Author Topic: a hand spinning technique (Read 3120 times)

Fleecewife · « **on:** August 30, 2015, 11:40:37 pm »

If my shaky link posting has worked, this little clip shows a lady from a far away land (don't know where) using a spindle supported by a nifty little gadget on her waistband. I have used a small supported spindle but the cup had to sit on the ground. This one can be used whilst walking around. Interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmrMt9DnJy4

She's in Goa.

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #1 on:** August 31, 2015, 12:10:33 am »

Clever! I've a pal uses a wooden spoon clamped under her leg as a bowl to spin supported, this takes it the next step!

I'll show the video to our local woodturner-and-spinner... I've already got some delightful wooden bowls for supported spindling I can use sat on my thigh, and a few other items

, from her. Now all I need is to really get the hang of supported spindling

. It's the flick is my biggest problem, I can't get them spinning for long enough.

Lesley Silvester · « **Reply #2 on:** August 31, 2015, 12:31:10 am »

She's very quick at it. I think I'll stick to my wheel though.

Bionic · « **Reply #3 on:** August 31, 2015, 01:52:57 am »

She makes it look easy but I bet it isn't

Buttermilk · « **Reply #4 on:** August 31, 2015, 07:17:44 am »

She has probably spent her whole life spinning as a necessity.

Louise Gaunt · « **Reply #5 on:** August 31, 2015, 07:51:53 am »

That is really impressive. Having the spindle anchored means it doesn't drop on the floor so much! Or is it just me that puts the drop,into drop spindle?!

Buttermilk · « **Reply #6 on:** August 31, 2015, 08:44:09 am »

Nope I drop mine too.

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #7 on:** August 31, 2015, 10:00:14 am »

She's spinning on a supported spindle, where the point is rotating in and supported by a cup or bowl. The drop spindle hangs from the yarn that's being made, so when the yarn breaks, the spindle drops.

You can still drop a supported spindle, of course, but it takes a higher degree of cack-handedness. (AMHIK

)

What spindlers say is

Quote

A wheel is faster by the hour, but a spindle is faster by the week

In that, whilst a wheel spinner and a spindler sat side by side, the wheel spinner would most likely make more yarn in the same time, as the spindler can spindle for odd moments and when s/he is out and about, over the course of a week the spindler's output may well exceed that of the wheel-spinner.

Having said which, at Wool on the Wall we had a number of very experienced and proficient spindlers spinning yarn alongside the wheel spinners - and they were not noticeably slower

Lesley Silvester · « **Reply #8 on:** August 31, 2015, 11:08:58 pm »

I had a friend who would take her spindle when she walked the dog round their fields every morning. She reckoned she's have spun and oz of wool by the time she got back to the cottage. She would dye it all using natural dyes and all with only a well for water, then knit it up without ever seeing a pattern.