#supported spindle

[allonsybadwolf]

look at how beautiful this spindle is 🐑🌈✨

(spindle is by Woodland Handcrafts and fiber is South American wool and viscose in "Taste the Rainbow" from World of Wool)

[milkweedman]

Decided to try silk spinning again using some silk brick that I have. First I was trying to just spin it like I would wool, which was very difficult because I could hardly draft it. Then I looked online and determined I should spin it from the fold instead. It certainly works much better in that i can actually draft it now, but omg, spinning from the fold is very hard. I think this may be the first time ive ever tried it for more than a minute or two. It doesnt want to stay on my finger, and I cant really figure out how to hold the twist back, so sometimes it creeps into the fiber, which stops the silk from sticking together, which means it runs thin and snaps and I have to reattach it. So its a lot harder than I was expecting. But man, the result is so pretty....

Lot more halo than I wanted though. I think if I was spinning this on a wheel or espinner i could do a worsted spin, but i never did figure out how to spin worsted on a spindle.

Encountering lots of my spinning blindspots right now, thats for sure.

[guardevoir]

Fiber arts update: Guardy buys too many spindles, has no regrets.

I took a lil' road trip with some friends a couple days ago because there was a wool fest happening in a... yknow, reasonably reachable distance. I was mostly hoping for some dyed spinning fibers (which I got some of, but the amount of stuff to choose from was minimal) and I also knew my favorite spindle guy would be there (Peter Locke, who specializes in very functional but also very pretty spindles for a very fair price) so obviously I knew I'd have to stop by there.

The plan, thusly, was to get a bunch of pretty fibers, and maaaaybe one (1) spindle.

...

Three-ish fiber things, three spindles. Oops :)

One bottom-whorl spindle (fully intended, I didn't have a bottom-whorl spindle from the guy yet), one mini top-whorl spindle (silly, but definitely not something I have yet, either), one Tibetan supported spindle (which I definitely have enough of).

The bottom-whorl spindle is juniper wood with a maple shaft (24g); I haven't spun with it yet because I don't want to start yet another project just yet, but I'll probably use it to ply that support-spindle-spun alpaca stuff I've had lying around here for ages. I've tried it out enough to know that it spins fast and quite long and very, very evenly, though, and I'm massively looking forward to putting a project on it.

The support spindle is elder with a smoked oak shaft (22g). That one was the One Big Oops of the day, because I already have one of this guy's Tibetan-style support spindles. But man, this one just feels right. The wood's slightly grippy in a way that's just really comfortable, and the whorl shape and the height it's at just work really well. So, fuck it, not what I expected to spend my budget on but I have no regrets. Excellent spindle, 10/10. I'm currently spinning yak hair on it.

And the mini one is plum wood with a sipo shaft (8g). It's admittedly not the most practical thing in the world because it can pretty much only do laceweight, and it's also a little tricky because it spins deviously fast, but it's perfectly balanced, the spin time is shockingly not awful, and I like spinning laceweight anyway. Plus, this thing is stupidly portable. I'm currently using it to spin some mulberry silk thread.

Then, fiber:

100g of hand-dyed fiber (some kind of Bergschaf (mountain sheep) mix iirc), and 100g of carded black Bergschaf wool from raresheep. Because apparently specifically the black Bergschaf is pretty rare, actually?

Anyway, the dyed stuff feels about like you'd expect for a pretty rough fiber mix (but it's very VERY pretty and it didn't cost an arm and a leg), and the black mountain sheep stuff is honestly truly lovely compared to the usual mountain sheep stuff you get as spinning fiber. It does have the same chaotic crimp and short staple length you usually see with these sheep, but unlike a lot of it, it doesn't have that almost brittle feel to it; it's soft enough that I couldn't resist sticking my face into it at least once lmao. These two fibers will probably go into one project once they're spun, the colors look amazing together. No idea what that project is gonna be yet, though.

Then, sorry for the truly grody photos, but: 50g of white alpaca and 10ish grams of mulberry silk.

Fiber Arts Friend and I are planning to make my mom a hand-spun hand-knit sweater, and since she doesn't always get along with sheep's wool too well, I grabbed the alpaca to use on the cuffs and collar. It's alpaca, it's white, it's soft, it's pencil roving so maybe it'll make less of a mess while spinning. Good shit.

The silk was the result of me not having brought a fiber arts project for some reason, getting bored while taking a break, finding the one stall selling fiber by weight instead of pre-weighed (but only silk), and going "hey what can I get for a buck". Which turned out to be 10g of mulberry silk. So, yeah! Not what I would've picked had I had a choice, but it went well enough with the mini spindle at least. Plus, it's good practice.

[batbetbitbotbut]

I had been missing two of my spindles since, idk, November? I had ransacked the whole living room and all my bags so many times without success. I had looked in all the logical places and all the illogical ones.

Yet today! At last, without even looking! I found them! They were in the spinning fibre stash all along.

