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Yarn has been spun on spindles for thousands of years. With a little fiber and a spindle, you too can participate in this oldest of alchemies. This instructable will show you how to spin a single from wool roving, using a top-whorl spindle.
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Fiber:
Just about anything that is vaguely fiberlike can be spun. The most common fibers used for handspinning are sheep's wool, cotton, silk, alpaca, mohair (from angora goats), and angora (from angora rabbits). In my opinion, the easiest to learn to spin is sheep's wool, although the principles are the same for spinning any fiber.
You'll want to work with prepared sheep's wool, known as roving, which has been washed to remove excess lanolin (grease) and carded or combed to orient all the individual fibers in the same direction. You can find roving at your friendly local yarn store, or from several online retailers. I like to peruse etsy.com for handpainted roving, myself. Try to avoid "top" for now, which is wool that has been combed to leave only the longest fibers, which makes things more difficult for the beginner, although it is delightful to spin with a little practice under your belt!
The wool pictured in this instructable is a Romney and Merino blend (these are breeds of sheep.)
Spindle:
At it's simplest, a spindle is really just a stick with a weight on it somewhere (aka a whorl.) Drop spindles come in two main flavors: top whorl, and bottom whorl, cleverly named for the location of the whorl on the spindle. Spindles also come in many different weights, but I recommend starting with a spindle that is around 2-3 ounces.
The spindle pictured is a top whorl 1.5 oz spindle, although you could also use a bottom whorl, or even the spindle that stores your CDRs. Here is an instructable that will show you how to make a spindle from a CDs, a dowel, and a hook: http://www.instructables.com/id/Drop_Spindle_Constrution. You can also find spindles from online retailers or at your local yarn store.
Just about anything that is vaguely fiberlike can be spun. The most common fibers used for handspinning are sheep's wool, cotton, silk, alpaca, mohair (from angora goats), and angora (from angora rabbits). In my opinion, the easiest to learn to spin is sheep's wool, although the principles are the same for spinning any fiber.
You'll want to work with prepared sheep's wool, known as roving, which has been washed to remove excess lanolin (grease) and carded or combed to orient all the individual fibers in the same direction. You can find roving at your friendly local yarn store, or from several online retailers. I like to peruse etsy.com for handpainted roving, myself. Try to avoid "top" for now, which is wool that has been combed to leave only the longest fibers, which makes things more difficult for the beginner, although it is delightful to spin with a little practice under your belt!
The wool pictured in this instructable is a Romney and Merino blend (these are breeds of sheep.)
Spindle:
At it's simplest, a spindle is really just a stick with a weight on it somewhere (aka a whorl.) Drop spindles come in two main flavors: top whorl, and bottom whorl, cleverly named for the location of the whorl on the spindle. Spindles also come in many different weights, but I recommend starting with a spindle that is around 2-3 ounces.
The spindle pictured is a top whorl 1.5 oz spindle, although you could also use a bottom whorl, or even the spindle that stores your CDRs. Here is an instructable that will show you how to make a spindle from a CDs, a dowel, and a hook: http://www.instructables.com/id/Drop_Spindle_Constrution. You can also find spindles from online retailers or at your local yarn store.
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I didn't card or pre-draft, so the initial thread was rather lumpy. But it worked...
My plying technique was the primitive "twist hard, fold in half, and let the twist work against itself" approach, which obviously wouldn't work for longer lengths -- but it was adequate as a proof of concept, and it did demonstrate that plying helps to reinforce the yarn. I suppose I ought to learn the proper technique for this, so I don't have to think about knotting short lengths together.
"If it happens, it must be possible."
What about a carder/ carding instructable next?
I would like to try and produce some yarn from my dog grooming clippings, which I imagine would not be easy. Any thoughts?
I made the video. When you have predrafted, just get a spindle and spin! Remember if you use dog hair, It MUST be clean! If you use dirty hair it will come out terrible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw3V4vyhec4
And if you wear your item in the rain, you may smell like a wet dog.
To store whatever you make place lavendar sachets around it to keep moths away.
Visit my channel KNIT HELP to learn to knit. Visit my Crochet is timeless to learn how to crochet. You need about 60 percent more yarn to crochet than you do to knit.
smiles, grace,
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SMILES, GRACE
Hair collected from brushing (as opposed to cutting) will tend to make a softer yarn, because it lacks the cut ends of grooming clippings, but depending on what breed of dog you have, it may not matter either way. I haven't found it necessary to wash the hair before spinning myself, but if your dog is especially dirty, or you'd just rather work with cleaner fiber, there is an instructable for prepping dog hair for spinning: www.instructables.com/id/Wash-Dog-Fur-for-Spinning/
Best of luck!
Incidentally, I was thinking of making a spinner using a hole saw plug and a dowel. It should work, from the looks of the the spinner in the picture.
I always admired (and envied a bit) to women who are developing the ability to knit, embroider and stuff so useful. It must be very gratifying to say "I did it, from a handful of wool"
The Peruvian women spin while walking around and they don't prepare or wash the wool. My wife also spins unprepared sheep and alpaca wool on a spinning wheel (ie. the raw fleece, she much prefers raw wool over rovings stating that it feels dead. She makes jumpers etc from our alpacas wool). You just pull the bigger bits of grass and and bugs out as you go (a lot less work than washing and carding before spinning). She does prepare the wool however if she is dying and mixing colours using the drum carder.
Overall good introduction to using the drop spindle, I do think it is worthwhile however to try raw sheep fleece if you can get hold of it (alpaca and I suspect dog hair is harder because it does not have the lanolin).
I am particularly impressed with the photos. They really made the process clear for me. Thanks!
I've always wondered how spinning works - now I'll give it a try.