Real People Online: Avital Pinnick (Part 2)
© Suzanne Griffith
I'm interested in your personal spinning history as well as knitting. I remember that we had a brief correspondence when you started spinning cotton. I like spinning cotton myself, but I have a sneaking suspicion that you've spun a lot more than I have by this time, and I noticed that you're also growing it, something I can't do in this cool climate. Are you still spinning a lot of cotton?
I learned how to spin long before I was on the Internet. While recovering from a broken heart in 1985 at Harvard, a spinner-weaver friend encouraged me to buy a spindle and some roving. I didn't catch on when she tried to teach me but I was stubborn and persisted on my own. Eventually, everything clicked. I still recall that evening when I ran up and down the halls of the dorm showing everyone my wonderful "yarn."
I stopped spinning for quite a while, until I had a young child. In the park I was bored out of my mind, sitting for hours watching my son go up the slide and down the slide and up the slide and down the slide. Knitting was out of the question because I couldn't buy yarns at the time (my favorite shop had closed). My spinner-weaver friend visited me, bringing spindles and roving. So I walked along the path and through the park, spinning and keeping pace with my exploring toddler. The neighbors noticed, and I was invited to give a lecture to a class of adult Talmud students on the topic of spinning in antiquity, since they were studying purity laws pertaining to ancient spinning implements. They were a very perceptive and attentive audience and asked good questions, such as spinning mixed fibers (the topic of forbidden wool/linen mixtures always comes up), the use of a distaff, and different methods of fiber preparation.
I took up cotton spinning when a lace-list friend sent me a box of cotton which she had dyed and carded. The cotton takli-spun bonnet on my site was made from some of her punis. Although I have a wheel, I still love to spin on spindles, especially when spinning my home-grown colored cotton off the seed, because there's less waste.
I still grow colored cotton and just planted a crop of brown cotton in pots on the balcony. It's a lovely plant to grow - so hardy, with beautiful flowers. I have to pollinate the blooms myself because there isn't enough insect activity around our third floor apartment.
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