Therefore here is my collection as it stands (requested by @degenezijde months ago but at the time I could only find two spindles which didn't feel like enough to share). Left to right:

1) Ashford top whorl drop spindle, 44g. I learnt to spin on this at age 11 or 12. The orange merino yarn was made on it when I relearned at age 22 (taught by @akhuna).

2) Supported spindle made by a friend of mine last year from a chopstick, a plastic bead, and some clay (plus chopstick rest spinning bowl), 30g. I struggle a lot with it and I've had a little more success with a different supported spindle at a workshop (when I couldn't find this one) but I'm not sure it was enough for the technique to stick. Have only spun a few yards on this ever, need more practice.

3) KerrySpindles (Etsy) top whorl drop spindle, 31g. I don't like how this one is balanced - maybe too much weight in the shaft compared to the whorl? - so it's not my usual choice but I spun a bit of flax on it last month.

4) NiddyNoddyUK (Etsy) French spindle, 44g. No whorl but it's thicker at the bottom and grooved at the top. Currently spinning miles and miles of Wensleydale which I will ply on the Ashford spindle or my wheel, as I don't think the groove will play nicely with spinning in the other direction.

5) Probably KerrySpindles top whorl drop spindle, 19g. I've spun and plied whole laceweight projects on this, such as the brown Romeldale in the corner. I use it so much I'm slowly eroding the shaft. This spindle was a gift in my teens so I can't be certain of the maker but @ginneke identified it as a probable KerrySpindles product and the maker agreed it was likely (though after at least a decade she can't be certain).

Spindles I would yet like:

A big one for plying! KerrySpindles sells a "large parasol" plying spindle but I'm undecided on whether I want a third one from her, when (a) of my current spindles from her I adore one and dislike another and (b) other spindle makers exist and the more the merrier. Etsy keeps showing me an enormous Turkish plying spindle but the USA-based shipping is more than the spindle itself...

An itty bitty one to see how small I can go! Like, 10 grams or even less. This just sounds fun and challenging.

Bottom whorl spindles! Ones without the grooved tip, to practice my technique with half hitches/ in hand spinning/ supported spinning.

Anything novel and pretty, anything that fills a niche. There are worse things in the world than a spindle collection...

[disgruntled-lifeform]

Guys look at my cool new stick

[definitelynotanarchfey]

Introducing my spindle collection

What is a spinner without some good spindles? That's right, a sad spinner. Since I do not want you to be sad, here are my lovely spindles. Almost all of them are made by the spindle maker Peter Locke, so I guess I have a favourite.

From top to bottom we have:

An acacia wood bottom whirl drop spindle of 32 gramms. Spins really nicely though it definitely likes making thin yarn more than thicker yarns. Can hold up to 50 gramms of yarns if you really stretch it.

A pearwood top whirl drop spindle of 22 gramm. She is a new addition to my collection, so I have yet to collect good data about her spinning behaviour.

A beechwood drop spindle of round about 50 gramms. My favourite among my collection since it spins the exact type of yarn that I enjoy working with in other fiber crafts. Also super fast and likes to spin for a long long time. She was also the spindle I first learned the skill with and the only one not made by Peter Locke, since his shop was not available at the time I first started my spinning journey.

Russian support spindle made from what the label calls "Designwood". Likely dyed liane wood. Also has an accompanying spinning bowl of some sort of mystery wood. I am currently learning flicking it consistently. Hopefully I can start trying it out with some actual fibers from my stash soon.

Enjoy some bonus close ups of my newest additions, since they are extra pretty!

And of course, I cannot forget the one spindle that was hiding from me when I took the picture: My lovely plying spindle. She is also made from pear wood and weighs a lovely 36 gramms. Can hold up to 100 gramms of yarn, though I wasn't really stretching her potential on my tests, so likely a bit more? She sees a lot of use since my spinning wheel (you shall meet her in another post, this one is plenty long already) does not like to ply well and I like my yarns super even.

[iplaywithstring]

I set myself up with a distaff for my support spindle.

It's a bit of a learning curve, but going well so far. I think in the long run this will be much easier on my hands and joints.

Really loving this new spindle too!

[fyresnow]

New spindle new spindle!!! You ever meet a new tool and get the feeling that it was meant to be? like it was made for you? Something about this spindle ✨clicked✨ for me and it feels so nice to spin with. It's like it's teaching me how to supported spin. It feels so wonderful in the hand and it's so pretty too. Made from reclaimed wood and other materials (:

I've been really struggling with supported spinning, but with the new spindle I think I'm really starting to get the hang of it. Look how finely I can spin! it's relatively even too! The process feels so smooth and delightful!

Many supported spindles are wildly expensive and I was planning on waiting until MD Sheep/Wool to try to find one at a discount or something. And then I found this one for a perfectly reasonable price. I didn't think I was going to go for it, but I could not stop thinking about it. I'm so glad I took a chance on it~

The spindle is from Rag Bag Rebel Alliance on Etsy (HIGHLY recommend!)

The Fiber is "Sophisticat" from Living Dreams Yarn/Fiber (I've been spinning it from the fold)