Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Spinning in Canada, wool and otherwise

Mostly if I mention spinning, people assume I mean 'spinning', aka exercising, to which I say HA! though not because I am averse to that sort of thing (except for the whole 'making an effort' part.)  Nope, I mean spinning fiber into yarn.


example of fiber available to be spun into yarn,
right now even,
if I had time and was not obsessed with purple stripey socks


In fact I am so excited when I see the word 'spinning' in a non-athletic and non-crafty context I have to stop and look because I'm always interested to see how spinning fiber fits into different subject areas.

My uncle is a great collector of books on a wide range of subjects so I did find a lot on the shelves at the cottage about Canadian social history, including homey things like wheels and irons.  There is an ancient electric iron there too, now that I think of it - and it's pretty awesome, in that somebody actually used this thing and didn't break bones lifting it.  So you can see how I would be only partly surprised to see this book there:


and then disappointed to pull it off the shelf for a closer look at its cover:


though why that should be I do not know, because in spite of the topics I already mentioned, the books there are predominantly on the subject of trees, flowers, and fish.


Now, I would be an excellent example of not spinning in Canada, with regard to fish or to wool, because I am

SO TIRED

too tired to want to get my wheel out, too distracted to do anything but knit stripey socks.

But if I were spinning, wouldn't this be nice stuff to pass through my fingers?


It's Corriedale wool from Ashford, in New Zealand, courtesy Pete, via The Fibre Garden in beautiful Jordan Village, Ontario.

(are you dying to see what I bought at Stitch while Pete was buying the wool?  because I can take pictures of that another day if you want, heh.)

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