Spinning Yarn with a Drop Spindle

The following is a post my daughter QOTPE wrote a few years ago for the bunny blog we maintained while they were actively breeding angora rabbits.  Instead of writing a new post on spinning with a drop spindle, I figured I could just use hers.  There's no need to re-invent the wheel.

A drop spindle is used to spin fiber into yarn.  The drop spindle has been used for thousands of years.  In contrast, the spinning wheel has only been around for a few hundred years.  Drop spindles are much less expensive than spinning wheels.  They are small and very portable.  They are also very easy to make.  It’s very easy to take to crowded rabbit shows.

Yarn made from a drop spindle can be just as nice as yarn from a spinning wheel.  It just takes practice.    

 

Some people can make yarn just as fast with a drop spindle as with a spinning wheel.  I’m still working on that. 

 

Now let’s begin using the drop spindle. 

 

First, you’ll need to start with about 18” of scrap yarn, also known as a leader.  Knot one end around the shaft of your drop spindle and fray the other end.  Wind the yarn around the shaft of your spindle and thread the end through the hook, leaving about a six inch tail.  If you are right-handed, use your left hand middle finger and thumb to hold the fiber and frayed end of yarn together.  With your right hand, twist the spindle clockwise.  If you get it going fast enough, you can let go of the spindle while you draft the wool.  Your fiber will twist automatically into a single ply of yarn.  Every minute or so, you will need to pause (or “park”) and wind your new yarn around the shaft of the spindle. 

  

Below are some links for some good Youtubes on beginner spinning on a drop spindle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrZcr7_qXFY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtBLIg4JhNI

Now the Youtubes make it seem like a really long, drawn out process.  But once you get the hang of it, it's pretty fast.  It's easy, cheap, and portable.  It takes practice to spin perfectly smooth and uniform yarn.  Fortunately, we live in a time when novelty yarn is popular.  So if we don't produce beautifully uniform yarn, we just call whatever we have novelty yarn and it's all good.  It's still pretty and it still keeps us warm.

Links to related posts:
Mittens   
Raising Rabbits   
DIY Drop Spindle  
 

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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.