Who I am

Is a spinner who knits.

There have been times in my life when I thought I was a writer, or a painter, or a potter.. though all the while I was a knitter without passion. It was when I discovered fine yarns, and frankly, competitive knitting, that finally the fire was lit. That could make me a knitter who paints, or a knitter who sews, or many other knitterly combinations.

However, none are accurate.

It was when Amy taught me how to use a drop spindle that I started to feel my destiny click into place. A bit dramatic, yes.. but true. I spun endlessly, not really understanding where the passion came from, but embracing it totally. Some time later, my nearly 80-year old aunt told me that she'd always been a spinner too, and that my nan had also spun. Things made sense. We're spinners.

I dreamed of spindles... and came up with an imaginary collection that seemed perfection.

Tabacheck lace spindles, in Ash
Tabacheck Tibetan supported spindle in Canary Wood
Apricot Bosworth Midi
Yew Avi Wasserman, .75 oz
Canary Cascade Tiger
Greensleeves Mjolinor in Redwood Burl
Cedar Kundert

And a Golding.

When we went to Rhinebeck, my plan was to buy a Golding, a Bosworth, and an Avi Wasserman. Nothing else, you understand... just those three things. I found the Avi Wasserman first and the Bosworth last. Sherry and I stopped at Golding and I found myself overwhelmed. I test spun quite a few spindles, and decided, finally, on an Antiqued Rosette in Walnut. Approximately 1 oz, it would spin the weight I feel most comfortable with, and would complete my collection. It spun true, and was a thing of beauty; yet at the very last moment I exchanged it for a large, vintage spindle with birds on its silver rim. Lovely.

But I couldn't spin it. It was all over the place; uncontrollable, and on it's way back to Golding.

Somehow, today, thanks to the kindness of my friends, I have two. My friend Stacey offered to trade hers for fiber. It's a larger spindle, a mahogany colour with a walnut shaft. The two of us are still resolving our relationship, and it needs a trip to Bessthespinner to spin true; but we're a bonded, and I know that we'll come to terms. I love it.

The Rosette? On Friday it made its way to me, via a much loved and treasured friend. She said when the spindle arrived at her house she looked at it and felt as though it was mine. She had the grace to give it to me for Christmas. It is the exact spindle I held in my hands at Rhinebeck..



I feel as though her instincts were correct, and that the spindle had found its way home. I know that sounds crazy.. but it's not the first crazy thing I've believed, and I'm sure it won't be the last.

Yesterday the two of us (the Rosette and I, that is!) sat in the kitchen in the night and spun 5 grams of Qivuit. Doesn't sound like much, I know, but that is 5 grams of cobweb weight; more yards than I can count. The spindle flew.... I've never seen one revolve so long or so true. It was like magic.

I couldn't be happier, or more grateful. I am a spinner who knits.