LOW TECH, HIGH SATISFACTION 

Learning Hand Spinning with simple tools

Drop Spindle Instructions / Spinning Instructions

LEARNING HOW TO SPIN WITH THESE SPINNING INSTRUCTIONS PROVIDES A GREAT INTRODUCTION to spinning for the novice spinner. At the same time, the most experienced spinners we know find this simple tool endlessly satisfying. A good drop spindle can be an excellent traveling companion, tucked into a briefcase, purse, or backpack to help you fill odd moments at meetings or soccer games, or while watching television. If you haven’t discovered the joy of using a fine drop spindle, you should definitely try these easy to follow drop spindle instructions.

1 drop spindle, well-balanced and not too heavy 

About 1/2 ounce of prepared fiber, preferably medium-grade wool,

in a color you like

Tiny piece of masking tape, with an arrow drawn on it

A piece of wool starter yarn, about 24–30 inches long

This is critical. The wrong drop spindle will not let you discover the true pleasure of spinning, whereas the right drop spindle will do at least half the teaching. Some simple drop spindles work well, and some fancy ones don’t. And vice versa. There are many kinds of drop spindles, in all sizes, weights, and forms. The basic drop spindle elements include hook or groove, whorl, shaft. We’re going to concentrate here on drop spindles. The drop spindle shaft normally fall between 9 and 15 inches in length, and the drop spindle whorls average between 2 and 3 inches across (although their whorls may be as small as 11/2 inches or as large as 5 inches). Drop spindles twirl in midair as you spin, and are often made of wood. Some have the whorl at the top of the shaft and some have it at the bottom. Either arrangement will do.

What makes a good drop spindle?

You’ll discover that in spinning there are no rules, but we can offer guidelines. (If you fall in love with a drop spindle that doesn’t exactly fit our description, it’s probably perfect for you anyway.) Drop spindle weight depends on the type of yarn you want to spin— heavy yarn, heavy spindle. A drop spindle that weighs more than 4 ounces (the weight of a medium- sized apple) is too heavy for general use. And hold off on the 1/2-ounce drop spindle (with a whole walnut’s amount of gravity) until you have some experience. Look for a weight between 11/2 and 21/2 ounces (with the heft of an apricot or a plum). Balance is essential. The location of the whorl on the shaft affects the drop spindle’s balance, as does the shape of the whorl itself. Check a bottom-whorl spindle by resting its tip on a non-abrasive surface (like your leg) and giving it a twirl; let your fingers flick the shaft so it spins, and then make a circle of your fingers so the spindle can rotate freely but remains upright. To check a top-whorl drop spindle, attach a short length of yarn to the hook at the top, give the shaft a quick roll between your fingers, and watch the drop spindle rotate. (The drawings to the left show this process). Spin the drop spindle a few times. Then note your impressions. Does the drop spindle rotate freely (does it feel like it wants to spin), or does it wobble? Does it keep going for a while, or feel sluggish? Is the shaft easy to grasp and twirl? Do you like this drop spindle? If you have hesitations, keep looking; there are more drop spindles out there. Basically okay? Go for it! Take the piece of tape with the arrow and put it on the whorl to remind you which way to turn it.

Fiber, raw material, wool . . . you need something to spin. "Puff" is not the official name, but it does describe the quality you want your first fiber to have. There are lots of reasons to prepare your own fiber, but there are also wonderful bags of ready-to-spin stuff out there that you can start on . . . or work with forever. With prepared fiber, you can spin now. You want a medium-grade wool in batt or roving/sliver/top form (a batt is pancake-like, and roving, sliver, and top are rope-like). The fiber should hang together well when you hold it gently, but should have some air in it—like puff. (A slick, smooth preparation will be hard to work with until you’re proficient.) Pick a color you like, either natural or dyed. Separate a piece of your fiber from the mass by gently pulling it free. You want a segment about 4–6 inches long and 1/2 inch wide.

Fiber is turned into yarn by twist. Completely untwisted fiber pulls apart easily. Twisted fiber, or yarn, is strong and won’t pull apart. The twist comes from the spindle, and the transformation takes place between your hands. What your hands do is called drafting—letting the fibers slide past each other and then letting the twist catch them. The size of your yarn is determined by how much fiber is caught by the twist. When you’re spinning, your goal is to pay attention to the fiber between your hands—the fiber that is about to become yarn. Everything else can take care of itself!

