Not to pat myself on the back here, but I knew a bit about spinning
& fiber before I started the COE. I know more now.
More about fiber structure, behavior, and techniques. I may use
this knowledge in the future.....then again, I may not. I spin for
relaxation and enjoyment; to try some new fiber or blend or relieve
stress. More often than not, I do absolutely nothing with my yarn
except give it away. Unlike a lot of disciplines, weaving and dyeing come to mind,
spinning has very few absolutes. Achieving a twill patterned weave
has documented steps--this is the way you do it. If all you are
asked to spin is a yarn under the erroneous label of
"worsted weight", it can be achieved in a myriad of ways. In my
mind, the majority of spinning is about preference. To over
simplify for a moment, consider this. Will your yarn do what you,
individually, want it to do. If you spin on contract and are asked to spin 2.5lbs
of 2 ply "lace weight" with no other instruction, did you do it? Is it lace weight? Is it 2
ply? How you got there doesn't really matter unless your customer
specifies a method.
Here's my point: The COE in handspinning
is a very subjective judging. While HGA has done everything that
can probably be done to structure the process, it really is all about
opinions. Be prepared for that because frankly it's difficult to
put two years of time and money into a project and read some of the
comments that you get back. Painful actually.
Do I disagree with the judges? No, probably not.
I've spun better yarn before the COE than I submitted and I'll
undoubtedly spin better yarn after it. My advice to anyone
considering the COE is this:
1. Read, re-read, and keep re-reading that handbook. As
the saying goes, it's all in the details.
2. Check and double check for grammatical and spelling errors.
While it doesn't state that these will be counted against you, all
things are possible.
3. Document your references--even for a particular process or
technique. If I had sited my source for a particular technique, I
might have done better on two skeins. It would at least have shown
that I wasn't just pulling it out of the air.
4. Keep your wording precise and to the point but cover all
the steps you used to achieve the result.
If I had it to do over, would I try for the COE again? Oh
yeah, I would. This was the 4th time I requested COE information.
The other three times I never registered. I read the handbook, and
completed about 3 skeins before I got really frustrated with the
myriad of details and quit. This time I realized something. While
a lot of the material required seems like trivial pursuit questions,
everybody approaches the craft differently. Some people use all
this stuff daily even if I don't. I'm the minority and I needed to
get through the COE for me. I needed to prove to myself that
someone who doesn't weave, is only a basic knitter, barely crochets and
does absolutely no tatting or bobbin lace can still be considered a good
spinner. Hey, my sheep think so!
