The Advice that Helped Me

I have to be able to picture how something works, in order to understand it, and I just couldn't understand how a spinning wheel worked.  It wasn't until I saw an illustration in The Ashford Book of Spinning of a spindle imposed horizontally over the bobbin, that it clicked.   (I know, I know.)

As always, the Beginning Spinning group on Ravelry has been an invaluable resource:

1.  Treadle the wheel, with nothing on it, while watching an episode (or more) of your favorite show.  Fast, slow, in between, clockwise, counterclockwise, just play with it.

2.  Can you park and draft on a wheel?  Why yes, yes you can!   Okay, sort of, but there is absolutely nothing to keep you from stopping the wheel to even out the twist in your fiber

   
3.  Your wheel is not a monster, waiting to gobble up your fiber.  Your wheel is your friend, waiting for you to feed it yarn.  If you are fighting your wheel, pulling fiber out of it's maw, your tension is too tight.

4.  Get past the feeling that you are wasting fiber as you are learning.  (This one is still something of a struggle for me.)  Above is a one-pound bag of  Ashland Bay Corriedale Cross from Paradise Fibers .  It is the first fiber purchased with absolutely no idea of what I'm going to make with it after I am done.