Tomorrow is spinning day
I realize a good deal of this post will make very little sense to many on my friends list. But if you have any interest in hand spinning at all, there might be a tidbit here. I'm posting to brag on a neat piece of equipment I've got.
What I've got is a new hand spindle. You wouldn't think that would be terribly exciting. A spindle is as simple a piece of equipment as you can possibly have. You can make a functional spindle with an apple, a pencil and a screw type cup hook. (Force the pencil through the apple from stem to bottom, screw the cup hook into the eraser of the pencil.)
I've used wooden spindles and a pretty neat spindle made out of an old CD with a dowel through the middle. (The only reason you don't see more of these, is that it takes a pretty hard to find rubber bushing to secure the dowel through the CD.)
Last week, I ordered a spindle on eBay. I mostly wanted it because of its looks. The spoked whorl just looked kind of neat. It arrived today, and I immediately tried it out.
Wow! It actually works better than any of the spindles I already had on hand. Why?
This is the new spindle. It has a 12-inch shaft (OOooOOO), and ...
... a notch on the whorl to catch the yarn. This isn't actually needed until the spindle starts getting full of yarn. When the spindle is relatively empty, the angle of the yarn passing over the whorl will keep it in place. But as the spindle gets full, the angle passing over the whorl gets flatter and flatter. When that angle is flat, the yarn often slips and you end up with tangles in the yarn and less twist than you want.
Here's one of my older spindles, which has the more common 9-inch shaft. (It's mostly empty. The yarn on there is what I use for a leader.) It holds a lot less yarn, and as it fills up, you have less and less space for your hand to spin it. The 12-inch shaft gives you plenty of space to hold onto it, even when it's full of yarn.
BTW, the yarn on the new spindle is a gorgeous "Golden Hibuscus" 70% Merino wool, 30% Tussah silk from roving I got from AlpacaDirect.com. They have a beautiful selection of roving and yarns (like the garnet colored baby alpaca and silk blend yarn I got).
The neat spindle is called the "Little Joe" from this eBay merchant. I'm looking at the Mother Marion Kick Spindle now. I haven't decided to buy it yet, but I'm definately thinking about it.
What I've got is a new hand spindle. You wouldn't think that would be terribly exciting. A spindle is as simple a piece of equipment as you can possibly have. You can make a functional spindle with an apple, a pencil and a screw type cup hook. (Force the pencil through the apple from stem to bottom, screw the cup hook into the eraser of the pencil.)
I've used wooden spindles and a pretty neat spindle made out of an old CD with a dowel through the middle. (The only reason you don't see more of these, is that it takes a pretty hard to find rubber bushing to secure the dowel through the CD.)
Last week, I ordered a spindle on eBay. I mostly wanted it because of its looks. The spoked whorl just looked kind of neat. It arrived today, and I immediately tried it out.
Wow! It actually works better than any of the spindles I already had on hand. Why?
This is the new spindle. It has a 12-inch shaft (OOooOOO), and ...
... a notch on the whorl to catch the yarn. This isn't actually needed until the spindle starts getting full of yarn. When the spindle is relatively empty, the angle of the yarn passing over the whorl will keep it in place. But as the spindle gets full, the angle passing over the whorl gets flatter and flatter. When that angle is flat, the yarn often slips and you end up with tangles in the yarn and less twist than you want.
Here's one of my older spindles, which has the more common 9-inch shaft. (It's mostly empty. The yarn on there is what I use for a leader.) It holds a lot less yarn, and as it fills up, you have less and less space for your hand to spin it. The 12-inch shaft gives you plenty of space to hold onto it, even when it's full of yarn.
BTW, the yarn on the new spindle is a gorgeous "Golden Hibuscus" 70% Merino wool, 30% Tussah silk from roving I got from AlpacaDirect.com. They have a beautiful selection of roving and yarns (like the garnet colored baby alpaca and silk blend yarn I got).
The neat spindle is called the "Little Joe" from this eBay merchant. I'm looking at the Mother Marion Kick Spindle now. I haven't decided to buy it yet, but I'm definately thinking about it.