LD Spinner Alert

There comes a time in every knitter's life when they believe they should branch out and learn new skills. The acquisition of the new skills should enhance the knitter's ability to knit. The acquisition of the new skills should allow the knitter to view their knitting from a completely different perspective. So, the brave knitter strikes out to follow her fellow knitters in acquiring the skill of spinning. In blind enthusiasm, the knitter obtains a spinning wheel, some top, and begins to dream of spinning some Falkland Islands' wool to knit a pair of socks.

Does the knitter remember the last class she took with a world class expert? The class where said knitter actually drove the expert to the precipice of sanity because she could not cast on as demonstrated. Of course not. This is spinning. It will be different. WRONG!

One little detail about spinning that the knitter failed to consider - when spinning with a wheel, you must treadle with both feet, keeping the wheel moving in the correct direction at a constant speed while doing something completely different with your hands. The knitter in question still has post traumatic stress and flashbacks from high school PE. Such co-ordination is just enough out of reach that it is frustrating.

So, there I sat at the wheel. I am digging the guild house. I am treadling at just the right speed in just the right direction. My mind is able to see the logic of spinning. My mind knows what fingers and feet should be doing. Hey, I have read up on how to spin. I know the mechanics. Then the hands join the fray. Unfortunately, fingers have their own ideas of how best to spin and it isn't cool.

First of all, left hand and right hand can't decide who is going to do what. Then the pinching fingers decide they want a different job and do exactly the opposite of what they are supposed to be doing - pinching the fiber. As I screw up, yet again, I ask if cursing is allowed in the guild house because the dam feels like it may break at any moment.

By the end of class, I have decided that I am a LD spinner and must really have something wrong with me if I am still excited enough to come back and screw up more fiber next week.

At least my Rockin' Sock Club February kit arrived today, a reward of sorts for trying something new, feeling like a fool and being willing to do it all again. With some practice I am hoping to bring my spinning IQ up to at least 90 next week.