Different Strokes for Different Folks: On the Value of Disagreement

Doglover and I are team teaching the Golden Willow spinning classes this session.  We'd discussed doing this a while back, but for various reasons, the actual team teaching was rather spur-of-the-moment.  We didn't have much time to map out our plans, so the "team" part of the teaching is quite fluid.

Susan is a much more technical spinner than I.  She's a "worsted" gal; I'm more "woollen."  She loves to spin multi-plied yarn for socks.  I love to play with over spun singles.  I think Merino fibres have no place in hand spun socks; Susan loves to knit socks from softer wools.  We even disagree about the value of the "disagree" button on Ravelry.

Neither one of us hesitates to jump right in when we disagree with something the other person says or does, nor are we afraid to say exactly why.  Both of us do what we do as adaptations to physical abilities, learning styles, fibre preferences and our approach to teaching.  Sometimes, we do things "just because."  Neither of us "do it wrong."

That's the beauty of spinning: it adapts to our needs and preferences and becomes very personal.  There is always a way to achieve the yarn we require.  Susan and I can have as many debates as we like about yarn and still end up on the same side - the passionate world that is hand spinning.  We learn from each other and our students.  (Well, I learn more from her than she from me, unless you count "how not to put a wheel back in its case.")

The lesson for the upcoming week is about twist, how to control it, how to use it to produce any yarn you need, how to play with twist energy.  We haven't discussed our twist techniques yet, but I'm guessing that we approach our twisting very differently from one another, and that neither one of us gets ourselves twisted into knots about that.  I'm looking forward to discovering our differences.

For all my friends who are going through tough times:

Namaste.