Spinning Wool Into Yarn With Miss Stewart.

We were all very lucky to have Marion Stewart coming to show us how to spin wool into yarn.  

Some of you may remember Miss Stewart as an amazing art teacher at Wangaratta West before retiring a few years ago. 

 Miss Stewart is a breeder of coloured sheep, so the wool from her sheep is dark brown.

 This is Miss Stewart's portable spinning wheel.  It looks quite different from the one we know in Sleeping Beauty.

The yarn will wind onto this bobbin.

The spinning wheel twists the wool to make it stronger as it winds into a long thread.

Miss Stewart holds the wool to keep it tight so that it will not unwind.  She teases out the wool so that it makes an even thread.

Miss Stewart showed us how change the colours of the wool as she spins.

Look at Miss Stewart's foot.  She pushes the peddle up and down to spin the wheel in her spinning wheel.

We were so lucky to be right in the front so that we could see everything.

Miss Stewart showed us how to wind different colours together from the bobbins, to make rainbow coloured wool.

Miss Stewart showed us the niddy noddy, (what a great name!)

She showed us how to take the yarn off the niddy noddy,

and how to tie it into a skein. 

The skein is then put onto the swift so that it can be rolled into balls, ready for knitting.

Miss Stewart showed us a few of the many things that she made from her wool.

She knits, felts, crochets and weaves her wool to make gorgeous clothes to keep warm in winter. 

Thank you Miss Stewart, you were brilliant, and we all learnt so much from you today.  We are so lucky to have wonderful farmers and artists like Miss Stewart in our community.