Instead of spin logging, today I tell you what is so cool (and frankly, a bit addictive) about spinning, so if you are on the fence as to whether you need this new hobby in your life in 2025, you can blame me for enabling you
1. FAST REWARD (WHEN LEARNING AND WHEN DOING)
Like all crafting hobbies, spinning takes a bit of technique learning and this comes with practice. However, it doesnât take long to pick it up and start spinning. What takes long is achieving regular and consisting spuns, but once you have a spindle, some fleece and a Youtube video showing you how to do it, chances are that youâll be spinning some yarn of varying quality by the end of that video.
With other fiber arts like knitting, crocheting, lace making, or sewing, the learning process before you can produce something that really looks like the thing you wanted to make is longer.
When youâre doing it (not only learning), you see the product almost immediately. The transformation from fleece to yarn is nearly immediate and you literally see the fiber turn into yarn in your hands. While it might take a while to finish a project (like, finishing spinning the entire fleece, plying, washing, drying), every single spinning session leaves you with the feel of having made a lot of progress.
So this makes spinning a fast rewarding craft.
If you have watched Once Upon a Time, you may remember that when Emma becomes the Dark One, Rumplestiltskin tells her something like: âYou need a hobby to take your mind off the horrible things youâre going to do, like knitting. Thatâs why I spin.â
Now Iâm not the Dark One and I donât go around terrorizing villages during the day, but I do have a job that requires my brain capacity at its full the entire time and for 10-11 hours a day. A reason why I stopped playing the piano or reading in the evening is that my brain just cannot make it.
Fiber arts are generally good at taking your mind off things, and many can be done while thinking about something else or even while looking at something else (like watching movies). Spinning is, in my view, the one that takes the lowest concentration because thereâs no scheme or pattern to be followed, no stitch count, no paying much attention to the next step. So when youâre so tired that even following a scheme and counting stitches seems an impossible task, spinning can be an option.
Even if you start like me by just randomly buying some fiber and spinning for the sake of spinning, at some point you will inevitably observe the differences between different fibers. You will see how different fibers such as merino, corriedale, alpaca, kashmir, plant fibers behave and what yarn you can make out of them. You might learn about the existence of types of wool or plant fibers you never heard before. At some point youâll research about sheep breeds and learn about them, wonder about their welfare, maybe start paying attention to where your fibers come from.
You decide the gauge of your yarn, if itâs bulky or lace weight. If you card your fiber, you also decide on its blend. If you dye your fiber, you decide on all the shades and appearance.
5. IT IS, IN PRINCIPLE, A CHEAP HOBBY (BUT WATCH OUT FOR THE RABBIT HOLE)
Okay letâs talk about the question everyone asks: whether itâs an expensive hobby and whether it costs less than buying yarn.
Starting to spin can be cheap. My first drop spindle was about 13âŹ. My first 100g of eider wool were less than 2âŹ. That, plus shipment because I bought them from an online shop, and I could start spinning with less than 20âŹ.
Also, in general, fiber is cheaper than yarn of the same composition. Like, 50 g of 100% wool for knitting cost more than the same weight of wool for spinning.
However, even if you stay with a cheap drop spindle, the time you invest in making the yarn has a value. Whether your yarn is cheaper or not than the one you buy depends on how you value this time (if you do not value it as an expense because you enjoy the hobby of spinning, then spinning with a cheap drop spindle is indeed cheaper than buying yarn)
But there is a rabbit hole waiting for you and luring you in: at some point, you will want more fiber. This will easily turn into a stash occupying many boxes (and costing more money than if you were just buying the yarn you need for a project).
And of course, at some point there will be the temptation / urge / need to get the spinning wheel. If you buy it new, itâs somewhere between 400⏠and 1200⏠depending on the model. This will take a while to be amortized against the extra expense that would incur if you bought yarn.
Once you enter the spinning wheel loop, there will be other things tempting you (a matching stool for the spinning wheel, another lazy kate, a bigger flyer, a ball winder, a swiftâŠ)
In general, if youâre thinking about this hobby with the idea of saving money on yarn, I have to say itâs probably not the best reason for starting it. But at least in principle, it is something you can try out with a small investment and then decide if pursuing with more tools and material.
6. USING (DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY) YOUR YARN
If you use your yarn for knitting or crocheting or weaving, you will have the satisfaction of creating and obtaining a finished product that you have made from the raw fiber. Itâs a sort of upgrade of the already valid satisfaction of making something from a storebought ball of yarn with your hands.
If you donât use your yarn, like I do, itâs still cool to think that you transformed fiber into usable yarn. And you can gift it (or sell it, if you prefer). I like the idea of gifting my yarn to people I know will make better use of it and will produce a better result than anything I could do with my limited crochet/knitting skills. And all knitters / crochet artists are happy to receive new yarn.
Thatâs all I could think of for now. If you are a spinner and want to add more cool things about spinning that should convince other tumblers to spin, please share in the reblogs!
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