Spinning

Spindle Spinning Instructions

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1. Get a spindle. A good spindle. One that is nicely weighted - not too light, not too heavy. For medium weight yarns, 1.4 to 1.8 ounces will do. Fine fibers, less than 1.4 and thicker yarns, 2 ounces plus. These are, however, just guidelines. Everyone has to experiment a bit and see what works for him/her.

2. Get some top or roving that is "easy" to spin. Our recommendation is the Blue Faced Leicester. It is incredibly soft and fluffy, yet isn't too slick or slippery to learn on. It practically spins itself. (okay, so it really doesn't - but it is wonderful and wonderfully easy to spin with!) Pull some fibers out of the end of the top or roving and examine them. Take note of how long the fibers are. Your hands will need to be a little farther apart than the fiber length in order to draft out the fibers - to allow the fibers to slip past one another.

3. Get a string or piece of thin yarn, about 3 feet long. This is going to be your leader. Double it and knot the end. Lay it out on the table. Lay your spindle on top of the leader. Bring one loop end around the spindle stem and through the other loop - forming a half hitch - and pull it tight. Then take the end of the loop, bring it around the stem again and through the loop formed. This second hitch will keep the leader from spinning around on the stem when you go to wind on your newly spun yarn.

4. Pick up your fiber and get ready to spin. Break off a three our four foot length. If the top is rather thick, you can split it down lengthwise into more manageable amounts (see photo in the first row of split top). We suggest you begin to spin using the Park and Draft method, so sit down. Don't go getting all comfy on the couch just yet - find yourself a nice, straight chair. The kitchen chair will do just fine. Take the Leader yarn and bring it up over the whorl and under the hook. Now pull some of the fibers out a bit - don't break them off the roving - and loop those through the loop of the leader.

Hold them together and spin the spindle clockwise with your fingers, just a bit, and let the spin come up to where you are pinching the fibers together. Park the spindle between your knees. Use your right hand to pinch off where the twist ends, and with your left hand, gently bring the roving up, thinning out the fibers as you go. You are creating the Drafting Triangle. Hold the roving very lightly - if you grab onto it, the fibers won't be allowed to slip past one another and you will have quite the clump of fiber in your hand. Now slide your pinching fingers of your right hand up the drafted out fibers a few inches. Stop. Spin the spindle. Park it. Draft again. Slide your pinching fingers up a few inches. Stop. Spin the spindle. Park it. Draft again.

5. Wind on your yarn! That's right - you've made some yarn at this point. Hurray! Continue to pinch off the twist, take the yarn out of the hook, and wind it on to the stem, leaving at least a foot of yarn. Bring that up over the whorl, through the hook, and proceed to park and draft. As you wind on more and more yarn, you can build up the cop on the stem in a football or elongated oval shape. Once you have mastered the park and draft method, you can begin to put it all together, drafting as you go along. In my case, I prefer to use the right hand that is pinching off the twist to draft down the fibers, and only hold the fibers with my left. As I pinch, I pull down, using my fingertips/nails to pull down the right amount of fibers for the thickness desired.

I also prefer to thigh-roll the spindle for more speed and longer spinning time. To do this, hold the spindle against the right side of your right leg just above the knee, placing the heel of your right hand on the shaft. Roll the spindle up toward your right hip. When the shaft is under your finger tips (about mid-thigh area), let go and hold the spindle out from your leg a bit so that it can spin freely. (Left handed spinners would roll down their left leg.)

When your spindle is full, you can wind off the yarn onto a nostepinde or, if you don't have one, an empty bathroom tissue tube works quite well, allowing you to create a center-pull ball.

6. To ply your singles yarn, take the ends of yarn from two balls, loop through the leader, and spin the spindle counterclockwise, allowing the twist to run up the two singles. A good way to control the balls is to place each one under a flower pot, with the yarn coming up through the hole. This will keep your balls of yarn from jumping and rolling all over the floor. The Andean method is a wonderful way to achieve a double ply yarn from a single spindle full, and is illustrated with photos at http://users.mindex.com/sharon/andean/ The Navajo method creates a three-ply yarn, and is one of my favorite things to do!

To Navajo ply, make a loop about 8 inches long at the end of your spun single yarn and knot it. Loop this through the end of the leader. Reach through the loop and grab the single yarn, pulling it through the loop, and making a new loop. Spin your spindle counterclockwise, allowing the twist to run up the yarn and over the point where the three yarns meet. Pull another loop through, add more twist, let it run up the yarns, and so on. In effect, you are making a crochet chain and adding twist. That's it - that's all there is to it. And there are no leftover singles! It is a great way to ply yarn spun from painted roving or top, as it preserves the color sequence. It is easiest to Navajo ply if the singles have been sitting for a while and are not as prone to kinking/curling up.

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