Spinning Yarn: In the Freezer!

My second practice for Anatarctic Summer conditions took place on September 30th, at AK Coolrooms in Keilor. They very kindly supported the cause by charging no hire fee and preparing the freezer for a temperature of -18 degrees. Thankfully the shelving was also removed!

Kept company by Richard Wheatland, who also kept vigil by the phone and checking on me every 20 minutes, I proceeded to spin some brown wooltop, working this time on how I would use my hands. This was intriguing me, because, as a rule, spinning needs the feel of the fibres throgh the fingers -- That is how the spinner assesses the correct thickness of fibre to put through the machine -- and bare skin at -18 degrees would NOT be advisable! For the 2 and a half hours i was in the freezer, I trained my fingers to feel the fibre THROUGH the thin golves I was wearing as a liner under the fingerless gloves. It took concentration, but it seemed to work.

The phone rang for interviews, so the papers were interested. It is a big thing to go to Antarctica, but even bigger to take your spinning wheel to the local freezer! 

When Simon came to take pictures for The Age, we had an interesting time setting up how it would be done.... and we were very pleased with the results.

The newspaper interviews followed, and then ABC radio the next morning. Check out the full article at The Age.