This is why I Spin Yarn 🧶 

Growing up my family spent our summers on an island in Maine. We had a 150 sheep. My dad has made custom spinning wheels for over 40 years. My mom knitted me a sweater, when I was 8 from my favorite sheep Moe. It’s still called my Moe Sweater. He had only 3 legs. Crochet and knitting keeps my hand busy and calms my brain. I’m starting to spin again… I’m trying to regain my muscle memory. Thank you for this video. It’s wonderful.

You may appreciate this: An acquaintance had a barn FULL of raw fleeces, mostly Romney, in every shade possible. He was trying make room for more and had no use for them, so invited me to come take what I wanted (I don't remember if I paid or not). I walked into the barn, inhaled the sheepy smell, and looked around at clear bags of fleeces of all colors, piled up everywhere. I practically swooned. He said, "Oh, you're one of those." I asked what he meant, and he said, "I don't know what it is, but every time a spinner walks into this barn, they get that same weird look on their face." It's a look of ecstasy, I suppose.

I was feeling chilly last night so I wrapped up in a beautiful blue and white wool blanket that a friend I taught to weave twenty-five years ago made for me on an old loom of my mother's. One day while my friend was weaving, she told me that the act of weaving made her feel like she was stepping off the bank into a long wide river filled with the thoughts and dreams of all the weavers in the world who went before her. I think my blue and white blanket must be infused with some of those thoughts and dreams, including hers and my mother's.

Through my spinning, weaving and knitting I feel a connection to the past. In 1992, I taught myself to spin. I felt that I belonged at a spinning wheel. Some of my mother's family worked in spinning and weaving mills in Scotland and New England. Her 2 aunt's were handkniters. It's in my blood. I find spinning calming.

THIS! It’s not especially practical, it’s not especially cost effective, but I love it. I love feeling like I’m preserving a skill that shouldn’t be lost. Things traditionally considered “woman’s work” like sewing, embroidery, weaving, are slipping away in modern society and I think we lose something when we lose those skills. Mainly an ability to do something for ourselves and not have it handed to us. Just because I sew doesn’t mean I want to hem your pants. You have access to needles, thread, and RU-vid, so don’t look at me like I’ve asked you to walk on water. It’s been done for thousands of years so I’m pretty sure you can do it too.

I saw someone spinning, and something inside me awoke as though a past life was coming through. I followed the feeling, and 5 years later, I'm still in love with it and can not see myself not doing it xx

It is so refreshing and uplifting to know I’m not the only one who feels a strong desire to find connection through the art of making, and in the process,discover the wonders of living with intention. Slowing down and reconnecting with our deepest selves and with our human history. Thank you Jillian for everything you are doing to keep fiber arts and education alive. We need it now more than ever. ❤

I have to tell you this was one of the loveliest, most enjoyable videos I've watched in many years. And to answer your question I learned to spin last year so I could gift my husband a scarf and hat set made from the fluff I saved for many years from our Husky. She was his baby and she passed away at 15 years old. And I learned to knit 6 years ago because my daughter used to knit lovely things and when she had her baby girl she couldn't wait to teach her that beautiful craft. She died of cancer when her daughter was only two and I decided I was going to be the one to teach her so I learned everything off of RU-vid videos. In fact you taught me a lot about how to spin as well. So now my granddaughter is eight years old and I just started teaching her how to knit and now she wants to learn how to spin as well and help make my husbands gift from our dog's yarn whom she loved as well . Thank you so much for all of your videos. You always brighten my day with your sunshiny spirit…

I wanted to learn how to spin for decades, it wasn't until a few years ago that I finally did it. An advid crafter for my entire life, I have learned many crafts, mostly self taught. From crochet to sewing to soap making & spinning. I have always been able to move to the next level. Although I would love to farm acres, I have turned my backyard into an itty-bitty farm. Of course, I have fiber animals. The only ones that can fit into my space are Angora Bunnies. Getting in contact with local farmers, I can source Icelandic wool, alpaca fleece & mix it with my angora fiber. Spinning is a multi sensory experience, I feel the fiber traveling through my fingers, I see it form into yarn as it winds onto the bobbin, the slight aroma, feeling the wood as I treadle & of course the slight sound as the wheel spins. With all that going on, I can ignore the unpleasant things that are happening around me. I know it's temporary, but it sure helps to get away from it for a few hours.

