Drop Spindle Practice

DROP SPINDLE PROJECT

    Last year at Fibre East I decided to replace the drop spindle that I mislaid some 18 months ago.

The one I settled on is lighter than the one I had before. Wow are they great spindles! both beautiful and practical.

    I bought 200g of fibre from John Arbon - Tutti Frutti - a blend of organic merino and silk, chosen because, finding other merino fibre uncomfortable to wear, I would be able to make use of any yarn produced.

    I am very please with the end product, even though I didn't produce a yarn of consistent thickness, the singles being finer than I'd ever spun before on a drop spindle. That, in part, is due to the weight of the spindle which is 23 g.

    To spin the singles I use a variation of the method I see most others use. I want to keep the spindle turning for as long as possible to produce the longest length of singles that I can - economy of effort - so I roll the shaft of the spindle up my thigh. This way the spindle spins longer and I can spin over one metre without stopping to wind the yarn on my spindle shaft, but I have to draft quickly to ensure there is not too much twist in the yarn.

   What does one make with 200g of yarn?

     A rummage in my workshop may well have supplied the answer, fingers crossed.

Perhaps a weft for a scarf with Tuti Fruti and some hand dyed silk for the weft.

I have labelled each skein and I'm in the process of counting the number of yards I have produced on my umbrella swift. A task I don't relish, but better than finding myself short of yarn.