Necessity is now, as always, the mother of invention, and having three beautiful pounds of Shetland lambswool waiting to become yarn, and no money at present for such things as precious tools, I am forced to improvise.
A 1/4" dowel, a chunk of 1x3x3 pine and a little patience, a rubberband and a bit of electrical tape, and I have a bottom whorl spindle once again. It won't win any beauty contests, but it works, and to me, that's what matters. Next week I'll be making myself a pair of combs so that I can do fine worsted as well as my beloved woolen.
Remarkably, my hands, after all these years, remember. They remember the quiet movements of fluffing the locks, then pre-drafting the picked over wool into an impromptu roving. Spin, finish drafting a few inches, let the spin travel, again, again, spin, draft, travel, again, again, spin... Yards of silky soft single already grace the base of my spindle, and I am forced to take a break, to feed my family. But there she sits, my terribly rustic little spindle, which spins as well as any of the pretty ones I've ever used, the scent of wool drifting to me subtly, and I am pleased.
The first finished yarn will become a sweater, hat, booties and mittens for a child who won't be born until May. My first grandchild will wear my first homespun. So, it's important that it be nice. It is important to me that it be lovely, soft, fluffy wool that will keep my wee lad warm.
Twenty one years ago I crocheted and couldn't knit a stitch. I made warm things of crochet back then, but now, now I will knit, and with care, these things will be passed from child to child, mother to mother in the family for generations to come.
That is why I make homemade tools and homemade yarn, and homemade clothes. Because these are the things that are treasured. I have my Grandma's knife, made by my Grandpa's rugged hands of a scrap of steel and a hand whittled handle three fourths of a century ago. These are the things that matter.
Hopefully someday my grandchildren will hold and use my tools, and they'll know as I do of that battered knife- "Grandma used these all the time, and they're important. She made them herself. What I make upon them will be blessed by the love she felt ever time she picked them up to make us something."
I love my store-bought tools, too, and I'd give anything to have a stunning wheel standing by the stove for me to spin on, but for now, a rustic spindle, made by my own hands, will spin the threads that I knit and weave together just fine.
I just want to say that I love your beautiful writing style :)
I understand the appeal of the simplicity and rustic charm of the drop spindle, but I have to admit that since I got my first spinning wheel, I've never gone back to it. Drop spindle spinning just didn't seem to "flow" for me the way spinning at a wheel does ... but you make it sound so peaceful and hypnotic - maybe someday I'll dust mine off again.
For soft and warm with a nice soft fleece, I'm thinking you'll probably want to spin woolen or semi-woolen? Some hand cards, if you don't have them, could help out with making rolags for woolen spinning. But lacking those, maybe you could flick card locks with a dog grooming tool, and then pull them out and roll them up a bit to simulate a rolag?
If you're ok with a spinning wheel that looks a bit more like exposed pvc plumbing, Babe's Garden has a wheel for just under $200. I don't have one, but reviews on it seem pretty positive.
Thank you. I blame my Pop entirely. The man was a storyteller, fildh, Irish, and he taught me well how to spin a yarn. :D
The spindle, to me, is a connection to my Grandma Rosey. She was Cherokee, married a big Viking man and never had two dimes to rub together, so she never had a wheel, just a humble spindle that probably looked pretty much like the one sitting before me in my basket right now. A dowel, a chunk of scrap wood and a little patience. Mine sports a cuphook and a bit of electrical tape, since the dowel tried to split on me, despite the pilot hole. :D
She had five children, four daughters and son, and they lived in a pair of box cars converted into a house. Grandpa Carl worked for the railroad, you see. Poor, but because of that they knew how to do things that maybe they wouldn't have otherwise. Grandma spun every sort of fibre she could get her hands on and wove cloth to sew clothing from as well as knitting. My Mom's cousin Nolan has her receipt book, where she wrote things down, and a rug she wove of birch bark, pounded soft. Someone still has Mom's rug, too, crocheted of old clothes, cut into strips and worked until it covered the whole of the playroom floor in her first home.
Woolen is the aim, and so far, the outcome. I'm making do with a pair of cat brushes as carding tools for now, and while the rolag they produce is small, it works nicely. I tried flicking, but that didn't give me quite enough puff to satisfy. The plan is a three-ply yarn, this lot all spun on the spindle, for the baby things for my first grandson, Riley. He'll be arriving in May. :) My daughter, who was told she would never bear children of her own, decided to be as contrary as the rest of us and defy the doctors. I'm terribly pleased.
I have the instructions to build an 18" wheel, and as soon as the weather breaks, my husband and I will be making a foray to the lumberyard to pick up what little we don't have already. It will be just the right size to fit in my house, and nearby will stand my loom. I cannot wait to begin weaving the same sturdy and lovely rug styles that Grandma made. And we'll be breaking ground this spring on the foundations for our new house, which will have an inglenook, where I can stay snug and warm while I work.
You already spin quite a yarn. When you are proficient with a low whorl spindle, you can produce more thread than on most wheels because you can take it with you. Get a copy of Abby's Respect the Spindle. If it is beyond your budget, message me privately on this list and I will make sure you get a copy.
Gwen Powell
I'm producing a spindleful in three days right now, prepping fibre in the morning, spinning in the evening. I have to go out of town this weekend and I'm taking a knitting project, and a load of rolag and spindle with me, since we'll be having a knitting group at a friend's house. My secret plot is to get my friends spinning their own yarns and then during knitting get togethers we can also have yarn and fibre swaps.
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