Akha Spindles: What Is the “Right” Way to Spin?

As I was reading Devin Helmen’s post about spindles that are great for spinning cotton a few weeks ago, I got the urge to pull out my Akha spindles. These sweet mid-whorl spindles are a style associated with the Akha peoples of Southeast Asia. I was delighted to purchase a well-worn spindle from Laos several years ago, and while I admire it each day as it sits on my desk, I’d not spent much time working with it. Inspired to do just that, I gathered several cotton preparations and set to spinning.

Support Spindle, Suspended Spindle . . . or Both?

I started looking for tips on using this spindle style, and—as is so often the case in the wide world of fiber—I found several approaches. With the whorl placed near the middle of the spindle’s shaft, there is room to comfortably hold and turn the slim shaft to create twist. This can allow the spinner to draft fiber without the full weight of the spindle tugging against the short cotton fibers. That whorl placement also leaves plenty of space to comfortably roll the spindle on one’s leg to get it spinning quite fast. These techniques can be combined to create two very different spinning methods that I’ll share with you here.

As I was spindle sleuthing online and in my fiber library, I found two great resources explaining these distinct methods for using an Akha spindle: a video from Amelia Garripoli and an article from Connie Delaney. I’m excited to excerpt both the video and article for this month’s subscriber-only bonus!

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Hybrid Support and Suspended Techniques

The most common method I found on using an Akha spindle is beautifully demonstrated by Amelia Garripoli in her video Supported Spindle Spinning. This is the method that is working best for me right now, and I’m able to create a very fine, consistent, high-twist single—ideal for the stitching threads I had on my to-do list! The added bonus is that, like the Akha spinners in hill tribe communities of Laos, Thailand, and beyond, I can walk and move as I spin.[PAYWALL]

As you saw in the video, Amelia discusses this approach in two separate steps.

STEP 1
To twirl the Akha spindle while drafting:

• Hold the spindle with your fingers just below the whorl and twirl it using your index finger and thumb, holding it horizontally and allowing your remaining fingers to catch the shaft as it twirls.
• Hold the fiber in your other hand and keep twirling the spindle until you feel the fiber catch the twist from the thread on the spindle.
• Start drafting using your fiber hand, pulling that hand back as you draft, and keep twirling the spindle using the other hand.

Step 1: Turn the spindle in the hand to insert twist while drafting. Courtesy of Long Thread Media

STEP 2
Once the singles are strong enough to support the weight of the spindle:

• Roll the spindle on your thigh to add the finishing twist.
• Wind the spun fiber onto the spindle above the whorl by twirling the spindle and using the other hand to keep the spun thread taut.

Step 2: Roll the spindle up (or down depending on twist direction) the thigh to insert finishing twist. Courtesy of Long Thread Media

For more, you can check out Amelia Garripoli’s video Supported Spindle Spinning.

(Mostly) Suspended-Spindle Style

In her article, “The Akha Spindle” from Spin Off Summer 2000, Connie Delany details her search for information about these mid-whorl spindles during the late 1990s. When her article was published in 2000, it was met with excitment. (There was even an Akha spindle on the cover!)

The method Connie describes for spinning singles is the same as what I also found in a number of short videos online attributed to indigenous Akha spinners. Beside a picture of Connie with her arms outstretched, she describes drafting quickly as the spindle is suspended and rotating quickly, which we might also call drop-spindle style. Connie only mentions turning the spindle in her hands and drafting support-style when starting the first few yards of leader singles.

The article goes on to include plying instructions and some background on twist direction. It’s a fun read even now, more than two decades after it was first published!

Click here to get the PDF download of “The Akha Spindle” article.

Kate Larson, editor of Spin Off, teaches handspinning around the country and spends as many hours as life allows in the barn with her beloved flock of Border Leicesters.