My why might seem simple to some but is actually quite complex when you understand that I was adopted and didn’t learn my true heritage until I was in my mid-40’s. Once I learned that heritage, I felt a deep yearning to connect with my ancestors. Primarily of Irish decent, working with wool felt natural. Now, every time I sit in front of my wheel or grab a spindle or pick up a cake of my hand spun, I feel that connection.

I love the way you speak about spinning, I've found it hard to articulate these same ideas to people who ask me why I spin and hearing it from you is beautiful. Thank you

That blue fiber is beeeauuutiful! 💙 My brother had a similar response when he saw me knitting a sweater that I had spun yarn for...":o why?!" He couldn't believe all that work was just for enjoyment and not a side gig lol.

What a wonderful reverie. Thank you for this. We as modern people are so spoiled. It used to take a village to make clothing. My spinning guru loved to weave. (not my thing but...) She told me that it took 8 spinners to service one weaver. When people ask me what I make with my spinning, I tell them I make yarn. I love the quizzical looks I get to that answer. Thank you again for this lovely valentine to spinning. From a Louisiana spinner...

I just love how well you put the connections we feel emotionally to fibercraft into words. Such a fantastic video. Can’t wait to see your projects!

When I became homeless what I missed the most was the beautiful art (and squishy socks) I'd been surrounded with. But a friend gave me a bag of yarn and my espinner miraculously returned in a box with my school stuff. Every day I think about what's left behind! There's just so much to catch up.

Thank you so much for this video. I listened to it while I was weaving this morning (raise your hand if you too listened while weaving, knitting, crocheting, spinning, embroidering, or working on any other form of fiber that I may have missed…..✋🏻) . Not only are you inspirational, but you let others know that we are not alone in how we feel about the history of textiles and trying to keep this beautiful art form going.

Thank you. I've been in a rough place and haven't touched my wheel or loom in months. This helped remind me why I create.

I started spinning in the fall of 2012, I was teaching early American History in my homeschool and wanted my children to get a better understanding of what it took for people to clothe themselves before the industrial revolution. I made a couple of spindles from to wheels and dowel rods and found a part of a fleece online and bought some handcards from the sister of a homeschool friend. This same lad had a loom and I bought it too. My daughter and I each have spinning wheels, spindles, fleece, top, dyes, looms, and a drum carder. I also have two electric spinners. We are so far down the rabbit hole, and loving it still.

I learned that spinning was still a thing last summer. I didn't even know people still did this, or know really anything about it. I got my Turkish spindles and started small. I just got my first spinning wheel less than a month ago and already feel like I have a pretty good handle on it. It just fits and I really enjoy doing it. I'm not fast at all at knitting or crocheting, but I don't think it takes that long to spin up a bunch of fiber.

I love spinning on my spindles, so calming.

Why did I start spinning? Poverty...i figured out it is cheaper to buy a raw fleece and do the work myself than to go to the store 60 miles away and buy synthetic yarn. Why do i continue to spin? Because I NEED to. My failing body and brain get exercise from the physical motion, the calculations of how big to spin the yarn to get the yardage I need for the project I want to make. I love that the waste from the cleaning of the wool goes into my garden and makes my plants grow. I love that the things I make go mostly to my granddaughters and friends so that they can have real wool stuff too. I love that the rugs I have made can get washed and sun dried and smell heavenly...and last more than 2 washings. I love that you and folks like you are here to teach me what i don't know. My biggest regret? That I can't send you a paycheck for all your hard work, information, joy, time, experience...because well, even small amounts of money just don't exist for me right now. Icelandic is my favorite wool to work with. I can't wait to see your Icelandic journey. Anyway, hugs, Happy Valentines day, and most of all thank you for what you do.

i finally got myself a spinning wheel last month and i've been binge watching your videos ever since. you have taught me so much, so thank you for everything!

