I spun up about 1,600 yards of 2-ply sport weight moorit merino a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been in recovery ever since. Not only was that a lot of spinning, but it was spinning a darkish wool (red brown) in the evenings, but I was attempting to do it all with a long-draw to keep as much loft in the yarn as possible.
Well, obviously, I was doing it wrong. My 2 wheels are both castle wheels, which means that I sit directly in front of the orifice. When you draw out to the side…well, let’s just say that my rotator cuff has been in a lot of pain.
Toward the end, I tried sitting at 45 degree angle to the orifice, and treadling with only one foot. This allowed me to draw to the side, using my elbow, instead of draw backwards, using my shoulder. That was much better, but the damage was done.
I’ve been getting chair massages 2-3 times a week to try and get it to stop hurting. It’s mostly healed now.
But, this past weekend, I’ve been hunched over my navajo loom, working on the sampler that I’ve been working on since August. I made a lot of progress this weekend — about 4 inches worth. But then, I must have unwoven about 4 inches too. I’m nearly at half way point. Once I get there, I will take a picture, and play with my photo editing software to see what the completed sampler will look like. In theory, the second half is just the mirror image of the first half. I’ve had to do a lot of tweaking on the pattern. More on that later.
