One of the questions I (Kirstin) get most often is “how long does it take you to spin a skein of yarn?” The answer, like the answers to most of life’s deepest questions, is “it depends.” The average is probably around 7 hours for a normal-sized skein, slightly less yarn than you’d need for a scarf. Beaded yarns can take more like 10 hours, and I can churn out a boring medium weight yarn in 6 hours.

Beaded yarns require more hours for stringing the beads, and plying VERY slowly.

So how much time have I spent spinning since I started in August of 2010? I’ve recorded yardage, weight, and other notes for every yarn I’ve ever spun in a very tattered notebook (I dropped it in a fish tank once, so it’s pretty darn weather beaten). This morning, I entered two years worth of spinning into the spreadsheet I started back when I did this exercise in December of 2011. So without further delay:

Total yardage of 2 ply yarn: 22,512 yds (12.8 miles)
Total yardage of singles spun: 45,024 yds (25.6 miles)
Rough yards per hour estimate: 30 yds/hour
Hours spent spinning: 750 hours

If I spun for every hour of the day, that would be 31 days, or 4.5 weeks of straight spinning. In the three years or so I’ve been doing this, I’ve spun almost a half-marathon’s worth of 2-ply yarn.

This is where I usually have a snappy little line to finish the post. I’m a bit conflicted on this one, though. I can’t decide whether this is evidence of time well spent, or a sign that I need to get out more.