I spin yarn, I knit, I crochet. I love to make useful, wearable things with my hands. Holding a finished product that I made from scratch gives me such pride and pleasure, like nothing else. Making clothes at the slow pace that humankind used to do for thousands of years is a grounding experience in this fast world we live in. Thank you, Evie, for sharing your story! Much love!❤

Let me start by saying I am an old soul. I feel like there is a being inside me from some long forgotten century that is scratching to get out. I have want to make my own yarn to find that connection. I garden and preserve food for much the same reason. I have always felt that we as a modern people have so many issues because we have lost the connection to our roots and our families. I loved this video so much

My mother taught me how to knit. But spinning came into my life just a few years ago although I wanted to learn how to spin since I was a child. Now I can't imagine my life without spinning. Spinning has given me new friendships.

I don’t spin (just knit) but i adore your videos. Great storyteller, cover history, economics, ecosystems… fascinating stuff

You thought me how to drop spin. Last summer I spun my own sheep’s (Baabaaraa) full fleece. I am grateful for your upbeat presence in my life. 😊

I spin, knit, and weave for my over all mental health. It can relax my stress, satisfy my need to problem solve, & give a boost to my self-esteem.

This is soo relatable and very similar to my journey into fiber art and all the other arts. I also make my own paint from rocks, and use natural materials for all my art making. It makes such a difference to learn how things are made and where they came from and connects us to our roots and the earth! I could talk about these things all day but most people don't relate, it was soo nice to hear you talk about it. Also, your hair looks amazing! Love that color on you.

I love this so much, thank you for this video! I'm very new to spinning, have been knitting seriously for over a year while trying to recover from chronic illness and my interest in how yarn is made and the connection to where it originally has come from has been growing steadily over that time. Someone in my knit and spin group has lent me a wheel to see how I get on with it for which I'm so grateful. I was laughing with someone today how it's typical I choose these expensive hobbies at a time of my life when I'm not able to earn an income unfortunately, and it made me think, why am I not happy with a simpler/cheaper hobby like embroidery or drawing or whatever - but it's the act of making something that is useful as well as creative that I find particularly satisfying, and your video helps me see the reasons behind that, especially a distaste for fast fashion and a throwaway culture. Sorry if this comment sounds rather rambled. Just wanted to express how much of what you say resonated with me 😄

I got into spindle spinning a few years ago. My neighbour had “lawnmower” alpacas. I asked what she did with the fleece. She answered that she used it as a WEED MAT in the garden. I bought a garbage bag full of her fleece for $20 and a year later I presented her with a pair of hand spun, dyed and knitted mittens. From her own alpacas. She was gobsmacked. I have not stopped since then. I love it. Especially the different dyes you can use. Great video, I feel where you are coming from 👍

I wonder if it's a product of reading the Omnivore's Dilemma. I, too, have been investigating a method of living more locally, and more sustainably. I've started learning to make my own clothes, my own blankets, rugs, produce my own foods. I feel the same, and I'm slowly working towards a type of more sustainable, local, living. And I picked up my first spindle recently too. :D

Such a lovely video💕 There are so many feelings you have as an artist that are like those of the shepherdess...the peace and nourishment, the patience of growing a fleece for a full year before shearing, the joy of seeing something beautiful created. Thank you!😊

I can relate to this video on so many levels. I no longer feel alone and the seeing the response to video shows such a wonderful, vast community who feel the same. I can feel your, passion, care and enthusiasm and thank you for sharing this with us. It brings me great comfort xx

I'm learning to write in English so here's my try: I'm deeply in love with you and your way of sharing knowledge and interests. Thank you and keep making our days happy ✨🥰❣️

I'm like you Evie...I had a hunger for 'something'... feeling growing concern that we, as a society, have outsourced our essentials for life. I started with growing veg in amongst my flowers in our (then) tiny front yard. I brought my daughters up to be able to pop out and pick food that we could eat that night. I quickly went to spinning when I happened upon an antique spinning wheel. This was before the internet and learning via an old dusty book from the library was hard and slow! Skip forward almost 30 years and now we have 5 acres, I have 6 fleece from my own sheep (waiting to be processed!) We grow and preserve a decent amount of food and I have that satisfied, content feeling that has been growing since watching my first seedlings come up through the compost. We aren't self sufficient, but we are doing our part and we are as organic as possible. My prayers are that what used to be called 'womens work' back in the day as an insult will be held as a badge of honour as time passes ❤️🙏

I loved “Braiding Sweetgrass” and all of Michael Poland’s books! It was lovely to find out that they were important to you too.

