Wovember 22 – Practical

Practical? What is Practical about wool and making your own yarn?

That was my first impulse to this prompt.

There is plenty practical about wool the fiber…it will keep you warm and also keep you cool. It is environmentally sustainable and recyclable. The variety it comes in is exciting. It need not be difficult to handle if you will be ‘gentle’.

As to making your own yarn…Practical…perhaps not.

You do not have to raise and shear your own sheep to enjoy spinning wool. Trust me there are plenty of shepherds out there that would like their wonderful fleeces to go to good homes. Also an infinite variety of wool types to be found.

Spinning your own yarn – practical? Well I suppose it isn’t if you are in a hurry or need a very specific yarn or a huge quantity of that yarn. Go buy it if it makes you happy.

But if you are into the ‘slow’ food process part of the slow movement, then you might enjoy spinning your own yarn. I’m not going to advocate for the slow movement, but I think the idea of connecting to the products you use and making them last more than a few uses or wearings is a good thing.

With spinning, wool or cotton or other fibers, you are very tactilely involved with the process. It can be meditative, but also frustrating when you ‘lose’ your yarn because it breaks or the spinning wheel takes up too fast and pulls it out of your hands, or your drop spindle ‘drops’. Very easy to lose your cool.

But back to PRACTICAL…wool fiber is…renewable, recyclable, dyeable, spinable, warm, but also cool if woven very thin and worn loose, an ‘old fiber’ that is infinitely ‘new’ again, PRACTICAL.