On 18 december I made the long journey from Amsterdam to a city far outside de Randstad (2 hours by train is long by Dutch standards, actually) and spent the afternoon learning about spinning from a bonafide expert. Tragically, spinning seems to involve even more maths than knitting does. I was quite good at maths in high school, but it's been over a decade and hearing about how a spinning wheel works is now a little like a lecture on aerospace engineering. Something about different speeds of spinning wheels being used to create a pull? In any case, I enjoyed testing out the one and two-pedal spinning wheels. Getting the rhythm right with one foot while feeding the machine an even yarn is tricky and yet very addictive. I think I may make a point not to buy a spinning wheel for fear of the road it will inevitably lead me down. Already this spinning project distracts me from my other passions.

The big gamechanger, of course, was the part of the workshop where we practised using a drop spindle. And, as it turns out, the biggest obstacle in my ambition of spinning silk wasn't even my own person. Instead, I should have gone for a much lighter spindle, so as not to pull the yarn apart and allow for the spinning of much finer fibre. This, in turn, means nicely even 2-ply yarns become feasible. I've been practising like mad with some commercial silk hankies, and I've already been seeing improvement over the past 24 hours thanks to my new spindle and some valuable tips on how to tie together loose ends (a very common issue for any spinner, apparently). Right now, I'm trying to get a fine thread that is slightly too tightly spun, because then—when I spin the two together counter-clockwise later—the combined yarn will be perfectly balanced. Again, that's the idea here. I get the impression I may need to lower my standards slightly. Silk hankies simply do not lend themselves to very even thread.

In short, I've plenty to work on over Christmas. My wrist is recovering from surgery still, but it's growing more flexible and I'm optimistic!