Learning to spin

Zinzi had her second spinning lesson this week, and her first on the wheel. It’s not the easiest thing to learn but she’s amazingly dedicated and enthusiastic and I’m very impressed with her results. I don’t think I picked it up that quickly!

It’s interesting learning a new skill as an adult if you’re conscious of the learning process. I was fascinated by how my body and my brain tried to get to grips with what needed to be done, and sometimes one would get it before the other. Watching Zinzi her body definitely gets it quickly – within a few minutes she had her foot pedalling and the wheel turning comfortably, although slowing it down is harder than going faster, but that will come. I could see she was trying to get her head around the process of twisting and how much, and how all the elements of the wheel work together and which knob to turn for what effect, and only practice sorts that out.

She’s definitely got the hang of the spindle though, and that’s an important first step. She arrived with some beautiful even fibres and I’m looking forward to teaching her to  knit so she can turn the fruits of her labour into something useful.