Tie your starter yarn around the long portion of the drop spindle’s shaft, next to the whorl. Turn the drop spindle a few times in the direction of the arrow, so the yarn wraps around the shaft. Take the starter yarn through the hook or notch at the top of the drop spindle (on a bottom-whorl drop spindle which doesn’t have a hook or groove, make a half-hitch about 1/2 inch below the tip of the shaft). A top-whorl drop spindle can hang from the starter yarn. Ultimately a bottom-whorl drop spindle will do the same, but while you’re learning, rest it on a table so it doesn’t fall. Your lower hand will rotate the drop spindle and release the twist. Your upper hand will hold the unspun fiber, gently prepare it to become yarn, and then keep the twist from moving into the fiber before you want it to. Spin the drop spindle in the direction of the arrow; hold the loose end of the starter yarn with your upper hand, and watch the twist collect in the yarn. Feather out one end of your fiber and overlap it onto the starter yarn. Pinch the fiber and yarn together with your lower hand, and pinch just above that point with your upper hand. Rotate the spindle with your lower hand, then move that hand back up to its "pinch" position. Don’t worry much about what the spindle’s doing; the only thing you don’t want it to do right now is to turn backwards, away from the arrow, and "untwist" your work. It’s okay if the spindle flops over to one side after it has rotated, or when you stop it. As long as there’s twist in the starter yarn for you to work with, that’s fine. Move your upper hand a little way up the fiber, pulling gently to loosen the fiber between your hands. Then pinch the fiber with your upper hand and slide the lower hand up next to it. The twist will glide up behind your lower hand. You’ve just made yarn!

That’s it. Your hands repeat the pinch, pull, slide movements, while your lower hand occasionally reaches down to rotate the spindle. As you practice, you’ll feel at first like too much is going on at once. Then you’ll find that yarn is strong and your hands know what they’re doing, so you won’t have to stop the spindle while you draft. Soon after that you’ll think that you’re reaching a long way down to rotate the spindle, and you’ll find yourself with between 2 and 3 feet of yarn that you have made. It’s time to wind on. 

To keep your yarn from tangling while you wind on, catch it behind your elbow. Release the end from the hook or half-hitch and turn the drop spindle (always in the same direction) so that the new yarn wraps around the spindle shaft, over the initial wraps of the starter yarn. Leave enough new yarn free to catch the hook or to make a new half-hitch. That’s it—back to spinning! When you run out of fiber in your hand, take a new piece and feather out one of its ends. Feather out the end of the old piece as well, overlap the two ends, and let them twist together in a join.

Lumps happen in yarn when there’s too much fiber between your fingers at the time that the twist comes along and turns it into yarn. Make sure your lower hand is pinching back the twist until your upper hand has pulled out the fiber and gotten it ready. Breaks occur when there’s too little fiber in that spot between your fingers. Fix a break by feathering the end of the yarn and the end of your fiber and making a new join. Thick-and-thin can be a design element in fancy yarns. While you’re learning, experiment a bit with these extremes so you can see how they occur and can later produce them when you want to.

After a while, you’ll have a mass of yarn that fills the spindle—the drop spindle feels heavy to work with, and the yarn begins to get in your way when you rotate the shaft. It’s time to wind your yarn off into a skein. Tie the skein with small pieces of yarn (the two ends of your spinning will do; a third tie is helpful). Set the twist by running some lukewarm water in a sink, setting your skein on the water, and gently pressing the skein so that it is submerged. Leave it for a few minutes, lift it out, squeeze gently to remove some of the water, and hang it over a faucet or doorknob to drip dry. Congratulations! You’re a spinner. There are many more things to learn about spinning—like how to make plied yarns and designer yarns, how to spin all sorts of different fibers, and what to do with your yarn (if you want to do more than pat and admire it) But you’ve just crossed the threshold.

Welcome to spinning yarn!

Drop Spindle Instructions Courtesy of Interweave Press