Yarn with no integrity!

I did not really want to admit this. It has taken me more than a week to gather up my courage to confess publicly how well, err, how much I still have to learn after attending year two of the Olds Master Spinners course. The course is starting to get technical about our spinning. Things like how many twists per inch (TPI) in your yarn, the number of wraps per inch (WPI), the number of treadles you treadle while drafting a foot of yarn. Stuff like that. Technical things that are expected to be achieved by accomplished spinners, which we were expected to be. We would be given assignments and told to spin it, mark it with all the vital yarn info (TPI, WPI, twist angle) and hand it in for assessment. The instructor would then review our attempts in a class discussion. She held up mine as...

"a perfect example of a yarn WITH NO INTEGRITY! " . I gulped.

I cringed. I grinned like a sheepishly like an idiot. She went on. "It is subject to pilling! And, abrasion! To pulling apart. Wearing out. " Oh myyy gaaawd. I wanted to hide under a fleece. I thought about the baskets and baskets of my hand spun yarn without integrity, waiting for me at home (remember the 774 grams of Gotland I just spun....down the tube.) . Waiting to pill and fall apart. And Priscilla-the-fleeceless-sheep-that-rules-my-stash whom I could hear even from this distance saying "I could have told you THAT."

So much for the learning theory that goes something like 'sleep on it and your brain will incorporate the concepts and muscle movements while you sleep.' Yeah right. If you consider that I started spinning 30 years ago and stopped for 28 years before starting again a year ago, you could say I have been sleeping on it for at least 28 years! To no avail.I spent the two day drive home in the car using a drop spindle, learning how to spin yarn with integrity. Maybe in another 28 years.