DIY Drop Spindle

If you've decided to raise some angora rabbits as part of your efforts at self-reliance and preparedness, or if you happen to have access to fiber for spinning into yarn (some people use dog hair), you'll need a little device to spin it.  No one's going to have a spinning wheel lying around without knowing how to use it.  (Well, you do find them as decoration in some homes, but those spinning wheels are quite often missing essential parts.)  Spinning wheels came into being about 400 years ago.  On the other hand, drop spindles have been used since the beginning of time.  They are compact and easily and inexpensively made.

The directions below were written by my daughter a few years ago for our bunny blog.  They are for making a smaller, lighter drop spindle used for spinning fine fibers like angora and for spinning very fine yarn.  For spinning coarser, heavier fibers and bulkier yarn, you'll want larger wheels, dowels, and hooks, but the principles are still the same.

Most people, even ardent preppers, are not going to prepare to the extent of raising fiber animals and spinning their own yarn and knitting.  I get that.  They'll skip to the knitting part at best.  I think it's because a lot of us can't even imagine being truly cold and unable to get warm.  We live in warm houses, drive in warm cars, run from warm cars to warm buildings, and often don't even bother to wear coats because we'll only be outside in the cold for a few seconds.  Even those who do bundle up are often wearing synthetic fibers and cotton, and that's exactly what most people knit with.  After all, natural animal fibers are rather expensive.  But animal fibers are so much warmer.  For preparedness, they are the only way to go.

And spinning and knitting are very therapeutic, especially when stressed.  They are a great way to keep older women and even younger children occupied and productive.  This post will be just for making the drop spindle; future post(s) will address spinning yarn with a drop spindle. 

How do you make a drop spindle?

First, you need to buy the materials at a craft store like Hobby Lobby or Michael's.  What are the materials, you ask?  A toy wooden wheel, a dowel rod, and an eye hook or cup hook.

Materials--dowels, wheels, hooks

The wheel diameter should be 2½-3".  The hole in the wheel and the diameter of the dowel should each be ¼".  If you use an eye hook, you'll need to open it up with pliers.  Pliers are also useful for holding the hook while screwing it into the dowel, but you can screw the hook in without them.

Tools--pliers

Now push the wheel onto the dowel, hopefully without much trouble.  You may need wood glue if the fit is loose.  All of ours last night were tight, and we had to tap them into place, about 1½" from the end of the dowel.  Then start screwing the eye hook or cup hook into the end of the dowel (now called the shaft) closest to the wheel (now called the whorl).  This took us a few minutes.  Pliers helped the job go faster.  

Close-up of drop spindle end

Finished drop spindle

The whole project took maybe 30 minutes.  We forgot the cost of the hooks, but we believe it cost less than a dollar to make one.  We included the links below for different instructions for making drop spindles. 

http://joyofhandspinning.com/how-to-make-a-drop-spindle/
http://ofwoolandloveliness.blogspot.com/2013/06/make-easy-drop-spindle-for-175.html

Reprinted with permission from BlackDiamondRabbitry.blogspot.com.