Drop Spindle Spinning

I am about to outline my experience with the Drop Spindle Spinning class I took with Nicola at Baaad Anna's yarn shop recently. Beware ~~I am a novice at this skill so what is about to follow describes an experience and should not serve as anything more than ramblings of a beginner.

First, let's discuss the drop spindle. It is easy to see why this is a popular way to spin. The spindle is so simple to use you can almost figure it out just by looking at it. Place the roving on the hook, give the dowel a spin and you are off to the races. Plus the investment is relatively minuscule, depending on the size of the spindle you choose, it will set you back between $15 and $40.

The second item needed to spin is roving. Roving refers to the fiber produced when clean wool has been carded. If carding is done by a machine the fiber is "lined up" in a sheet. All the spinner needs to do is feed the roving, in the appropriate amounts (called drafting), on to the spindle and spin. What results is single ply yarn. Here's what my roving looks like:

My BFL roving, see the "vegetable material" there in the mid-left

I used a lovely BFL roving (Blackfaced Leicester - a type of sheep that yields a very soft wool in natural colours of off-white/cream, gray and black.) If one wants coloured yarn the roving needs to be dyed, which is an entirely new technique to be learned. For my first attempt I choose to use a natural cream coloured roving.

Now for the spinning. The trick is to get the roving drafting properly. Drafting refers to managing the process by which you introduce twists into the roving. Sounds easy right, heck all you need to do is put a spin on the spindle. All this is true, but how this is done is vital because drafting is the heart and soul of the spinning process.

Let me show you how this is done by an expert acting as if she's a beginner. Rachel from Paradise Fibers has a nice 4 minute video showing how to get started with a drop spindle. It is worth watching an expert do this. Both Rachel and my instructor, Nicola, make this look so relaxing and easy to do. As you can see there's plenty of starting and stopping but as you get better the drafting becomes second nature and spinning becomes a continuous process. I can tell you that spinning causes you to use your arms/hands in ways much different from how they are used in knitting. Spinning in this way offers a great change of pace.

Two full hours were spent in class where I was actually trying to make some version of a smooth yarn. I did learn that once the roving has been spun one cannot take it apart and re-spin it; therefore you get what you get and what I got was a yarn that varies dramatically in thickness. Even after I turned my yarn into double ply, meaning I put two single ply strands of my spun yarn together, the variations remain very evident. In the end I made just under 5 feet or 1.5 meters of double ply yarn. Not enough to make much but then hey, I have just begun.

The variety of roving spun in class

My roving and spindle with my spun yarn

My washed and thwacked yarn

Yes, this "yarn" needs a bit of work, but you can see patches of success followed by patches that need improvement. I will find a way to use this just the way it is, however, and will continue to practice.

Next I'll talk about what I am attempting to do with a couple of cakes of pencil roving I bought several years ago. .

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