Plying The Yarn

Only a cotton ball, ephemeral cloud puff,

disjointed droplets of hitched illusion,

vast transient mass of unknowing.

Merely threads drawn, from ether drafted,

teased and twisted, plying the yarn,

distaff to spindle.

Simply the twists manipulated,

skeined slivers

executing and shivering,

separating the strands.

Purely an otherworld undertaking,

commissioned assignment.

Only every fibre pulled and plucked

for purpose.

Just words.

Advertisement

20 thoughts on “Plying The Yarn”

      2. Can you do that? I don’t mean, can one do that? But can you? Awesome. I can knit and sew like a fiend when in the right mood (though not since blogging started!) But to to do the whole process start to finish would be incredible. Do you really know how to do that? I just googled terminology to weave the words. Well, I knew a few of them but that doesn’t count in the face of experience. I bow. I hope you teach that and pass it on. These things should never be allowed to die.x

        Like

      3. Oh, yes, I’ve been spinning for almost 20 years. I would think you could find spinsters local to you without much trouble. I do teach, mostly sock knitting these days as there are other spinners at my local shop who teach. Are you on Ravelry?

        http://www.startingoverdesigns.wordpress.com is my fiber blog, although I haven’t been posting much lately – too busy with alpaca shearing and assorted other stuff. I will be entering a “longest thread” contest that I have to get started on June 1. I’ll try to get some pictures and info up as that happens if you’re interested.

        Like

      4. I’d be interested in pics of that although I doubt I’ll ever try it. Old dog and new tricks, you know. But it’s great that you teach and pass on the skills. Where are you from that you are shearing alpaca and spinning is not a lost art?x

        Like

      5. I live in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, USA, Lebanon to be precise. There are many sheep farms and quite a few alpaca ranches here. Not large farms, but smaller operations. There are two ladies in my Fiber Night group who have about 25 alpacas each and the ranch I’ve talked about has 100+ alpacas and a few sheep, watched over by guardian dogs.

        Like

      7. Today, all weekend in fact, it is dry and dusty with bits of alpaca spit flying through the air as we shear, give shots and trim toenails. It’s a LOT of work to get the fleece off and the alpacas aren’t really all that enthusiastic about having it done. I am knackered. Tomorrow is work in the office all day and then a few hours of shearing. All this to earn some of the lovely fleece to spin into yarn.

        Like

Comments are closed.