Sunday, October 4, 2009

The water and the blood

As we say in hungarian... blood will not turn into water... in other words the apple will not fall far from its tree...
Both phrase means that one just cannot deny his/her genes...
As I am getting older I find out that I am more and more like my ancestors... there were dressmakers, and not long after I stopped sewing for money I found that those women worked the same style I did. Of course I cannot deny my mother or my paternal grandmother either, I only have to look in the mirror, not to mention how close I feel to them when I knit...
And then I found out something else... only after bought my first spindle, learned the basics of how to spin and showing to my father "look dad, what can I do" did he told me, that my grandmother not only sewed, embroidered, crocheted and knitted, but...
...
...
...
...
She also was a SPINNER... in fact she had angora bunnies, and she spun angora, which at the time was the poor man's wool...
No wonder I am so enchanted by spinning, and also no wonder I became so much better at spinning in a relatively short time... Of course I am still a beginner... but look:

I did this in august, and looks like this plied:

And with the help of my father (who instead of saying I am a total idiot taking up an other time, and space and money consuming hobby,for some reason was enchanted by the fact that I am interested in spinning) I got this beauty:

A spinning wheel from Tirol... It needs the hooks replaced on the flyer and some of the joints strengthen, but it is pretty nonetheless...
And then I found this one for next to nothing... less pretty, more sturdy, a wheel from northern Hungary.

And guess what... maybe because of the lack of time for trying and learn how to use the wheels, or maybe just because I like the spindles, I am still spinning with them...
Here is some lace-weight spinned from merino-silk... as a single:

And the thicknes after pyling:

(yes, that is an american cent... leftover from my time in Miami)
the firts 50 gramms became 300 meters of 2 ply:

3 comments:

Brussels Chronicles said...

Absolutely beautiful ! You are right, ancestry is right there in your genes, I discovered my "thing" with horses has something to do with my great-grandfather having a horse-carriage business...

Anonymous said...

Jealous(1)! Your laceweight is *gorgeous*!

ritarenata said...

csinosak,