Spinning for the soul



One of the things I love about spinning and weaving is that it can be extremely relaxing and meditative. I hadn’t expected that, it came as a bit of a surprise, but when I thought about it I should have known this. Didn’t Gandhi use spinning as a meditative exercise as well as revolutionising a craft industry that took his country to independence? The answer of course is yes he did and I can understand both how and why. 

In today’s very materialistic world people use possessions as a way to display their so called worth and value to others; those with wealth have power and power is the ultimate aim isn’t it?
Well it doesn’t have to be; being independent of the mass industrialised profiteering ethos is extremely freeing and has a feel good factor massively more than the possession of the latest in thing. There is of course the temptation to have the latest in thing for your cottage craft but that isn’t because of peer pressure to have something better than those next door; it is instead the satisfaction of having something your soul really enjoys engaging in.

I, like Gandhi, have found a great pleasure in spinning my own yarn, being able to take that yarn and weave it into something that is both functional and I believe is also beautiful. There is something special about an item you have made yourself and it becomes even more valuable the closer to 100% home crafted you make it. I started with weaving but soon found myself attracted to the idea of spinning my own yarn from commercially available prepared wool. As nice as that was it just wasn’t quite as nice as the idea of hand produced fibre, so the next step was to buy carding combs and a little washed fleece, and from there the inevitable happened and the house soon became a sheep laundry with fleeces washed in a bin in our bath and dried on the clothes rack in front of the radiator.

All of this is labour intensive and yet it is probably the most satisfying thing that I have ever done in my life. The spinning wheel gets used every day, the weaving gets to progress as the yarn is produced and the items that are the end product are valued much more than any off the shelf bought present. 

But it is the value to the very spirit that can’t be described, the whole process is both satisfying and uplifting; so much so that I’ve gone mad and taken the next step too – a small Charkha book spinning wheel, similar to the one designed and used by Gandhi whilst in prison, that will be used for spinning cotton to sew my items together – well at least some of them and a spindle wheel for spinning wool whilst out and about. Everything is getting simpler and having a calming effect upon the mind and spirit – I can’t fault that.
 So if you need that excuse to buy a new wheel, carder or whatever - just do it - it is good for the soul.

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