If I knew how to spin, could I spin that?

The weather is hot and I'm really busy. I spent all day Monday trying to straighten up and clean. About 8pm I finally sat down and was only able to manage about an hour at the wheel, and that only while talking to a friend on the phone. So this is going to be quick.

• I'm trying to get over the embarassment of having publicly shown that I can't tell orange from ...... well, orange.
  
• Jon has stolen our single copy of Harry Potter, which is causing a little bit of tension.
• The weather is too hot to think straight, let alone knit.
• The humidity is worse than the heat.
• Its WAY too humid to block anything, and so my Leaf Lace shawl languishes with 4 rows left to go.
• I'm getting antsy about my daughter returning from Peru on Thursday night. Even if she comes back without a spindle, which is a possibility. I miss her.

I had a funny email exchange with an old friend yesterday. She's a quilting friend (in a good way), but in the last number of months she's gone back to knitting. The email I got from her said,

Can you spin the wool used to make a quilt batt? I have some pieces left from a batt made from black Corriedale sheep.  If I knew how to spin, could I spin that?  It is pretty fluffy and not felted or anything like that.

I found this very, very funny. As well as touching. Being both a spinner and a quilter who has used wool batting, I knew that her Corriedale quilting batt was probably a quality of wool that was not really suited to spinning (and had therefore been marketed for quilt filling).

The tricky part here is understanding that I've got someone, a good friend, who until now has hardly mentioned spinning, and suddenly is wondering about things in her own house that are spinnable. Lapsed knitter > to knitter > to thinking about what can be spun > ? handspinner?

What's funny is her seeing possibility in the raw wool, where before she saw only leftover quilt batting. I think that's a giant leap of imagination and faith.

Reminiscent of Laurie's post about spinning the cotton dressings from the OR, and of Mamacate's mention of people who have recent addictions and/or interests in spinning.
Other people may be looking for converts to the spinning cause/coven, but I'm just happy knowing that there are others out there who look at the world and the fibers in it in a whole different way.

"If I knew how to spin, could I spin that?"

There's a universe of possibility in that question.

Comments

[margene]

If the air is humid enough can you spin it? Send the shawl out here....it will be dry by the time it's pinned out. Ja, I'm rubbing it in.

[Norma]

Ugh, I broke down and slept on the floor of the little home office again last night. You know: The only air conditioned room in the house! I can't even imagine what it's like in NY. Well, actually I can. I spent a month in Paris one summer. Thought I was going to die. And I bet NY is ten times worse.

[stephanie]

Too hot to type.

The answer to the question is "Yes. If you knew how to spin, you could spin that....you might not like the yarn but you can spin that."
Quickly mail this woman a drop spindle and good fibre.

[Jan]

I love the line *she's a quilting friend (in a good way)*.
This summer is the worst for the heat and humidity that I can remember. It's like wading through molasses. Guess I picked a good year to move into a house with air conditioning. (For the first time in my life.)
Seems like Bloglines is dragging again. Glad I came directly over to check out why you hadn't posted yet.

[claudia]

There will be no Kool-Aid served at my house. In case you were worried.

[Cara]

For a paranoid second, I thought this post was going to be about me! ;-)

If I tell you I dreamed about spinning all night last night, will I never hear the end of it? You and your minions are getting to me, I think. First socks. Then shawls. Now this. It never ends does it?

By the way, I haven't left the house in three days. Come here if you want. It's a meat locker.

[regina]

I've come to think of you as a force of nature. You don't proselytize at all, but knitting with you certainly inspires me to try stuff I didn't think I could do (like trying my hand at lace, and now, spinning, which never occurred to me before). And what timing! My mailman JUST delivered my spindle kit from Pacific Wool and Fiber.

[Marcia]

Now, for the reverse of that, I have been drum carding over the weekend and every bunch of crud that comes off the small drum elicits the question "Hmmm, could I use that for quilt batting?" Maybe your friend needs a drum carder. Just saying.

[Kim]

Steamy! This weather bites for sure!! LOL......you are probably right, wool batting for quilts is probably better left in quilts, but you never know...could be a "diamond in the rough"...

BTW....your skein came out wonderful!

[adelaide]

Not only do I have a left-overs from my Corriedale wool batt, I also have lots and lots of cat fur. Could I spin that? Could I, Stephanie? Of course, once I spin my left-over wool and the cat fur, what could I spin next? Have any of your figured out how to spin straw into gold yet? If so, could you teach me? I know, I know -- that's the stuff of fairy tales.

[Liz]

It's finally getting too hot to do much of anything here, but I know that my version of "hot" is a lot cooler than yours. But I used to live in NJ, so I know the oppression of which you speak.

If it's too hot to block, why does that mean the Leaf Lace languishes with four rows left? Sounds like it's not ready for blocking. ;)

[Cordelia]

Oh, the heat & humidity! I don't understand how anyone survives w/o airconditioning (this from someone who grew up without one). Congratulations on the very-soon return of your daughter!

[Logan]

So glad I occasionally play "follow the links" and found you! I'm a knitting quilter (or is that a quilting knitter?), too. My biggest issue with melding the two passions? DH respectfully requests that I keep the stash contained to the one single room (formerly known as fabricland, now with a serious infestation of yarn Tribbles). Okay, fine, I'll mix my commercially made cotton quilting fabrics with my commercially produced wool yarns (although I think their fibers might be screaming at me about the mingling). And, I'll keep the hand dyed fabrics and the hand dyed wools / silks / etc together. In a pile. In the middle of the room. So I can recline there gracefully (read dive into it like a duck) and luxuriate in the hand dyed yumminess. Oh, and spinning? My rovings have a corner to themselves, and my spinning wheel arrives tomorrow.

What is this fiber filled world coming to?

[mamacate]

There's something elemental in all this, I think. I know that for me, spinning just drew me in, and it all seemed...familiar somehow. Race memory? Past lives? Human nature? Evolutionary behaviors? Do we want to spin like dogs want to hunt and herd?

People were talking about spinning corn silk (not ingeo, but the stuff next to the ear) on spin-list recently. I admit, I hadn't gone there. Apparently, I am not the craziest one in the bunch. Well...

[Patti]

Anyone can spin anything, I think. It just might be not-the-mainstream. I showed my knitting class how to knit with plastic bags. One of my cats has a particular place on her chest where the hair comes out, and she licks it, and ends up making a bit of yarn. She hasn't plied anything yet, though.

My son has first dibs on the Harry Potter book. I'm pacing around the house and exhorting him to read faster! faster!

[john]

Um, well you know what spinning does to ME, and I've been wondering what it would be like to spin dryer lint! How obscene.

xoxo
j

[Colleen]

Just the thought of spinning in this weather....

When you spin, do you need to avoid weather extremes? Can different weather conditions change the quality of the yarn produced?

[Stacie]

I have looked at dryer lint and thought to myself,"Can I spin that??" hehe

[Jean]

I'm just a beginning spinner, but for me, weather conditions can certainly change the quality of what I produce. Cool and dry = yarn. Hot and humid = felted pile of crap.

-Jean
in cool, humid Perth, Australia
(but I grew up in Washington, DC. I know from hot and humid, and I can't imagine spinning in the summer in east-coast US)
(but I'll knit anywhere)

[Andrea]

Ha, that's funny. My fiance and I were in Yellowstone recently, and he came back from a short hike with some buffalo "wool" that had been shed when they lost their winter coats. Dunno if it will spin or not. I don't spin (yet), but it looks as if nature is conspiring to make me. :)