Long draw spinner makes her first art yarn after only two lessons. Vanessa learned to spin long draw in her first lesson and has since created this lovely art yarn. Not bad for someone who had her first lesson on 19th December 2016. I learned to spin when I was about the same age as Vanessa is now – it is always a great pleasure to teach someone who has a lifetime of spinning in front of them.
It never occurred to me in September 1985 when I enrolled for the autumn term of spinning lessons. that I would teach so many people in the years to come. I just loved spinning and wanted to do more than I had time for. Someone knocked at my studio door just before Christmas with her 10 year old daughter: ‘ Do you remember me? My name is Jenny and you taught me to spin when I was about the same age as my daughter is now. You leant me your spinning wheel, and my Granny took a photo of me with the sun shining through the window’. It was a great pleasure. I invited her to bring her daughter back and I would teach her too. I don’t charge to teach children – I feel they are an investment in the future of spinning.