Hand Spinning workshop at the Studio!

When Jaya Srikrishnan informed she would be visiting Chennai in December on a vacation and offered to conduct a workshop on Hand spinning, anticipation started building up! We kind of guessed it would be good but never thought it would be so much fun!

On Day 1, Jaya explained the basic physics of spinning, twists, drafts and then started spinning with some nice merino wools. It was interesting for the participants to learn about staple lengths, how much to feed, where & how to hold the sliver and all little nuances!

Jaya is not only a great spinner but a fantastic teacher with a lot of patience too! Her analogies got etched in the minds… sample this: ‘hold the sliver like a pakshi (bird)’ !

On Day 2, we moved on to cottons! Yes, we prepared the ginned cotton using hand carders to make little punis and started spinning! Required some practice in long draw but once you get a hold of it, no stopping spinning!

We even used the freshly spun cotton singles as weft and did weave on the Saori loom!!  Well, it is an even yarn but then it is not bad for a first time spinner, huh?! Moreover the fabric had a ‘character’ so no complaints:-)

It was nice to make a truly khadi yarn and weave it!

Jaya’s dictum when a participant was holding back the yarn for long without feeding the spinning wheel: ‘don’t be kanjoos (stingy), feed the wheel generously’!

On the final day, the participants were like kids in a gaming centre :-) Jaya got us started on thick & thin slub yarns, inserting beads in singles, plying, novajo chain ply, cable yarn & coiled yarns! It was like we were in a ‘time-less’ world!

In addition to learning all these, we also enjoyed Jaya’s  ‘pull like a toffee’, ‘twist is like a river’,…..

Looking forward to your next visit already Jaya!

Anyone interested in learning the basics of hand spinning, pl contact us for workshops!

 To explore about hand spinning workshops and register a session, pl click here