18 Spin Off • http://www.interweave.com
Learning to use Russian and Tibetan spindles is
not a required next step, but I wanted to feel more
comfortable with spinning short fibers before I tackled
charkha spinning. And on any journey, if you don’t take
some side roads, you’ll never know what you might find.
All the spinning skills I learned from using a takli were
put to use, and I became much more aware of how the
fiber twisted and popped off the spindle tip to become
yarn because the Russian and Tibetan spindles’ pointed
shafts made this very easy to see. I explored yak down,
bison down, and even cotton.Love at First Spin?
The next step in my journey involved traveling in
physical space rather than in a comfy armchair at home.
I signed up for the Level 3 Spinner course in the Olds
College Master Spinner Certificate program in Alberta,
Canada. During my course, and after spinning cotton
on my Ashford Joy spinning wheel, my moment came.
Instructor Michelle Boyd had a briefcase-size charkha
and offered each of us a chance to try it. My first
reaction after beginning to spin was, “Argh! How can
I possibly keep turning the wheel with one hand and
use the other hand to draft and spin?” My time quickly
expired for spinning on the class charkha, and I felt a
grim and growing determination to get my own and
make it work for me. I could see the possibilities, and my
experience with supported spindles left me no doubt I
could do it, but I definitely needed time and practice.Step Three: Charkha Buying, Tuning, and More
Buying
Surprise is usually a foregone conclusion in any journey,
and I found it in this leg of the trek as I looked forreasonably priced charkhas to buy. My sister, Carole, was
going traveling in India, and she agreed to bring back
a charkha. I found an address in New Delhi where she
could buy one. I felt that a little challenge just spiced up
her journey, but she was not so sure. I specified a briefcase
size, telling her I couldn’t possibly manage a book-size
one. It was a sister challenge that almost defeated her,
but in the end, she managed to find one at an artisan
craft complex. She mailed it to me, and it arrived with all
sorts of stamps on the package and looked delightfully
enticing. I opened it, looked at it, and then realized I had
no idea how to set it up and make it work. Fortunately,
Leslie Green, a fellow Richmond Weavers and Spinners
Guild member, knew much more about charkhas and
taught two of us how to make our charkhas functional. I
also saw that her smaller book-size charkha was perfect
for traveling, while my larger size was more for home
and workshop use. I was off to Ravelry, searching the
spinning groups for book charkhas posted for sale.Step Four: Practice, Practice, Practice
Today, I have two charkhas that I can use to produce
viable cotton yarn. I have learned about the importance
of angle of twist, and I learned my charkhas have a
ratio of about 50:1, which provides enough twist to
create strong yarns. The highlights of this journey have
been actually getting the charkha to work well (dousing
moving parts with spinning wheel oil liberally and
frequently) and finding a flow in the drafting.
I now look forward to more sustained moments of
relaxed drafting rather than mere glimpses; this, I realize,
will only come with large quantities of practice. I have
only worked with cotton on my charkhas so far, and I look
forward to exploring yak, camel, bison down, and more.A Shared Skill
I have always felt that community is very much part of
any journey, and so it is with my journey to understand
charkhas. Their use in Gandhi’s Indian independence
efforts marks a historical community. The charkha’s
continued use in India brings economic, political, and
gender issues to the fore. Other forms of community are
wherever spinners learn—workshops, guild meetings, or
casual gatherings.
Community is also formed by people who are curious
about charkhas when they see them. At many spinning
demonstrations, it is the charkha that draws people in to
ask questions. When I tell them the wheel ratio is aboutJoanne’s briefcase charkha (bottom) and book charkha
(above). The briefcase style is 31½" when open, and the
book charkha is 20" when open.PhotobyJoanne^ Nakonechny