Spinning at South Dearborn High School

Spinning and weaving are hobbies of mine and I love sharing them with others. So I was delighted to be invited–again–

Unrolling a raw fleece with all its dirt, muck, and lanolin. The clean side was next to the skin of the sheep.

to give a presentation to the textile class of Janie Hiltz at South Dearborn High School. I had such a fun time! I love talking about spinning and fibers and it was wonderful to have a class of girls who were interested, polite, and who asked lots of questions.

I brought several kinds of fiber with me to show the class that wool is not the only fiber you can spin. I brought angora from a rabbit, llama, alpaca, mohair, cashmere from goats, as well as several types of sheep wool. I also brought some sample fibers from plants such as bamboo, corn, soybeans, hemp, flax, and cotton.

One surprise I brought was for all of us. I didn’t have a raw fleece on hand so I borrowed one from a friend. It had been sheared and stuffed into a burlap bag. I hadn’t seen it until we dumped it out on a table and unrolled it. I explained a little bit of how a fleece is cleaned and prepared

After the class, some of the girls wanted to try their hand at spinning on the wheel.

for spinning.

I gave each student a piece of wool and let them learn to finger spin it. Some of them were still working on it by the end of the class!

I also covered the history of spinning. We have evidence of spinning from 14,000 years ago. Some potter had pressed a piece of cloth against a wet clay pot. Archaeologists could see that impression and could tell that those people in what is now Turkey were spinning and weaving, and quite well. I talked about the development of the spinning wheel and talked about how new things are still being invented to make them better.

I had such a great time! Yesterday I received a gift card, a thank you note from the girls, and some pictures I wanted to share. I love these pictures! Thank you!