OMGoodness! I can relate so well to that moment when “something clicked”. I feel so connected with every project. There is just something about having a raw fleece and processing it from sheep to a garment. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, the process is so calming and spinning is like meditation for me. ❤

You're making me cry 😭 this is so beautiful and makes me want to start doing this myself

Thank you so much for the videos you have made, for nearly a week I have been bedridden with a crippling earache (I think my other symptoms are reducing just not yet the earache). I have been a yarn crafter for most of my life and had many many wonderful teachers. A couple of days ago a friend sent my your video and it was a God send as I found it was one of the few ways I had of distracting myself....thanks to you I put on your videos, put my earbud in my good ear and am nearly finished myown basic design singlet. You are such a God Send. Thank you

Your little sheep is Oliver Twist ..of course. Spinning was therapeutic through the last 6yrs where I felt like I was being pulled apart, broken into little pieces. I visualized coming together and becoming strong as the alpaca fibers came together and plied together became strong, resilient. 34 yrs ago I taught myself to spin intending to knit my love a sweater... that is still undone, like the relationship. Remember the song "Cotton, the fabric of your life'? Its more like spinning, the meditation of uncertainty.

Why spin? Why weave? Why knit? Why crochet? You can just go out and buy (yarn, clothing… etc). Yes, you can go out and buy something ready-made. But the yarn and the pieces you make serve more purposes than their utilitarian use. Spinning, knitting, weaving and crochet for most of us who do it serve as a hobby, a stress-release, something we get energy from and replenish ourselves with. The fact that what we do as a hobby yields something useful is an added bonus. An item that was handcrafted has added value. A sweater quickly grabbed off the rack will probably not make us as upset if it gets damaged or lost as something we spent hours on making. We treasure those items and it’s not just because of the time investment. Those hours also encompass a lot of thoughts we milled over during the making of it. We can do a lot of healing during those hours. They keep us sane. A lot of memories and life events can happen while we are working on a project. My ‘main’ craft is lace knitting. I rarely ever sell my pieces. I don’t own many because they end up being given away to people I love for very special reasons. They in turn treasure those pieces. I remember crying for hours when a blanket my grandmother pieced together with yarn scraps and painstakingly crocheted to keep herself warm at night got irreparably damaged. It was mostly cheap acrylic yarn, the colours weren’t pretty, but it was grandma’s, it was HER. My mother treasures my first ever ‘nice’ lace shawl that I gave her one year for Christmas. My sister equally treasures the one I made for her. I’m just starting my journey into spinning and I hope that by the time my daughter finishes college (she’s starting this fall) I’ll be able to spin enough laceweight yarn to knit her a lace wedding shawl when she starts her journey into fully fledged life as an adult. It doesn’t matter if she ever gets married or not. I just want to be able to give her a piece that is elegant, beautiful, delicate, and not just hand-knitted but also hand-spun. If I ever get grandkids it would be nice to be able to give baby blankets that aren’t just hand-knitted or crocheted, but hand spun. Something you can hardly find anymore. For that same reason I make my own fruit wines and meads. I forage the fruit, get honey from a beekeeper, develop my recipe, let time and the knowledge my grandmother handed down to me (yes, she taught me to make mead too) do their thing. My dog needs to be walked, might as well forage along the way. Home brewing doesn’t need a lot of hands-on time, most of it is waiting. But it connects you to the contents of the bottle. In a similar manner, crafting and therefore spinning, connects you to the end result. Spinning or any other craft isn’t practical, usually not about savings or money. It’s more often than not about connection and about the journey. At least, that’s my take on it.

