{"id":5511,"date":"2018-05-05T18:46:56","date_gmt":"2018-05-05T06:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/?p=5511"},"modified":"2019-09-05T14:07:06","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T02:07:06","slug":"im-spinning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/im-spinning\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m Spinning"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the things I appreciate about living on the farmlet is all the resource on my doorstep.<\/p>\n

Need a Christmas tree<\/a>? No problem, head out to\u00a0The Strip<\/a> and chainsaw down one of the stunted pines on\u00a0the west boundary.<\/span>
\nBiomass for the compost heap? We grow great weeds<\/a>.
\nDidn’t get to Mitre 10 to buy hooks for your homemade coat rack? It took me a while, but eventually I figured out I could just raid the Seven Acre Wood for some hook-like sticks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Coat<\/a>

After all, weren’t the very first hooks just sticks?<\/p><\/div>\n

The arrival of the sheep<\/a> got me excited about a new resource. Those self-shedders leave cute little tufts of wool all around the paddock. Now how cool is that? Visions of hand dyed, home knitted socks and jerseys danced in my head. Naturally I shared my ambition with my friend, and inveterate sock-knitter, Nurse Jenny, and after we’d jumped up and down a little bit in excitement and Googled how to dye wool with lichen and onion skins (we got a bit ahead of ourselves), she suggested something wonderful.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Castle<\/a>

Jenny’s spinning wheel<\/p><\/div>\n

A few weekends later Jenny and her Auntie Cynthia arrived at the farmlet with this spinning wheel which once belonged to Jenny’s mum.\u00a0It’s a beauty, and they are very kindly letting me have it on long term loan so that I can teach myself to spin. That’s right people, I’m going to spin that cute fluffy sheep wool into yarn. Eventually (just as well it’s a long term loan).<\/p>\n

Learning to spin is a bit like my memories of learning to drive; there are multiple physical and cognitive tasks involved, all of which need to happen\u00a0<\/span>simultaneously, continuously, and at speed. Thankfully the worst consequences of a brain freeze during spinning are lumpy wool and colourful language (yup, I’ve been talking in all the colours). The process is a sobering reminder of the effort that was involved in keeping yourself clothed until just a few hundred years ago.\u00a0It makes me very grateful that I’m creating yarn from raw wool for fun, and that I still get to buy my undies at Kmart.<\/p>\n

\"Homespun<\/a>

Homespun raw lamb’s wool.<\/p><\/div>\n

As you can see, my early attempts are considerably more ‘textured’ than is desirable, (let’s just be kind and label it\u00a0boucl\u00e9<\/a>?), but I’m sure that eventually the wheel and I will come to an arrangement. After all driving soon became second nature, and even though I once thought I’d never manage to ride Summer bareback at a trot (she’s got a very bouncy trot) I eventually mastered that too. It’s all about practice.<\/p>\n

And once I\u00a0<\/span>get going I will be able spin yarn to knit into all sorts of things. Well, all sorts of very, very small things anyway. Anyone need an egg cosy?<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the things I appreciate about living on the farmlet is all the resource on my doorstep. Need a Christmas tree? No problem, head out to\u00a0The Strip and chainsaw down one of the stunted pines on\u00a0the west boundary. Biomass… Continue Reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50,63,80,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-farm-life","category-friends","category-spinning","category-wool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5511"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6494,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5511\/revisions\/6494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}