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Drop Spindle: Take Your Spinning With You This Summer

If you're on the go during the summer, your drop spindle can be the perfect companion.

Kate Larson May 13, 2019 - 3 min read

Drop Spindle: Take Your Spinning With You This Summer Primary Image

Traveling with your spinning? Check out these travel hacks. (Spindlewood spindle and Merino/silk by Chasing Rainbows shown.) Photo by Kate Larson

Many of us are on the go during the summer, and your drop spindle is the perfect companion. Spinners can be seen pulling a spindle out of their spinning bag (affiliate link) at baseball games, airports, beaches, or even national parks. Interweave has resources for spinners new to drop spindles and those who’ve had practice. Check these out so you’ll be ready to hit the road!

New to drop spindles?

Getting Started on a Drop Spindle This online workshop with Maggie Casey will get you started on the right foot. Maggie is known from coast to coast for gently ushering new spinners into the world.

Embedded content: https://youtu.be/1VCDJznKUhg

A Handspindle Treasury: Spindle Spinning Originally published as a book, this resource is a great way to learn spindling basics from a variety of instructors. A Handspindle Treasury includes an introduction by Pricilla Gibson-Roberts. You might also enjoy the second book in the series, A Handspindle Treasury: Spinning Around the World.

Advancing your drop-spindle skills?

Respect the Spindle Abby Franquemont’s classic book is full of tips for improving productivity, fixing spindles, and traveling with spindles. There’s a video, too!

Spinzilla

Talking with their friends and minding their sales, three women in the village of Chinchero, Peru have spindles on hand all day long. Photo by Anne Merrow

Andean Spinning

Make a cup of tea, sit down with your spindle, and listen to Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez (affiliate link) and Interweave founder Linda Ligon discuss spinning in the Andes. Nilda has been an important force behind the preservation of traditional textile craft in Peru (affiliate link). She shares how to use a pushka (Andean handspindle), how different fibers are prepared in her community, and more. I love this video so much, I wrote more about it here.

One of my favorite things about drop spindles? You can never have too many! —Kate

Featured Image: Traveling with your spinning? Check out these travel hacks. (Spindlewood spindle and Merino/silk by Chasing Rainbows shown.) Photo by Kate Larson

Kate Larson is the editor of Spin Off and spends as many hours as life allows in the barn with her beloved flock of Border Leicesters.

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