Spinning is FUN and bloody damn addictive, even meditative (although perhaps merely tedious if you have to do it hour after hour, day after day). I have two spinning wheels and several drop spindles, but then I wasn't looking to generate income from it either. Good luck with this project! Me, I think it sounds like something good.

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TWO spinning wheels? Wow. *jealous sulk*.

What's a drop spindle?

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i learnt to spin in high school. my mum bought me a wheel and i made loads of yarn and knitted jumpers and hats and skarves with it. i used to love it, very relaxing when you get a head of steam up. and the lanolin in the wool is great for the hands, although the grit and grease that gets dropped on one's lap gets pretty mucky if one doesn't put a cloth over ones clothes first.

just another one of my things i've had to leave behind, but maybe i'll get myself a new one someday.

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Oooh... can you buy a wheel in Australia?

Never had you figured for the yarn spinning type of chick. Heh.

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Spinning yarn is a pretty good idea. I know for silk production (our organization has a sericulture project), the single most profitable step in silk production is reeling and twisting the silk thread. Even if the quality of the silk is good, if the thread has too many big clumps or is uneven in thickness, the price per kilo goes down.

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I don't know where you sell the finished product, but I know specialty shops in the US charge *higher* prices for what's called "thick-and-thin" ... basically, uneven clumps. You need perfectly even yarn for basic weaving of cloth, generally, but for high-end garments that kind of rough "artsiness" can be a plus.

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Yes, we worked out that it is more profitable for the women to SPIN, than to weave carpets!!! Crazy, hey! Given that carpet weaving is so difficult, and spinning is so easy!

And yes, they assess price on quality.

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One woman I worked with had a spinning wheel. After work, when we were all sitting around the campfire, she would get out the wheel and spin some woll into thread, and then thread into rope.

She was more mesmerizing than the camp fire.

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I can imagine a spinning wheel being hypnotic! Mesmerising!

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But yeah, I'm trying to buy a spinning wheel so I can fulfil my yarn-spinning fantasies.

You know you've been in-country too long when your fantasies are about yarn spinning.

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Hahahahahahah... *snort*. Touche, Red, touche!

I have other fantasies too, but they mostly involve tofu and a pair of chopsticks. *cough*.

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I think the work you're doing with women is great! :D

Just out of interest, have you found any societal resistance to establishing women independantly from men? We've heard a lot about Taliban resistance to gender equity - that's all. I'm intrigued :o)

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The area that we are working in is a Hazara area and has reasonable gender equity. I think it is partly because the Hazaras have a distinct culture descending from the nomadic warrior Mongols. So men and women are very much assessed by merit rather than gender here. Women have much more freedom of movement than elsewhere in Afghanistan, and don't typically wear burkas or plain colours. They wear bright colours (usually purple and green), have bangles, full skirts and show their hair around their faces!

The Taliban hated this, of course, and regarded the Hazaras (who are Shia, not Sunni like the Talibs) as kafirs (infidel). They massacred villages of Hazara (I have visited the ghost villages), and closed all the roads during the drought, inducing a widespread famine.

The local people here LOVE these interventions. They think they are great, and DEMAND them! Now, our experiences in Badakhshan (Tajik region in the northeast) and Kandahar (Pashtun region in the south) have been VERY different. We had some problems in women's literacy and vocational training courses there.

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Oh, I never knew you had scoliosis.

To respond to your questions, we have to find a women's livelihood activity for the long winter months (six months over here). Women now typically either do nothing, or those who are lucky weave carpets. But carpet weaving is hard work. It involves sitting crouched next to two or three others, and having to look in the dim light. Many people have shoulder and neck problems as well as eye problems at the end of it.

But the fate for those who don't weave the carpets is worse. They do not earn any money and are very poor.

Weaving gellim is better ergonomically than carpets. But it pays less. Spinning pays the most. Also, it does not require you to look at the wool/yarn. You could even spin if you were blind. And you can stretch whilst spinning. And it is not small movements like it is for carpet weaving, or even crochet or knitting. I tried out the machine and the pedal is very sensitive. It does not require any strength, and works when you tilt it forwards and backwards. Also, the woman had a cushion, but we asked her to move positions (she was by the window) as the light was not good there.

Basically, it has less ergonomic problems than even tailoring has. It is the best option there is for now. Also, the women (and even children) spend the summer months doing very very very hard farm labour, like digging potatoes, carrying wood, carrying big bales of hay. When I shake their hands, I am stunned at how rough and calloused they are. They regard even carpet weaving as easy work.