Thank you so much for sharing your passion. It was so poetic, and it looks like it touch my soul not only through screen but also through continents. I love spinning and crocheing and knitting cause my grandma use to do it. I don't remember that time but i deeply know that i reproduce her movements and i feel connect with her, her past, my past my mom's past. Maybe i'am a bit too emotionnal but it almost made me cry. I send you a lot of support and love from France

I have crocheted for years and never thought spinning yarn was possible (I thought it had to be done on machines or spinning wheels). Last year my MIL to be gave me 2 black bags of alpaca fiber from her partners sisters alpaca farm. I looked up what I could do with it and found your videos so helpful. I’m not great at the preparing stage yet still, and have bought prepared fibers from small etsy shops, which has been MUCH easier to work with. I’m still very much a beginner but I’m loving it. I have ADHD and it’s calming and soothing like crochet is, but means I can still make/do something even when I can’t decide what I want to make. I have always had a deep need for connecting to nature and the natural world and also to make/create things. I’m a henna artist by trade and so i literally work with plant paste. Spinning gives me the same joy and feeling of connection to nature and it feels like magic to turn fluff (fiber) into yarn. I can’t believe i hadn’t done it sooner really. But i love it. It calms my mind. I love the feel of the soft fibres going through my fingers and it’s been helping me find peace and calm during times where my anxiety starts to spiral. When I’m creating with nature (through henna, crochet or spinning), i feel connected and calm and like I’m exactly where I need to be. It’s so satisfying and like medicine for my very soul.

I learned to spin because I wanted to know how textiles came to be. I learned a whole lot of what you spoke about in this video. I find spinning connects me, not only with the past, but with some if my contemporaries. People are interested, sometimes because they look upon me as an a wee bit of an oddity, sometimes with a kind of envy. I’m amazed at how many young people are interested in textiles, in cordage (I know only the theoretical side of cordage), and ancillary crafts. I take every opportunity to spread the knowledge. Currently I’m spinning fleece from a Cheviot ram called Roy the Boy. Please believe me, there’s a lot of fleece on a Cheviot ram. I love your enthusiasm for the craft(s) and look forward to more videos.

Beautiful! Profound! Deep! Thank you...

I got interested in spinning years ago when I read a tumblr post by someone I followed. They had bought silk moths to have an easy close source of silk to spin. It had never occurred to me that ppl still spun other than stereotypical European grandmas, or that one could make clothing from scratch beyond just knitting store bought yarn. I love being able to circumvent capitalist industries and doing things myself. But I hadn't done any level of fiber making to justify picking up spinning. Just some on and off crochet years apart. The idea of spinning lived in the back of my mind until last winter, when I finally got my first spindle. I still hadn't done much more crochet at that point, and had just started teaching myself to knit. I taught myself to spin a bit. Then I got too busy and dropped all my crafting for a long while. Then I found your channel. I picked it up again this winter, along with knitting, and am knitting a shawl with part store bought, part handspun yarn. I have 2 balls waiting to be plied now. I'm hoping it'll be my first finished knitting project and first project with handspun!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I felt so much like your words were describing exactly how I feel when I spin, dye, knit, crochet or weave with my very own hand spun yarn. I still remember the first time I made something with my handspun, I felt connected to the yarn, it was like working with a 'warm fuzzy feeling' of contentment. Spinning from raw wool or other fibres, is like a quilter who takes perfectly good material, cuts it up into little tiny bits only to sew them all together again... (yes I do this also)... In this time we live in it most definitely doesn't appear practical, but it is most definitely an art form that needs to be preserved and shared.

What a beautiful talk, I came for the spinning and stayed for the wisdom,

Thank you so much for this! It is so wonderful. I haven't spun much in my past, but I plan to do more in the future, partially inspired by you. I do so many other crafts though, from weaving to crochet to gardening to blacksmithing to cooking and just about anything else you can think of. I do it because my parents did it. They were both very creative people. My father built the looms that he and I loomed on, a full size one for him and a child sized one for me. My mother made the best fitting clothes I've ever had in my life. They both had more skills and hobbies than you can think of, and their love for it rubbed off on me.

I so connect with your thoughts about going backwards in the process. Going from knitting/crocheting/quilting/weaving to spinning was natural. Your videos made spinning doable. Thinking now about growing flax. There is also love of history and archeology that I share with you. And thank you for recommending “Women’s Work” - great read!

You're articulating so many reasons why people spin and I resonate with so many of them. The Omnivore's Dilemma spoke to me, too, and the meditative dimension of spinning really speaks to me, as well! Thank you!

I was so moved watching this video, especially the fact that you know the sheep that your wool came from. Thank you.

