Tour de Fleece 2026 (context under the cut at the bottom)
Day 1:
The options to work with are a daelgan style spindle that spins decently, a medieval style drop spindle that doesn't (because I can't get the weight heavy enough), and three whorls that need a wooden dowel that is... Somewhere. I'm not sure where.
Daelgan should be the best option, as that thing has held up to a fair bit of abuse and...
Ah.
So.
That exploded.
After... Half an hour. And being dropped 3 times.
At least my spindles are PLA and the carnage can and will be recycled.
Which means we're switching to...
Yeah. This thing is fighting me more than the wooden one. I've put in an extra hour, and I'm not having a good time, so I'm gonna see if I can dig up the dowel ones.
If anyone wants to leave suggestions for very sturdy drop spindles that ship to Germany or Belgium, feel free to send them my way.
First time participating
Skill level: fair weather spinner
Goal: just spin every day, ideally for at least an hour, see if skill improves
Tools: the white roving I bought ages ago and whatever hand spindles I can fish out of moving boxes, because I do not have the ergonomics of my spinning wheels down. (And they're down in the basement and I don't want to re-tetris that place unless I have to)
I have 8 3D printed spindles and 1 wooden one. The wooden one came in a cheap kit off Etsy in 2009. It fought me then, and it didn't get kinder with getting easier wool, so I'm trying to avoid using it.
I'm also trying to avoid using the 3 Turkish spindles because they don't come apart easily once you've loaded them up, and I've broken at least two shafts so far. Our printer is having issues, so I'm really really really trying to not break any spindles.
Also, if there's singles already on the spindle, I'm just gonna keep going. This is a skill building exercise, not a project. I do not have the skill for a project.
I got stuck in packing hell for a few days but I did get to spin so here's what happened.
On Day 14 I plied the spun mystery roving, because I wanted to keep spinning with my new toy the wooden spindle. And then I got "just a new leader, just to get the ball rolling" started with my usual roving, which was less forgiving than the scratchy stuff, but somehow nicer to work with.
Today, I was packing and driving all day so I only got to spin once I was at a new location, where they speak German with a distinctly different accent.
Spun until the thread started breaking from (presumably) the weight and stopped. No idea why this spindle keeps calling the shots on how much I can spin on it, but not feeling like being frustrated about it.
We try something else tomorrow.
No, I have not fixed the printer yet. Yes, I know it would be less than half an hour. This is about spinning, not 3D printing.
I found my niddy noddy! I'm surprised by how much fiber it can hold and ended up getting with just 3 spindles' worth of fiber on it.
Also, my spindle is getting too heavy to keep going and I'm not sure how to get it off without cursing too much.
And my wife is starting to notice how busy corner for the "I'll just use hand spindles, it'll be less clutter than getting the spinning wheel upstairs" project is looking.