I like your idea of task diversity. We could think of combining it with gellim weaving. And have women work in rotation with each other. That could work.

Another thing to take into consideration that the poverty here is extreme. One in four children die before they reach the age of five. One in six women will die in childbirth. Most women do not reach the age of 45. Hunger is extreme. Having this little extra money means that families have fewer hungry days in a year. A few children live a little longer. Girls are married off a bit later.

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There's a REASON we have the word "spinster" *eyebrow raise*

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Ouch.

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My penn-orth, as another who played with Mum's spinning wheel growing up on oz sheep farm -- yes, its fun enough to do as a hobby, especially good as a constructive accompaniment to the teev. And it seems that the blogosphere is where all the knitters of the planet come out of hiding. There's a dearth of interesting wool marketed to knitters in the UK -- so there should indeed be a good retail opportunity for fair-trade yarns. But it will need a good marketing back-up, ideally by a keen knitting/weaving hobbyist(s) interested in developing a Good Yarns head of steam -- perhaps including knitting bee or stitch'n'bitch social/learning and practice sessions for good-lifers.

While they're at it, perhaps they could also pick up on marketing UK-grown conservation raised traditional breeds wools -- the low-intensity livestock grazing that created English wildflower-rich meadows and heathlands currently isn't economically sustainable at present. We need this sort of marketing business to help out those farmers (and conservation organisations) working to look after English biodiversity.

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Yeah, there is SO much that could be done with fair trade yarn. I have reached a point where I really wish I could stay here and follow these things through. Do you know any of these people who would be interested in purchasing? The problem is that we have such a large volume of yarn that it requires quite a lot of buyers.

Our livestock people here are looking at good breeds to crossbreed with. The thing is that it gets so damn cold here. Like -40C for a few months. I wonder if they crossbreeds would survive that cold. I was thinking of the merino, but they would die come winter. Perhaps there are like Scottish breeds?

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Is there knowledge of animal husbandry in these areas? Is goat or chicken raising considered suitable for women ?

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There is a lot of knowledge of animal husbandry. Goat are raised a lot. Chickens not so much. And livestock is a combined responsibility, not just women.

We are doing quite a lot of work already on livestock. So for example, cross breeding, vaccinations, para-vets, etc etc etc.

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Interesting-looking people. They look almost East Asian, rather than Arab, Central Asian or sub-continental. In fact, the girl on the left in the second pic looks rather like a Malaysian Chinese woman I used to know in Melbourne.

On the subject of spinning, you should check out 'Knitting with Dog Hair'. Especially if you get a spinning wheel (and a dog). Very amusing publication which instructs you on how to spin and knit yourself garments to match your pooch...

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They are descended from Mongols. :)

And dog hair! That's so funny. Oh dear, I don't think so!

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:) I was too slack to send you a package last time you put out the call, but I had intended to go visit the Handspinners and Weavers Guild of South Australia and buy you some handspun wool.

There's been a bit of a resurgence in interest here (or maybe it's just the circles I move in right now), but the craft is largely the domain of Artists who make one-off, high priced items. I think there could be a serious market for handspun items from Afghanistan. Good luck!

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Yeah, if I was staying longer, I would try to make some connections. But I WANT MY OWN SPINNING WHEEL!!! The staff here have told me not to get it. They will get it to me for a farewell present. So I have to harass them!

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Have been sitting here in California reading through your blog-- so fascinating, I could read all day and never get any of my own work done. I'm a freelance writer. Please let me know when the spinning idea is ready to be written about. I may be coming back to Afghanistan in November.

Kristin Ohlson
kohlson@en.com

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Thank you, Kristin, I am very flattered! Particularly since you are a professional writer!

Unfortunately, I shall be in my next posting in Indonesia by then. (I have been here a year). The spinning idea is certainly worth writing about. If you want, I can get you in contact with the NGO who is currently undertaking it. They have 480 women working on it!

My email is vasco_pyjama at livejournal.com.

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Holy crap, where the hell was I when you posted this entry? This is so interesting! And what happens to the yarn? I wish we could mail order it. I am going to have to get a spinning wheel. I have just finished plying my first plyed skein of yarn (second ever skein) with a drop spindle and it's quite time consuming. Photos coming soon, are you reading the knitting blog?

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