I’ve been wanting to start spinning since I was a child. I grew up seeing my Grandmaman knit, and just this past year I learnt my Great Grandmother (whom I never got to meet) spun and wove, knit and crocheted, and it’s like something clicked. I feel like I’ve always known I was supposed to spin. Just discovering your channel the day I happened to look into buying some sheep for our little ranch seems too much of a sign from the universe that I’m on the right track. I cannot wait to dive into all of your videos! I really love how you shared this, and I geared up in a few parts from a feeling of “yes! Me too!”. Wishing you a beautiful September ☺️

This! This is why we do what we do, too. We started off with growing our own food and foraging, and now we have angora rabbits so we can learn to go from fluffy bunny right through to a wearable knit garment. It's a long journey!

When you look at plastics, you can think about the contribution of the very distant dinosaurs and maybe feel connected to times before man! 😂 this was a great video, thank you for your time!

Best video I’ve watched on yt for a very long time. WOW. Thank you. I spin because of how it feels, because of how it slows my experience and it’s primal nature.

It feeds my soul. I hand away hand spun yard because it's the way I can continue to justify to my practical brain that I NEED to create yarn.

I rent farmland to some people and we have talked about the Fiber Side of things and it's true it's being forgotten about. This year on Breakfast on the Farm I plan to bring my spindle and some wool with me and spin it while near the Sheep where I can talk about it. I spin my own wool and fiber to support the Shepherds. I was washing wool with my friend who helped me washed it and she understands it and she wants to be part of it. I can't wait to read the book and I am glad you like the book I recommend.

So glad i found you!

My very first introduction to spinning was through a book series I read in school, one of the characters learns how to spin (and later weave) and I was just fascinated by it! Fast forward a number of years and my bestie and I are video chatting while she spins...and I'm just...watching. She 3d printed a Turkish spindle for me and sent a bunch of different fibers to try, this is how I learned about my allergy to BFL...and the rest is history!

One of the ways my mom and I often spent time together was by going shopping. We loved (still love but it's harder to shop together with her living out of state) going yarn stores and oohing and ahhing over the hand dyed and hand spun skeins especially. Going back another generation, my maternal grandmother was a newly married 16-year-old when the depression hit, so my mom and her siblings were always raised with "You can make that" whenever they wanted to buy certain items of clothing while shopping. I know my mom loves seeing me take joy in spinning and she appreciates the hand-spun yarn I gift her with from time to time, but I also feel like my Nana in spirit is proud of me. Now when I go to those yarn stores and admire the hand-spun and hand-dyed yarns, the first thing I think is "I can make that'. XD

This video speaks everything in my heart , including my home in Louisiana,and it is the best summary of your spirit and why I enjoy your channel. I wore the brown sweater I got from my sister 15 years after she wore it so knitting a sweater in a year may seem like too long but there’s a lot of heart in that

What a joyful video! My spinning journey is tied up with emotions and family history and memories, but also new and special friendships. Even my wheel which was a "thank you" gift recently from a friend I have been supporting turned out to have a direct link to my childhood.

Now I am more excited to spin. Spin was a way of fidgiting with yarn, without my loom. Its more accessible and movable and more on the side

Beautifully said, and exactly how I feel about connection to past family.

this story is so heartwarming and so right. It is about connection. Thank you so much.

Fibrecrafts and textiles is something I am very new to, but your message on being connected is something that my family and I have been trying to do for years. Twice now we have raised our own meat chickens and while sad, is weirdly enough a fulfilling thing. They taste far better than any bird you buy in the grocery store and they are the same breed. You know that they had a good life and got to be chickens and they ate good food and got to run around and forage and it shows. We have other chickens for egg laying and as pets and the eggs that they give us are also better than store bought. I recently started working at a sheep dairy and the milk, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream is so good! It's so satisfying when you can look at a meal and say, "This came from Shadow!" or "Phyllis made this!" There is no feeling like knowing where all your stuff comes from and learning to appreciate the lives and the sacrifices of others around you.

i love this, its beautiful. i just received my first spindle in the mail and i’ve not had great success thus far, but i’m so motivated to feel connected to my yarn and my clothing and my heritage, even if i never got the chance to learn to spin from my ancestors.

