Guest Author - Llyn Payne
It started about 10 days after my heat attack. I’d been home for four days and had gone to bed for the night. Around 2:00 AM, I tried to get up to use the bathroom - and got the shock of my life to find I was unable to stand up! As I lay on the floor in a most unglamourous heap, I thought that surely I’d taken a misstep until I tried getting up and found my arm wasn’t working either. Well, this was strange! I called my husband who called 911 and next thing I knew I was back in the hospital with a stroke and a non-functioning right side. Not good since my right side is dominant.
On being released from the hospital, I immediately checked into a rehabilitation facility. Being determined to keep on spinning, I asked my husband to bring me a wheel which he did - a double treadle Jensen with a WooLee Winder. My therapist looked at the wheel and thought that treadling it would be good exercise so treadle it I did. The Jensen treadles easily with either a single or double treadle so I used my good hand to lift my right foot onto the treadle and then used my left foot to get the wheel going. Once it was going, I’d try to keep it spinning with only my right foot. Within a short time, and in conjunction with regular therapy, treadling became easy,
My hand has been another matter. First attempts were frustrating beyond belief. I had thought that having a wheel with a WooLee Winder on it would allow me to draft with one hand but it seems like I forgot about little things like attenuating the fibers, threading the orifice, making joins, etc. It made me realize how much spinners take having 2 hands available for granted. I finally produced some non-viable yarn by attenuating it by picking up my right hand and using it as a weight, not a very good system since it had to be moved ever few inches. Threading the orifice was difficult at best and spit joins were the order of the day.
Just when I was close to getting some little bit of motion back in my hand, there was a setback. I needed surgery and, of course, lost the little bit of motion I had in my right hand. Six weeks later, I’m happy to have it back. I’m spinning again and producing beginners yarn. It’s lumpy, it’s bumpy, it’s thick, it’s thin. But it’s alright.....I’m lucky to be alive and have the chance to relearn.
