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November 12, 2007 07:35 am
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Photos
Bridget Bese/Woodward News
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Editor's notes: photo
Spinning hobby turns into a passion
Sherry Liston and Charles Sides have taken up the hobby of spinning, a hobby they call therapeutic
By Bridget Bese
CNHI News Service
WOODWARD, Okla. — Satisfying. Therapeutic. Soothing.
Those are some of the words used by Charles Sides and Sherry Liston when they describe their hobby of spinning.
“It’s addicting,” said Liston as she sat at Woodward’s Outpouring coffee house spinning Rambouillets sheep wool from sheep she and her daughter raised.
“My daughter raised sheep in FFA all four years of high school,” said Liston. “And when she got out she wanted to continue with the sheep.”
Liston said the only way she saw to continue with the sheep was to learn to spin the fiber of the sheep and now spinning and using the yarn has become a passion.
Sides got started spinning in the 1980s when he was stationed with the Navy in Iceland. Sides said he took knitting classes in Iceland and decided he wanted to spin his own yarns.
Since then Sides has purchased sheep and angora goats and developed a love for spinning and using the homespun yarns.
“It keeps the hands occupied,” said Sides. “While I do it I can still watch a video or listen to a book on tape or visit.”
While spinning wheels are not something you can run to the local department store and purchase they are available in Oklahoma City or on the Internet, said Liston.
As Liston spoke she spun on a wheel from Poland while Sides spun on one from New Zealand.
Chatting freely as they spun Sides and Liston made spinning look easy but they said it is not quite as easy as it looks.
“It takes practice,” said Liston. “Everybody has their own methods.”
“The whole secret is divorce your feet from your body,” said Sides. He said the feet have to stay at a rhythm to keep the wheel going but the rest of the body should remain rhythm-free.
Sides, spinning angora rabbit wool, said that many fibers can be used for spinning. Between Liston and Sides they have spun such fibers as Alpaca, mohair from angora goats, angora rabbit, sheep, cotton, milk weed and bamboo. Even fibers from dogs such as samoyeds, poodles and chow chows can be used.
“I would say angora rabbit has to be one of the warmest fibers,” said Sides.
While spinning has traditionally been thought to be a woman’s craft Sides said history shows otherwise.
According to some research done by Sides, men were also involved with the spinning, knitting and quilting but they usually did not want their wives to tell. In fact, many children in past times learned to knit from their fathers, said Sides.
In recent times folks with spinning wheels are not a common sight but Sides and Liston are looking for more people who are interested in learning to spin and use the homespun yarn.
“It’s just a lot of fun to take a product from start to finish,” said Sides.
Sides, who has had an article published in the spinning magazine “Spin Off,” will be leaving for several months to teach speech on a Navy ship but says he will keep spinning and will be returning home to Woodward.
In the meantime Sides and Liston, both members of the Woodward Artisans League, will be spinning at Saturday’s Holiday Express crafts show at the Woodward County Fairgrounds.
The spinning duo also meets every Thursday morning at Outpouring and would invite anyone who is interested to stop by and visit.
While spinning does not appear particularly exciting to watch at first, people find it something that, for some reason, keeps their attention.
“People will stand there and just watch and watch and watch,” said Sides.
Even more than watching, doing the actual spinning seems to be a great relaxation technique.
“It makes you forget everything else,” said Liston.
Anyone interested in learning more about spinning may call Liston at (580) 254-9876.
Bridget Bese writes for the Woodward (Okla.) News.
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