Hand Spinning Wool
September 21st, 2007 by HeatherI recently got a drop spindle kit so I could learn to hand spin my own wool. The kit came with a drop spindle, some wool roving, and instructions of how to put the spindle together.
After scouring the net for some hand spinning instructions I decided to give it a try. Well, it was definitely harder than they make it out to be 
It took me a long time to get the tension right, and the spin right, and my hands in the right place.
But I have success:
Hand spun yarn! Its not pretty, and I don’t now if I’ll be able to actually use it, but its a start!
Has anyone else hand spun yarn? Any tips to offer a newbie?
September 21st, 2007 at 5:51 am
I purchased a drop spindle a few weeks back and my first spun yarn looked a lot like yours. Believe me it gets better with time and practice. http://letsknit2gether.com/blog1/?p=30 has a beautiful made tutorial with lots of useful tips and tricks it helped me out a lot. Marion
September 21st, 2007 at 6:39 am
I can’t see the pictures propery the last are way too big!
Sounds interesting though.
September 21st, 2007 at 7:51 am
That looks fantastic for a first try!
The first thing to remember is this: The only wrong way to spin is to stop.
Determine how long your staple fiber is by taking a piece and holding it between two hands about two inches apart. You’ll feel that you’re holding both ends of the same fiber. Drafting requires that you hold two different pieces of fiber so that they slide passed one another. So, move your hands slightly apart and tug again. Keep moving your hands apart until you feel movement. This is the minimum distance you must draft from.
Remember that twist energy is like water. You have to hold it in the yarn between pinched fingers. Draft a bit of fiber above the pinch, pinch off with your other hand ABOVE the draft, so that your twist doesn’t go into your roving, and THEN release the twist into the drafted fiber. When you’re just beginning, don’t feel bad about adding twist and then trapping the spindle, and THEN drafting. The flow of dropping and letting it spin while you draft will come later.
The rest is just twist and overlap. If you’re having problems, try to analyze if you have too much twist (pigtails or breakage) or not enough twist (yarn breaks), too much overlap (slubby, chunky yarn), or not enough overlap (yarn breaks).
We have a fabulous community for handspinners @ http://spinningfiber.livejournal.com.
Yay new spinner!
September 21st, 2007 at 9:10 am
I fixed the pictures, they were fine at home on my laptop but when I got to work they were huge.
Sorry about that!
September 21st, 2007 at 12:42 pm
I got a drop spindle a few months ago. I had sort of a hard time understanding drafting at first, but that explanation above by cavalaxis is really nice. Just keep practicing. I am working on finishing my first plied yarn right now. It’s definitely not perfect, but there is a marked improvement over my first yarn. Good luck!
P.S. The parts to that spindle are easily found at a hardware store, if you find yourself wanting more spindles in different sizes/weights.
September 23rd, 2007 at 10:07 pm
Your first yarn looks great! One tip I found really helpful is – don’t fixate on your first yarn – it doesn’t have to be perfect or look like commercial (machine-spun) yarn – part of the charm of handspun is that it isn’t necessarily all exactly the same, so just enjoy the process while you’re getting your technique down. A good thing that helped me alot is try and practice daily. Do a 15-minute spinning session and work on your drafting and getting consistent twist, and just work slowly along until you feel confident, and don’t worry if you drop the spindle; everyone does it! That’s why they’re typically made with materials that won’t break if you drop them (unless you buy stained-glass ones, but those are more for show and less for spinning, I think).
Miss Knotty, who loves to spin.
October 2nd, 2007 at 4:54 am
I’ve been spinning on a drop spindle for a couple years now, and your first try looks just like mine did. It gets easier very quickly. Keep reminding yourself that this is a craft that is literally thousands of years old — it’s not complex or difficult, only time-consuming. With just a little practice, you’ll be spinning fine, even yarns and plying in no time.
Miss Knotty is right about handspun yarn — it doesn’t need to be “perfect” like commercial yarn. I don’t think it should be anyway; the true appeal of handspun is its imperfection.
March 30th, 2009 at 6:44 am
I started spindle spinning right after Halloween ’08. I have enjoyed it to no end and like everyone is saying, it does not have to be perfect. Also like everyone is saying, you will get better over time, the more you do it, the better it gets. I do my wool work in small amounts. I try to have some in the wash and dry stage as well as the combing stage. When my shoulders get too tired from spinning, I will wash a batch for drying, that way I am never really out of wool to work with. I find it very relaxing to do because I can do it where ever I want and when ever I want. I can do some combing and spinnng while my 4 year old watches one of her shows on TV or while I am waiting to pick my son up from school. I have even worked on the spinning while waiting in the dentist office for my older daughter and have shown several other people just how much fun it is to be hand spinning. I like to take something from the very beginning and create from it something that is useable for others. The fun that I have from working with the wool is the fact that I get it from my sister-in-law in the raw stage, I work it into the yard and her son can knit it into something for her (he is a beginner knitter), so we are all having fun working with the wool from the sheep on their farm, everyone gets something from the wool.
Mostly, the wool for me is just something to do for the fun of it and the enjoyment that I get for doing things for others. I love to work with my hands as you can see by the other things I do in my life.
Thank you for letting me talk.
Jo
March 30th, 2009 at 7:26 am
WOW! I hope my first spin looks as good. My kit (a different one) is suppossed to be in today, and I am as giddy as a school girl. I got my wool this morning and have been drafting. So far so good! I’m glad I stumbled onto here. The encourgement from the other comments eases my nerves a bit. Thanks!!