Back at home, with the NEW Tradional Ashford, I tried remember what went on at our evening get togethers, but I had been weaving and chatting.
Spinning was difficult!
Treadling was difficult!
Very difficult!
None of this was going well. I couldn’t keep my wheel going in one direction.
My husband sat down and showed me that if I just thought of tapping my foot, like to music in 3/4 time, one, two, three, it would be easy. But music rhythm did not come easy to me either, even with years of accordian lessons, back in the Lawarence Welk days..
I snapped, “Get off my wheel and don’t touch it again.” Not my best moment. A very gloomy start. Okay, I thought, I need to get this, it's kind of like riding a bike, also not my specialty. I did know that managing the rotation of the wheel was going to be my first big challenge, hand and finger fine moter coordination seemed so much easier.
I started in earnest, treadling so the wheel went slow enough but didn't reverse directions. I treadled while watching TV. I treadled while reading magazines or bedtime stories to my children. I understood I needed to get beyond thinking about the treadling but to a place where I could just trust my foot and leg to know how hard to push so I got a full rotation and how often so the flyer would go at a reasonable speed as I learned to spin.
I even attached a kid's block with rubber bands to make
the footman come to the top.
I practiced treadling while I taught myself how to hand card. At one point I was amongst a large group of hand spinners treadling and carding, but not yet spinning. Everyone there was worried, not because I was so slow in learning, but because a local newspaper reporter was going to visit with a photographer for a human-interest story. They made me promise to get up and go into the kitchen the whole time the reporter was there, as surely it would be
a photo of me being so effiecent "carding and treadling" at the same time
that it would land in the newspaper, confusing the public on how you
could card and spin at the same time.
Finally, after a full month of treadling I could finally trust my foot to do what needed to be done. I actually began to spin.
So don’t despair if treadling and
keeping the rotation smooth is difficult.
If I could learn this, so can you.
Just practice the rhythm of treadling, going for slow and smooth, the
faster your foot goes the faster your hands will have to move to keep up.