Spinning Yarn: At the Ice Lounge in Melbourne

The cold of Antarctica could be a lot closer than you think….at the Chill on Ice Lounge , in Russell St, Melbourne, for example….Everything in the lounge is made of ice, the chairs, the tables and the glasses that the drinks come in. Set at -10º C, that is what keeps things cool. It is the perfect place to face an Antarctic summer, and be close to home.

Another place for me to be spinning yarn….I went.

This is for Mawson's Huts, afterall.

Taking my trusty wheel, “Hero”, and armed with my polar clothing, I was ready to attempt another cold spinning yarn for a couple of hours, this time experimenting on exotic fibres to see how they would behave in these low temperatures. I took llama, poodle, yak, wallaby, possum and, just as an intriguing sideline, nylon, but I spun samoyed and alpaca onto the bobbins.

The Lounge opens at 12noon, so I arrived at 1230 to start spinning yarn at 1pm.  This busy time of the year, Christmas, it was a good idea to visit the Lounge early in the week so that my experiment in spinning yarn would not interfere with their trading, and it would give me a solid block of uninterrupted spinning.

The Lounge have a contest to test stamina and endurance: Whoever can stay in -10º for more than 30 minutes has their photo on their website….Not many people dressed in summer clothes could stand more than 6 minutes in -10º C. Funny that! They need something warm to wear, and no one that day could wait around until I had spun, plied and knitted something….The Lounge loan complimentary coats and boots for patrons, and that helps a little.

I think my photo is up there on their website. I lasted 180 minutes -- in my polar gear, of course. Is that cheating? Or am I sensible?

Interestingly, there was no change in the behaviour of any of the fibre, in any variety, at low temperature. It all remained spinnable, just now cold and a bit damp. The cameras, however......