Handmade spun wool yarn examples

Are You a Handmade Yarn Spinner? 

my tales of spinning wool and a look at my spun tidbits

There was a time that I loved to practice with my drop spindle to make tidbits of yarn. I did it in the house and even on-the-go during car rides. My efforts usually only produced mini skeins. Those little strips like in the photo above were used in my wet felted wool hats & scarves. I never had ambitions to be a hardcore producer of large amounts of wool yarn - more just liked to play around with a drop spindle and kick spindle. I even took a class on using a spinning wheel and produced one skein of "interesting" yarn that I still have. 

Some more additons to my fiber equipment - a Mother Marion Kick Spindle and a Lazy Kate

Although I consider myself primarily a traditional feltmaker and always will, I have decided that I'd like to become a more well-rounded fiber artist.  Part of this endeavor is to learn to spin yarn.  I had a spinning class a little while ago and realized how much I enjoyed the process of making hand spun yarn.  Unfortunately, I can't afford a spinning wheel right now.  I just invested in a beautiful Fancy Kitty drum carder and must wait a while to purchase a wheel.  In the mean time, I am making some smaller investments on fiber equipment including a kick spindle and a lazy kate.

I have used my drop spindle off and on, but I feel a bit uncoordinated on it so I decided to invest in a Mother Marion style kick spindle from Heavenly Hand Spinning.   I bought their Little Meggie in Oak kick spindle.  I've only used it a few times now and am still adjusting to how it feels.  It is faster than my drop spindle and allows both of my hands to be free for spinning so that I can practice drafting as you would on a spinning wheel.  I personally like to use it standing up and kick the spindle with my right foot.  It is a bit of a balancing act at times, but undoubtedly a great workout too.  Overall, I like my experience with the spindle so far.  It is quite heavy though and a bit clunkier feeling than using a drop spindle.  It will slide around if you don't brace it well.  I put plastic furniture tabs on the bottom of mine to keep it in place on my hardwood floors as I use it.   It also has a tendency to tip and slip out of its ball bearing.  These, in my opinion, are very minor design flaws considering the overall craftsmanship and beauty of the piece.  I think the base could be wider to avoid the instability.  I may end up attaching it to a wider board myself eventually.  For now, I am satisfied with my kick spindle.  It is a happy medium between using a drop spindle and a spinning wheel.  The truth is that I'd prefer to just have my own spinning wheel right now.  Eventually, I will, but there is some saving of funds to do first.  If you are in the market to buy a kick spindle, I recommend checking out this blog post by Knitting Dragonflies.  It has information on different kick spindle brands as well as a good review of how one works.

The other piece of equipment that I purchased is a handmade lazy kate from a little shop on Etsy called bigfam15.  It is made out of recycled oak from a church pew.  (I just love that!)  It was also significantly less expensive than comparable name brand lazy kates on the market.  I must say that it doesn't sacrifice any quality though.  It far exceeded my expectations in its craftsmanship, functionality, and overall beauty.  It also shipped very quickly and was well packaged with a sweet hand written thank you note.  This lazy kate was completely worth the money and an absolute little gem of a find if you ask me.  I have tinkered with it a bit and really look forward to using it with my hand spun yarns.

My new drop spindle and spinning

I've decided to take up drop spinning. I've been thinking about learning to spin for a while now. After seeing this beautiful spindle at Cottage Fiber, my local supply shop, I just couldn't resist. It is a top quality, handcrafted Kundert Spindle. I think the wood crafting on it is so beautiful. It is a joy to use too.


My plan is to use some of my handspun yarns in the feltmaking process. Often times, I will hunt for just the right shade of commercially made yarn to trim out my scarves with fringe or add the finishing touches on decorative designs, but now I plan to spin my own yarns for fringe, decoration, etc. This will allow for more creative freedom in my designs. Perhaps, if I ever feel that my spinning is quality enough, I'll start to sell some skeins of handspun yarn. I'd also like to experiment with hand dyeing some skeins of yarn.

Here's my first couple of attempts at using my new spindle. They are only two very small skeins. Neither of them is very consistent in thickness throughout, but the one ply strands do seem strong, and, of course, I love the colors! For now, I've really only managed to do the "park and draft" technique consistently. You can see a nice little video on this beginner's method on ispindle. There are also several other short, helpful videos there on using a top whorl drop spindle. It seems that when I try to actually drop the spindle, either my roving breaks or bunches or the spindle quickly changes direction and starts to unravel my strand. I think that I just need to practice quite a lot more, but that is just fine with me. I really enjoy using my new drop spindle thus far and can't wait until I have a better handle on the techniques of spinning.