Came to your channel just yesterday, in search of information about spinning- what I am planning is spin nettles I will gather in the forest into thread. I am slowly walking down the foraging rabbit hole- mushroom foraging is obvious, it is a tradition in Poland and not unusual at all. Then there are the common forest fruits like raspberries which also don't seem weird. Then there are beech nuts and young beech leaves and dandelion root (tastes, in order, like: milder hazelnut, a sour leaf, milder parsley root). And when I saw a shirt handmade from beginning to end with nettle flax and hemp.. well, I know what next I will try. Already made some rope from dandelion stems, it's not perfect but it will do for tying up my hoya to it's pole. It really does make you more serene, somehow, and grateful for the end product when you know how much effort was put into it. Even on a smaller scale, I feel more coneccted to the couple of clothes I thrifted and love than the ones I bought and love- there's something in the effort that makes me bond stronger. Might not be practical, but when did hobbies have to be practical? If people can watch TV all the time after work, I can forage and spin and birdwatch and do all the fun things I think to try I am determined to check off that garment-made-from-scratch off my checklist before I die. It will be a fun little adventure!

This is why i keep buying old tools and learning old crafts so that i have a choice in how i consume, essentially. ive mostly gotten the hang of knitting, crochet, naalbinding and embroidery so im working on lacemaking now. Besides, for me as a person with ADHD fiber crafts but also most kinds of crafts really lets me relax and be in the moment. One day my dream would be to live off of all these small things i can make, or by teaching others like you do. All the best from denmark :)

Your words brought tears to my eyes.

This was such a great video! I loved everything you had to say about why you spin. I’m a newbie spinner (using a wheel and wool roving), but also crochet and have a small portable floor loom I’ve made woven cloth with and i love how the same yarn looks so different with each technique (weaving, crochet, knitting, etc.)

Yay a whole episode of #DeepThoughtsWithEvie! My favourite. I actually live in a city that was once a Roman fort and later a Viking trading post, so I bought a reproduction Viking spindle to connect with that.

This is absolutely beautiful. I love the connection to the sheep it's precious.

Your mini spinning wheel whattt 😍😍😍 I need!!

I've started knitting 60 years ago and have had a love affair with yarn for ever. After I retired I finally bought a spinning wheel (always wanted one but could not afford one) but was able to buy one 2 years ago, and my love affair turned into a passion for all things fiber!

I commented on your instagram image as well, but I have realized that i left out a plethora of reasons why I spin. so on top of the reasons of I started to keep me from going spare during the great panini and a second gigantic lockdown, feeling a link beyond the grave to my mother who has been out of my life longer than she was ever in it (by a factor of almost double now) and to control the yarns i'm using, I have to now add that yes, i do spin to fidget. I can't imagine what its like to not have something in my hands while i'm watching things now. I also find that my wheel gives my legs a good workout. I love the smell of fleece and the connection I feel to the origins of my clothes. I feel proud to wear a sweater, even with all its flaws, that I made myself. I could wax poetic for as long as your Video Evie, but I won't.

i really appreciate you having accurate closed captions on your videos. it might help more people who can only watch videos with closed captions to find your videos by putting “[CC]” at the end of your titles so people know you put in the extra effort to make them accessible. either way, thanks so much. i really enjoy your videos ♥︎

I loved this! One sweater a year…you have NO idea how much this released me from my own toxic productivity messages swirling in my head about how “little” I produce!! I looooove what I do. Why…WHY…am I internalizing and judging myself using capitalist, extractive values?! I buy very little commercial clothing now and am trying to build up my collection of valued, personalized, hand made clothing pieces and yes, it’s not quick. However, the process is joyful in its own right so I need to stop dampening that joy by applying standards that don’t align with me and my making. Thank you for this amazing gift.❤

I relate to this so much. I don't spin, yet, but I knit for the same reasons

YES!!! You spoke my heart!! I wish the whole world could see this video and understand ❤ This has become my new mission

I've always been curious about spinning. My family worked in the cotton mills so I knew about the modern machinery that created the cloth, and my great grandmother was a seamstress. Than I went to our local hostefest and I saw a demonstration of the loom and spinning, as a gentleman was combing the rabbits for the fur for the yarn. By this point I was an avid knitter. All of this has been a journey and it is so much fun.😉

It's in my soul. That's why I spin. Loved your talk. Happy Spinning ❤.

