How to Spin on a Drop Spindle

Warning--these instructions will teach you how to get started on a drop spindle, but if you want to spin proper yarn, you'll need to go elsewhere.

First of all, look at your spindle. Admire it, twirl it around on the floor or a table top. Play with it. The stick is called the shaft, and the round disk is called the whorl.

Then take some l00% wool yarn and tie the end around the bottom of the shaft. Use a double knot. Cut off the end so that it doesn't stick out over the whorl. Then take the yarn over and under the whorl. Wrap it around the bottom of the shaft, next to the whorl, l-l/2 times, so the yarn comes up across from where it went down. This yarn is called the leader. You want to have a well-balanced spindle, and balancing the leader helps. Then take the yarn to the top of the spindle and make a half-hitch by wrapping it over your index finger. Slide the half-hitch over the top into the notch. Be sure the part of the yarn that came from the bottom of the spindle is on top. Then give yourself about six inches of yarn and cut it off.

Now you need to spend some time practicing winding the leader on and off. So unwrap it from the notch and then from the bottom of the spindle, and then wrap it again. Do this many, many times, until you feel comfortable.

Halcyon, at Halcyon Yarn, suggests that you then spin a ball of commerical yarn to get the feel of using a spindle. I think this is a great idea--I only wish I'd heard about it before I got started! First, though, read through the rest of my instructions, and then follow them with the ball of yarn.

O.K., it's time to look at your fiber. You should have some roving or prepared top. Pull off about a foot of it. It should tear fairly easily, but if it doesn't, use a scissors. Play with your fiber, feel it, gently pull at it a little, get used to the texture on your fingers.

Now separate it into about six strips. Don't worry if the strips tear as you're pulling the fiber apart. Just try to get some strips that are neither very thick or very thin. Take one strip in your hand and stretch it a bit. If it tears, that's not a problem, but try stretching it a little more gently.

Take one end of the strip and wind it around about the last inch of the leader. Give it a nice, sharp twist. You are going to be twirling the spindle with your primary hand and holding the fiber with your other hand. So, gently wrap the remaining fiber around the wrist and lower arm of the hand holding the fiber, because if the fiber is loose it will fly into the fiber you are trying to spin.

Now I'm going to break one of the so-called cardinal rules of spinning. This rule says not to play with the fiber as the spin works itself up. I ignore that rule and twist the fiber as the spindle is spinning, in part because I work with such uneven yarn, and in part because it makes the joining of the end of one piece of fiber with another much stronger. And it also help keep the fiber from tearing and the spindle from dropping to the floor.

So, you've attached the yarn to the leader. Holding the fiber where it's attached to the leader, spin the spindle with your primary hand. Then grab the fiber and leader join briefly with your primary hand while you slide your other hand up the length of fiber. As the spin works up the yarn, keep sliding your hands up until the spindle is close to the floor or stops spinning. Keep spinning the spindle until it comes close to the floor. Then pick up the spindle by its top with your primary hand while keeping the yarn stretched out with your other hand. Gently wind the newly spun yarn around your thumb and baby finger until you reach the leader and then unwind the leader and re-wrap it and the yarn you've just spun, until you have only enough left to make a half-hitch over the notch again and leave about 4-6 inches loose. Don't bother using a ruler to measure the inches--you want to leave enough loose so you can attach a new strip of fiber.

Then start over again.

Remember that the secret is learning to feel the spin working up the fiber.

Warning: You are going to have a lot of tears in the fiber and dropped spindles, and when you do spin some yarn it will be bumpy and curly and not curly and very strange looking. These things are supposed to happen. Just keep spinning until your back starts to hurt or one hour is up. Then take a break, and try again. Remember, this is like learning to ride a bicycle. You're going to keep falling off until you get the balance right, but once you do, it will get easier and easier.