Spinning Resources

Since we have a number of people interested in spinning locally, I've compiled a short list of resources, most of which are either local to ramshaven residents, or accesible online. For the online sources, I've tried to follow the "Buy Canadian!" philosophy as much as possible.

1. Drop Spindles and Other Equipment:

There are two relatively easy SCA sources for drop spindles:

Baron Tancred of Tanglewood, out of the St Catharines area, has simple softwood spindles that he mass produces. They are great for beginners, or as spindles you don't want to have to worry about breaking. Spindles are $10 or $15 each. Email contact: tanglewood44@hotmail.com

Sir Belgar, out of Stratford, makes unique hand-turned spindles out of many different kinds of woods. Prices range, based on turning design and wood, but figure anywhere from $25 to $40 (more for the rare woods or custom turnings). Belgar also makes lucette looms and niddy-noddies.

2. Fibre Sources

For already-washed-and-carded-and-ready-to-spin rovings, there are a couple of sources, depending on what you're looking for.

Cloth & Clay in the Uptown Waterloo mall carries washed and carded undyed rovings, mostly Romney wool (long soft staple, easy to spin) for approx. $45/kilo. You can buy the roving in smaller amounts as well, since a kilo is a lot of roving. C&C also carries hand-painted rovings from J&J Crafts in New Zealand that, while they are lovely colours, are tremendously expensive ($35-$48/100g tube and up). The staple for the J&J roving is very short and course, and not something I would recommend for the novice spinner.

Donna Hancock at Wellington Fibres, somewhere in the boonies in Mennonite Triangle between north Waterloo, north Guelph and Elora, carries mohair/romney blends, hand-painted in different colour groupings. The mohair is very slick and slippery to work with, and a challenge for a novice spinner. Prices range per individual bag weight, but generally $15/250g. WF's website is: http://www.wellingtonfibres.on.ca/

Lady Sabine in der Welfengau often also has rovings available, as her mom has a flock of romneys. Price was around $40/kilo, mixed browns and white available. A little rougher in the carding than some professional rovings, but still clean and delightful to work with. Contact Arnora for Sabine's email of telephone information.

Another Ontario source that comes highly recommended is Gemini Fibres: http://www.geminifibres.com/fibres.html. They do mail order, and in addition to the array of wool and blended rovings, they also carry silk in several different formats for spinning (not cheaply, but at least it's a reputable source).

For those making forays into downtown Toronto, there is Romni Wools on Queen Street West. They tend to carry a lot of different stuff; also pricey, but worth a look. They may also carry squipment such as carding paddles and combs. URL is http://www.romniwools.com/

If you are willing to source a little further afield, but still "buy Canadian", look into some of these sources: BC's Treenway Silks for hand-painted and solid colour silk rovings: http://www.treenwaysilks.com/index.html

Alberta's Trembling Prairie Station: http://www.prairiewool.com/index.html I have never ordered fibres from either of these sources, but they are highly recommended in several North American publications and cited on many, many spinning-oriented "Links" web pages.

For more general Canadian sources, check the Canadian Handspinning links here: http://www.canspin.com/vendors.html

Arnora Dunestan