whether I wanted (or needed) a wheel or not.

spin_inst_spindle

Spindling is relaxing and fun. Now when everyone has so many demands on them and less time, I was worried that a wheel would just make me want to “go faster”. Similar to the difference between a sailboat and a speed boat.

But that didn’t turn out to be true.

When I am especially stressed or have a constant stream of thought, I often have trouble concentrating on my knitting. I can be blindly knitting along and not paying much attention to the pattern. Resulting in frustrating frogging, and cursing due to mistakes.

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These two also curl up and sleep when I spin.

This is when I especially enjoying spinning at my wheel. I have heard it compared to meditation, and I agree with this.

The spinning of the wheel and its’ rhythm. The sounds of the wheel, the tactile feel of the fiber. Turning the fluffy softness into yarn is magical.

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I can sit and spin when my mind is full of thoughts, and gradually the somewhat hypnotic action of my hands and the wheel allow my mind to clear. Thoughts and worries streaming from my mind to the roving into yarn. It is soothing, similar to a mother’s whisper, or ocean waves, so comforting and can transport me to a centered place.

Peaceful_Beach

On a side note check out this post from Fleegle’s blog on the amazing Zia, a cute little storage thingy for spinners, cheap too!

May your spinning wheel fly as fast as dragonflies

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Comments

  1. Kathleen11/15/2009

    I completely agree. I miss my wheel - I spent hours spinning and working out my little twists left over from the day's activities, and not really thinking about the spinning. My hands did their spinning thing; my mind did it's relaxing and untwisting thing. For now, the spindles are great, but the wheel...ahh, the wheel...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Walden11/15/2009

    My two fears of spinning wheels are that either I won't enjoy the wheel like I enjoy spinning on a spindle . . . or the complete opposite, that I'll enjoy spinning on a wheel so much that I'll spend too much time on it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ~ Phyllis ~11/16/2009

    I love that picture of St. Elizabeth. Thanks for posting.
    I feel the same way about spinning.

    ReplyDelete

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