I'm going to be VERY popular when the SHTF. So will you!! I'm 75-90% done on two different sweaters, lol!

Thank you so much for this, you have perfectly put into words the deep connection I feel with the past and the land through spinning and making. I'm a medieval reenactor and have had conversations with people about fast fashion as a result of them watching me spin and prep wool. Another great book is 'this golden fleece' all about the history of knitting and wool if you haven't already read it x

Your background complements your gorgeous coloring beautifully! Great choice of background.

This is one of the most profound and genuine videos I heared while spinning 😊thank you , you’re a wonderful being !

My spinning journey began the same way. My life is about doing things from scratch, doing it myself and using what is around us.

I’ve missed you for a long while. As you may remember I suffer from chronic illness but last Christmas I don’t know what happened, I was really ill and I thought my heart was going to burst! I’m still being treated and tested but feeling better than I did. You give me inspiration to get to my wheel again. I’ve got to take it slowly to begin with but watching your videos brings me joy. Happy Spinning with your new project, I suppose you have started so I’m going to look now. ❤

I’m just getting into spinning yarn and I love just learning about the process and where my yarn comes from! I look forward to making fun projects out of the yarn eventually too!

A thousand times YES! Every reason you gave for spinning is why I also took up the spindle again a few years ago, after a hiatus of three decades! The first prompt was, like yourself, after growing my own food and buying slow food for years, I began to rid my life and home of the single use plastic that is destroying our planet. I trawled my wardrobe to weed out the plastic derived clothes and now aim to buy only natural products that will biodegrade, and this drew me back to when I first spun fleece years ago. It was time to get back to that reconnection.

Thank you so much for sharing why you spin and all you have learned so far. I learn so much with you.

I love to spin yarn from local fiber and aim for one handspun sweater per year. It has turned me into a bit of a yarn snob, though, as I find a lot of commercial yarns just don't have the character or life that I get from my handspun (which is far from perfect!). I prefer raw fleece to commercially combed top because I love to take it from greasy lock right through to final product, whether I dye it or not. It may take a long time to go from fleece to FO, but I love every phase of the journey, so it just means more joy when I get to be part of all the steps.

Wow! Just Wow! This video is so amazing and impactful that it brought me to tears. Thank you for gathering and verbalizing the thoughts of my heart. I love watching your videos, but this was something special.

the segment about the industrial revolution made me so emotional. “as spinning machines replaced human spinners, 30,000 years of human textile knowledge stopped being passed from mother to daughter” made me tear up because man… making things, especially something as important as clothing is just… so far removed from us now and its all so wasteful and disposable now. hurts my heart. this video is beautiful thank you so much for sharing 💜

I started spinning because I wanted to understand yarn better. I love to knit, but I felt a gap in my knowledge that I couldn’t close by just reading about yarn. And then a MDK article by Jillian Moreno about twist and knitting style said “You are into twist! Maybe you should learn to spin-I know someone who could teach you.” Hmmm. Yeah, it would be cool to learn how to spin… So when I saw spinning lessons on my yarn shop’s website, I immediately signed up. And I did learn a lot about yarn just by sitting there with a spindle and attempting to make it. Things I had read before started to click and I started to understand. I’m barely beginning and I haven’t made anything with my wonky funky lovely handspun yarn yet, but I just understand more about yarn and it’s informed my knitting. And I really enjoy spinning, too!! Also, I really want to spin dog hair into yarn. I don’t know why. Ive got dog hair in my closet waiting to be spun. This has been my motivation to keep spinning. Dog yarn.

So right on. I love the garden to table, sheep to yarn to.. whatever, deer hide to boot or mitt. I love the start from the beginning right to the end product, it is very satisfying.

This was such a lovely way to spend 30 minutes. It was lovely hearing your story and how spinning clicked for you, and hearing what spinning means to others in the community. I haven’t started spinning yet, though I am a hobby magpie and I’ll probably pick it up eventually! But I just crocheted my first garment (the cardigan I’m wearing at the moment) and it feels like home: it’s a tangible form of my time, energy, love and heritage. Thank you so much for this video, I can’t wait to see your next project ❤

Beatrice bah bah for the little sheep name 😊