I've been thinking about it... and reading other blogs. I know I'm not the only person who spins as an alternative to tranquilizers, but how many of us are out there?
If you spin, and have been doing so long enough to get past the frustration-learning level, do you find it relaxing? Is there anyone at that level of proficiency who does NOT find it relaxing?
A curious mind wants to know!
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I consider myself somewhat proficient at spindle spinning and that is one of the reasons I love spinning, I can spin and that is the only thing going on. It's very tranquil and time kind of fades away.
I'm pretty proficient and can zone out on the wheel or spindle for hours... the wheel especially. When I finish, I feel like I've had a nap
I've only been spinning for a couple months, and I definitely find it relaxing. Sometimes I take a few minutes to do it in between running to classes and appointments and homework, just to stay sane.
On the other hand, I'm not THAT proficient, so I do also end up cursing a lot more when I'm spinning than I do other times.
I absolutely love spinning. It's mesmerizing somehow. But I can't seem to spin with the kids up and about. If I have to stop every two minutes to fuss, I can't get into a good rhythm with it.
I find spindle spinning relaxing, so long as Kathryn isn't "helping", otherwise it gets a bit stressful.
I do use spinning (on a wheel-- on a spindle I'm just not good enough yet) as a calm-down thing very frequently, but I also know that there are times when I'm beyond the "dosage capabilities" of my wheel. Those times, I know I'd better stay away from it, else I end up doing myself more harm than good, both interms of product and how I approach the process.
Yeah, I also love it for the immediate gratification. Also, as a single mother of two, I appreciate that I can drop it at a moment's notice and not worry about stitches.
Funny you should ask this. My daughters and I just got back from Middleton Place's Sheep & Wool Days, where I was speaking with another woman about its meditative properties.
Better than the few antidepressants I've been on.
I am at the point where the spinning "works" most of the time and yes, it is relaxing. This past week was stressful and sitting there with a book on the mp3 player and some plain roving, it was better than a xanax any day.
Just thinking about it makes me meditate-- I can see how it would work in reality.
I don't spin, but I know that when my grandma took it up again in her early 80's after a long break, she found she didn't need her sleeping tablets those evenings.
I'm still learning, although past the "frustration" stage for the most part. I do find it soothing/calming to spin when I can get in the groove and make everything work right. My wife finds my spinning very relaxing - as in: it puts her to sleep. Sometimes if she's had a bad night, she will ask me to go spin so that the rhythmic sound will help her sleep.
I've been spinning for about 8 months and am proficient enough to make "decent" yarn. The only time I still get frustrated is if the fiber pulls apart easily and keeps breaking until I get used to it, or if I am just really wanting to get a particular fiber DONE! But that's just my impatience.
I love doing it, because I love making stuff, and certainly it is relaxing while I'm spinning if I'm not being constantly distracted by other members of the household. But I tend to be obsessive when I do something, so I will spin for far too long at a stretch and leave myself in pain, or I will stress about money I've spent on roving, so it's a lot less relaxing than it could be!
I have been spinning for about a year and I defenitely find it to be relaxing. When I feel stressed or overwhelmed I use it to relax and destress.
I spin for the sensual pleasure of it and for the yarn it produces. The relaxation is just cream cheese icing on the carrot cake!
In the early part of the 20th century, weaving was taught in insane assylums because the rhymthic, repetitive motions using large muscle groups soothed the more violent inmates. Professional weavers were paid to dress the looms, and then the patients were allowed to weave with wild abandon. Hundreds of thousands of rag rugs were produced and sold to supplement the assylum budgets. Now, the inmates are just drugged to docility. There's a lot to be said for a sturdy rug loom and a few hundred pounds of rag strips.
If I have more than a glass of wine knitting becomes "too HARD" to watch TV with. I find wheel spinning I can drink until I run out of programs (watch Castle Mondays 10 pm ABC)(that was subliminal advertising).
SPindle spinning is NOT relaxing unless you are fairly good at it and the fiber is prepped decently; I like it better standing up and walking around, but it does not do quite as much as I hoped to keep me from buying stuff at fiber fairs. But I get a chance to witness the antiquity and importance of spindles.
Thank you for putting "Sekhmet, you fucker into my vocabulary," it enriches my life when I am swearing at my cats.
I am an "ok" spindle spinner (I'm beginning to get faster) and it is totally relaxing. I think it also helps that I like making yarn that is a little thicker and uneven.
I think of it as a design feature.
Hi chick
I spin because it's relaxing. I can also spin and talk when I'm in a group without having to think about what my hands are doing (using a spindle).
Mornings before the rest of the house are up, spinning on a wheel is soothing before running out to work for the rest of the day.
I spin to relax - the yarn is just a bonus. I like the rhythm and the productive relaxation. I like watching the pretty colors slide through my fingers. I enjoy making a consistent yarn and dreaming of what it might become...but I also don't need to watch what I'm doing anymore, and I can watch a movie, or talk, or whatever while spinning, and still get relaxation out of it.
That said, my first wheel was NOT relaxing AT ALL, and it took a long, long learning curve (and a better wheel) to get to where I am now. Ratios are a good thing when you're learning. (I can spin just fine on that old wheel now, though it is a bit more finicky than I would like for relaxing.)
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