Learning to Spindle

Just before Christmas I started getting curious about learning to spin my own wool. I started collecting some hand dyed rovings at first not knowing whether or not I would ever do anything with them other than pet them! For Christmas my Dad ( an expert wood turner) made me a spindle to try out. So here are my results! I was pretty happy with them. Each day I did a little better.

Then it was time to make real wool with ply's. That is when I really started to learn. I learned why so many spindles have notches and I learned about how much twist is needed in the wool. My first plied wool is pretty loose and I had troubles with it slipping when I was spinning the singles. Finally I did read about what you could do about that but by then I decided to ask my Dad to add notches. He also made me a second spindle to try out. It is just a little heavier and I like that extra weight. It really spins!

See- just a little loose. I am going to knit a swatch with it though. It's only 33 yards so a swatch is all I have enough for! I'd like to see it from start to finish.

And here are my 2 spindles! They are both notched now. I am right now working on my second plied wool and it is turning out much better. I spun with more twist and it looks like real wool! Yeah! When I am done I'll put up a picture or two.