Tagged: cotton

Taming my Akha spindle

 

 

I bought an Akha spindle from Spindlewood many years ago, but never learned to use it properly. The spindle is very nice, and well made as all spindles from Spindlewood. But I didn’t quite understand the technique with Akha spinning, so I put it away and hoped for better luck later.

That later came a couple of days ago, when my Swedish friend Anna-Britta posted in a Swedish spinning group on Facebook. We had a very interesting chat, watched a few videos on Youtube, and I got inspired enough to pick up my Akha again.

This time I succeeded! It’s so fun! And it’s amazingly effective for cotton spinning. Thank you once more Anna-Britta!

Now I’m waiting for the weather to be warm enough for carding punis outdoors. It was snowing yesterday, but also a few warm and nice moments with an optimistic sun peeping through the clouds. So, maybe next week?

Snow in the middle of May… not unseen in earlier years, but this is too much. It’s been one of the coldest springs the last 100 years.

Norman Kennedy, that enigmatic man

Black Friday brought me a video from Interweave: Norman Kennedy shows how to prepare and spin flax and cotton. Magic! His movements are so self-assured. You immediately understand he’s done this so many times that every movement is in his muscle memory, and that he’s long ago worked out the best way to do every working moment. He’s sparse, it looks like a well choreographed minimalistic performance.

IMG_2973 norman kennedy

IMG_2978 norman kennedy

Magic with a bow string