Confessions of a beginner hapless spinner

URGENT EMAIL TO SPINNING ENABLERS, AKA SPINNING COMMITTEE:

I've been working (!) with J's spinning wheel, have more or less learned to treadle, and I'm now finding that though it appears to be spinning the fluff well, more or less, it isn't putting it on the bobbin. In fact it's feeding it right back at me! I've tried tightening and loosening everything that seems relevant, but the mystery remains for the Spinning Committee to take under advisement.

What I can't fathom is that if the flyer and the bobbin are moving at the same speed in the same direction, which they are, how can winding take place? doesn't one have to move differently from the other? (editor's note: disregard this bit of demented thinking) and no matter which way I send the wheel, sometimes even on purpose, it still unwinds rather than winds.

J had scrap yarn on there already, and that unwound all over me when I treadled, so whatever I am doing wrong now, I was doing wrong then, too! please advise!

Signed

Hapless Wouldbe Spinner

PART OF KIND,THOUGHTFUL AND PROMPT RESPONSE FROM COMMITTEE MEMBER

Hmmmm. I need to have my wheel in front of me. I'll look at mine tonight - has to be something logical. I have to be doing it, not trying to think it.

EQUALLY PROMPT AND HELPFUL SUGGESTION FROM OTHER COMMITTEE MEMBER (jostling against the other email in the box, they arrived neck and neck)


My guess....you ARE spinning backwards....To start things moving the the right direction, you usually take your right hand, and kind of prime the wheel--that is give it a stroke or two downward to get it going going....Then your foot "listens"...picks up the impetus and sets to work....With seemingly the same foot movement, the wheel can go either direction....(like a kid's tricycle)...it's the hand push that gets you on the right track.....OK...if this doesn't clear the mud a bit, let me know....but I'm fairly sure this will set it right!!! :)

LIGHT DAWNS ON THE HAPLESS SPINNER, HAVING STUDIED ALL THE PROBABILITIES OUTLINED ABOVE, NOT TO MENTION THE PATIENCE SHOWN THEREIN BY COMMITTEE MEMBERS AWARE OF THE OTHER STUFF IN MY LIFE THAT'S MAKING ME SOMEWHAT LESS THAN FUNCTIONAL AT THE MOMENT:

RESPONSE TO KIND REPLIES:

Now, I'm aware that you committee members (editor's note: in real life, these are high level professional women with a hundred pressures unrelated to me and my spinning) really have nothing to do but listen to my whining and fussing over my spinning life, but I think you'll be relieved to hear that I have diagnosed the problem.

It's not how I'm spinning, it's what I'm spinning! I shifted over to crochet cotton to be at the other end of the spectrum in seeing how the bobbining worked, and it winds on just perfectly...which means it was my lumpy misshapen "yarn" that was binding on the hooks and getting the flyer all unglued. In other words, the nut behind the wheel needed adjusting....

So the answer is to do more and get it more yarny as I go.....you may feel free to return to your actual lives now, and thank you for your time, heh.

Seriously, this is pretty good fun! and my cats are seriously studying my current little lumpy output and wondering whether to hunt it down.

Thanks both

END OF MESSAGE

That's the news from this end as of last evening. Then wonderful Abby from Ravelry directed me this morning to a video she'd made which showed exactly how to draft and whatever that other word is, which confirmed that I'd been rushing at it all wrong, how unusual for me.....and now I will Do Better.

It takes a village to teach one beginner to spin.....good thing my life is full of villagers, none with pitchforks!