Teresa Camarillo sits at a wooden spinning wheel. It is remarkably new and highly polished. She presses her foot onto the pedals and it begins to quietly hum and turn.
“This is a pretty modern spinning wheel,” Camarillo explained. “It’s what we call a double pedal spinning wheel, because there are single pedal wheels. So this one spins very nicely. You can see it spins the roving and the fleece. That pulls apart very easily. And then it spins and turns it into a fine thread,” she said.
Camarillo said she was inspired to start spinning as a hobby several years ago and now gives a demonstration to fairgoers.
“It’s considered a lost art, but hopefully there’s a renaissance with young people wanting to learn how to do it. And we’re demonstrating for the Ventura County Hand Spinners and Weavers Guild, and we’re basically here to reach out to the community and educate everyone about a craft that’s been here almost as long as there’s been people,” she said.
She pulls a small amount of the fluffy, creamy white fur from a bag to further transform it into yarn, which can then be dyed and used to make other items.
“You can use it for crochet. You can use it for knitting. You can use it for weaving. You can use it for many things,” she said.
Camarillo learned the art of spinning her own yarn about 7 years ago after she acquired three alpacas at home in Ventura County and wanted to know what to do with their wool.
The rhythmic movement of the machine has a strangely calming effect. Camarillo agrees.
“I don’t do it for any real reason. I do it for the process itself. It’s a lot of fun and very relaxing and it slows you down in today’s hectic world,” she said.
“And you also have to concentrate very hard, so that in the end you might forget some of the problems of the world and be able to escape from everyday life in a very quiet way for a while.”
So if you’ve had enough of teacup rides and dizzying heights, then telling a sea shanty story might be exciting enough.
The Ventura County Fair runs through Sunday, August 11th.
