ENGLISH BELOW
Cuando empecé a hilar me enseñaron a mover la mano que lleva el huso, y es lo mismo que he visto en los tutoriales de youtube. Sin embargo, mi problema está en estirar y preparar la lana con la otra mano, pero eso es algo que nadie acaba de explicar, se da por sentado.
He pensado que a lo mejor no he preparado bien la lana (también está esquilada de aquella manera y la trabajo como viene), pero noto que la mano izquierda es torpe y débil. Preparar y estirar la lana requiere mucha coordinación y control de la fuerza y no estoy acostumbrada a hacerlo.
Total, que ayer se me ocurrió que a lo mejor puedo girar el huso con la mano izquierda y estirar la lana con la derecha.
He empezado a hilar en la calle a veces, lo que suele traerme a señoras de más de 70 años que hilaban de chicas y que vienen a decirme cosas (normalmente, que qué bien lo hago). Hace décadas que no hilan y ya no tienen las manos con la misma agilidad, así que nunca me acaban de enseñar cómo lo hacían ellas.
Hoy me ha parado una por la calle para corregirme la técnica según me vio ayer y me dijo, cuando le conté que lo que me cuesta es sacar la lana con la mano izquierda, que es que debería de parar para estirar la lana y prepararla y luego guiarla, que no hilas del tirón constantemente. Tiene sentido porque la fibra de la lana es bastante corta, a lo mejor puedes hilar sin parar con lino porque la fibra es más larga, no sé, no consigo lino ni para atrás.
Otra cosa que mencionó como de pasada es que tienes que aprender a hacerlo con las dos manos "como el bolillo", que sí lo haces con la mano izquierda así, pero claro que si te pasa alguna otra cosa, lo tienes que hacer con la otra mano. Como una obviedad grandísima, claro que hilas con la derecha o con la izquierda, y preparas la lana con las dos, algo que nadie me había dicho nunca antes.
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When I learned spinning yarn and what I have seen overall in youtube tutorials is how to spin with the drop spindle hand. However, what I struggle with is drafting with the other hand. And nobody seems to show how to work on that, as if it is secondary.
Maybe I haven't prepared my wool right (I work from poorly sheared fleece), but I also notice that my left hand is clumsy and weak. Drafting requires a lot of coordination and strength control and I am just not used to it.
Just yesterday it occurred to me that maybe I can try to spin with my left hand and draft with my right hand.
I started spinning in the street sometimes, which gives me a lot of conversations with ladies that are over 70 years old who used to spin as kids, and they usually congratulate me on how well I do it. Unfortunately, they haven't spun in decades and their hands are not what they used to, so they cannot show me how they do it themselves.
One of them today told me that actually, you are supposed to stop spinning, prepare the wool for drafting and then kind of guide it with that hand. So it's not supposed to be a constant and continuous flow, which makes sense for wool because the fiber is quite short. Maybe you can draft from flax easily because it's way longer, I don't know, I don't have access to flax.
Anyways, she also mentioned that you have to learn to do it with both hands, "just like with lace". Sure, you will mainly do it with your dominant hand, but sometimes you just can't, so apparently it's so obvious that you just learn to do spinning and drafting with both hands that nobody had thought of telling me before.
Josefin Waltin has said this as well! See this blog post. It's definitely a good idea to learn to use both hands, because it prevents you from overworking one hand with the same motions for many hours. Maybe your old lady has had RSI or a hand injury and learned the hard way.
(I'll admit I haven't tried to learn spinning the other way around yet!)
Have you considered putting your wool on a distaff? It might make it a bit easier to control the fibre. I just watched this video showing a Spanish lady spinning from a distaff. Unfortunately the original Spanish description has been overdubbed with an awful English translation, but there are some pretty good shots of how she is drafting.
Alternatively, if the wool isn't very well-prepared, maybe some better prepared wool would help you get the hang of it?
