Wether it’s in knitting, crochet or just going through my stash every now and then – there isn’t a day that I don’t touch yarn.
I can’t really imagine how anyone goes about their life barely ever (if at all!) touching a skein of yarn, let alone think about it!
Working with this medium so frequently, I assume it’s only natural that I developed a deep interest in the material itself: the different fibers contents, constructions and what differences they make for the ways in which it can be used and the properties of any finished product made from it.
As I dove deeper into the subject, I found my love for hand dyed yarn and eventually stumbled across hand dyed roving and what it’s used for.
People spin their own yarn? By hand?!
I need this in my life!
This is just an introduction to drop spinning and how my first attempt at it turned out, not a tutorial. (Yet ^~^)
Why Do The Work?
I think there’s nothing more precious than something diligently made by hand, by a person who chose to do so and put in the effort and love, finding fulfillment in their craft. How much more special does it become, if said person also spun the yarn that’s used, carefully drafting the delicate fibers, turning the spindle and therefore the yarn into something so incredibly unique and special.
Then there’s the fulfillment in gaining and having this ability.
When you can start out with nothing but fiber and some oddly shaped sticks, knowing your own hands can turn this into yarn, then fabric and anything you choose…
Isn’t that just wonderful?
It takes time, practice and probably a tiny bit of patience and diligence as well.
A friend recently asked me why I do it.
This question confused me quite a bit and I still don’t know what answer to give…
You learn to handle fiber, learn about yarn and I imagine it might train some fine motoric skills.
However that’s not my reason.
I just saw it, thought it looks fun and wanted to try it – so I did.
Now I’m just doing it.
And it’s even more fun than I imagined!
The Basics
To learn how to spin and what’s needed, my first step was going straight on YouTube and watching exactly one tutorial before deciding this is my life now.
You really don’t need a lot to get started:
Roving
Scrap Yarn
Drop Spindle
Spinning with a drop spindle basically works as follows:
You have your drop spindle hanging from a piece of yarn to which you attach your roving. Then you spin it and pull more roving to get twisted as it needs it.
This leads to your spindle hanging from a long piece of single ply yarn that you wind around your spindle every time it gets too long for the spindle to still spin freely in the air.
In the end, multiple of those single ply threads are plied into the finished yarn.
My Spindle
There are many different shapes of hand spindles but my heart belongs to the turkish drop spindle.
Its unique shape means it has amazing torque so it doesn’t need to be manually spun as often as others.
It also allows you to wind up your yarn in a special way – around the cross at the bottom instead of the stick in the middle. This forms this gorgeous ball of yarn with it’s prism-like pattern.
That ball is called a turtle!
The turtle can even be taken off the spindle just the way it is and worked from right away without the need to wind it into a yarn cake or ball first!
The turkish drop spindle is made up of three pieces that hold each other in place, simply by sliding one of the bottom beams through the other one and then the middle stick through a hole in the middle of both. This means it takes barely any space to store!
I got my wonderful spindle as a gift from my even more wonderful partner.
It’s handmade, mahagony wood and exactly 40g.
If you want to try it out, I recommend going for a similar weight as mine, since it turned out to be very beginner friendly (at least for me).
If it’s too heavy it’s prone to dropping when your yarn isn’t reliably sturdy yet.
However, if it’s too light, it’s harder to get a consistent spin because it doesn’t get as much momentum.
There’s no need to go for something this extravagant though!
The Fluff
The roving I used for my first spin was 100% german wool, hand dyed from a little Etsy shop. I got it as a gift as well so I don’t know the exact dyer – I just know they’re a magician with colours!
I chose this roving because it felt the most grippy of all the braids I had.
This proved to be the right choice!
It was the first time I worked with fibers in that form, so the natural grippiness – meaning the fibers stuck together pretty well on their own – helped a lot before I got a feeling for how much pulling is needed.
Furthermore it helped me to rarely ever drop my spindle because it took a lot of messing up for it to “snap”.
These colours remind me of a beautiful sunrise.
I think my favourite part about spinning is playing with the fluff!
Roving often comes in so called braids which are simply said crocheted chains but giant. Opening those braids leaves a long, kind of thick strand of fibers that are all laying in the same direction.
The action of pulling the fibers appart length wise, so that the strand becomes thinner as less fibers lay together, is called drafting. It’s the movement you do to give the spindle more fiber to spin.
My favourite part is pre-drafting: getting the fiber loosened up and ready to go which makes the spinning itself much simpler. Sitting there, slowly letting soft fluff run through your hands, watching the colours change and the fibers loosen up as you gently pull them apart.
A wonderful sensory experience!
My Spinning Journey
I didn’t think it would be as easy as it was!
Now that doesn’t mean my first yarn is perfect or even usable by any means. But that wasn’t my goal at all.
It took me 4 months of picking up my spinning every now and then, spinning days on end and forgetting about it again, accidentally felting bits and dropping my precious spindle painfully hard at times, to make a 20g mini skein of yarn. I might not even be able to use it because it’s very much thick and thin and a bit messy.
So why am I happily going on and on about it all?
Well… It was so much fun!
And I’m incredibly proud of the mini I made!
I went from touching roving for the first time in my life to having made something that can be recognised as a skein of yarn! How incredible is that?
Spinning with a drop spindle is such a slow process.
I think it will be one of those activities I do for the process, not the product.
I find there’s beauty in that – a soothing activity with no big goal but all the more wonderful sensory impressions.
The soft fiber nestling around my wrist, the slight coarseness of the twist running up under my fingertips contrasted by the cool, smooth wood of the spindle.
Though I know I’ll get impatient every now and then because I just cant wait to see the gorgeous yarn!
After winding it up into a hank, I was so thrilled I even made a little lable real quick to dress it up a bit!
I didn’t dare to wash this skein, as I’ve seen spinners usually do as the last finishing step, so that the fibers relax into their new shape… I’m not sure I spun well enough for it to survive that…
Turning Towards The Future
I’m excited to improve and try using my own handspun yarn in a few projects!
Though I’m not sure what to make yet.
My first little skein will probably stay a hank for the foreseeable future because I want to keep it to see my progress over time.
I did encounter a little issue with drop spinning in general though:
I can’t do it every time I’d like to and not for long, even when sitting down.
So I decided to cherish the times that I can do it, as well as find ways to spin that are more sustainable for me.
I’m not saying I got myself a spinning wheel.
I’m just not saying that I didn’t…
Nonetheless, I think spinning is a wonderful hobby to have and drop spindles are a great way to do it!
The craft itself is a lot of fun and depending on the spindle and roving you choose, it’s reasonably affordable as well. You can get a drop spindle for around 20€ and I recently got some roving for 3€ per 100g (which definitely had nothing to do with me browsing spinning supply shops for wheels!).
If you need something to keep your hands buisy while watching TV or chatting on the phone I highly recommend spinning!
Thank you for taking the time to read my rambling!
May your days be filleed with fluffy feels and gentle growth
Have a wonderful week!
Snowdrop
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