What is the difference between the two?
When I started spinning, I watched other spinners over and over. It looked so easy. But when I sat down at my wheel, the fiber twisted into thick strands and disappeared into the orifice with stunning speed. That was very upsetting and frustrating! I yanked the offending "yarn" from the bobbin and tossed it into the garbage.
A friend said I should save my first yarn because "you'll never spin another one like it." I thought to myself that it sure looked like I'd never spin anything BUT that stuff. But giving up was not a possibility. So I kept spinning. Luckily, at the time I was between contracts in my job. I had plenty of time. And I spun and spun and spun some more. Gradually, my spinning improved until I produced balanced yarns.
There are many good sources for information and help on spinning. New wheels are sold with books and videos and there is an unlimited amount of information on the Internet.
Spinning is an art as well as a craft. The result is yarn unlike anything you can buy in the store. Handspun yarn is of higher quality. It has small variations that you can’t get from a machine in a factory. Handspun yarn also is unique. You won’t find thousands of skeins that look exactly alike. And by buying handspun yarn, you are part of a growing trend of people who want to preserve knowledge and who believe the best things in life are not the ones made in factories.
Please check out my links page to see some of them.