This morning I was working on one of my interminable spinning projects—some naturally dyed merino I bought a couple years ago and have been slowly converting to frog hair ever since. Ranbir decided he wanted to try, so I got him going on Nisha’s spindle. He had a bit of difficulty because it’s quite a heavy spindle, and the wool he was using has a fairly short staple. Eventually he flipped the spindle over to use as a takli, which he had learned a bit as a child. He and Brighu were surprised that we use the same name in English.

Later a “sister” stopped by for a visit and admired the wool I had. I handed it over so she could examine it more closely. She looked at my top-whorl spindle, made some comment about the hook (in the local language, so I could only guess from her gestures), and then also flipped it over and started spinning. I have noticed that the ladies here seem to think nothing of taking whatever I am working on and trying a bit themselves. I brought out my support spindle, and we both sat and spun for a bit.

In the afternoon Tripura decided she wanted to try, and by the end of the day had a nice fat copp wound on. Shabash, Tripura!