any spinners here?

[Tengokujin]

Anyone here spin their own yarn or use drop spindles? For some reason this is beckoning to me. Any insights? Is it expensive (other than buying a spinning wheel!) or way to hard to learn?

Give me your wisdom!

[lenswyf]

Spinner wannabe here. I think that drop spinning is pretty inexpensive.

[KatM]

I think it sounds interesting, I am actually afraid of taking on another addiction/obcession! :giggle I have a friend who raises French Angora rabbits just to spin their wool. :) You can try the spinning forum at http://www.knittersreview.com/forum/ There are some nice people there who can answer your questions better than I can!

[Iarwain]

I started with a drop spindle around Thanksgiving. I LOVE it! I did it because I was getting sheep and figured it would be criminal not to at least try. I basically taught myself from books and pamphlets. There's a couple great brochures to print off at http://www.interweave.com/spin/resources/spinning_brochures.asp. Those were basically what I used to get started. I also put a link in the "Getting Started with Fiber Arts" thread to some helpful materials.

I use a Turkish drop spindle which is configured so you can take it apart and slip it out of the yarn without having to wind it off the spindle. My 8 yo dd also enjoys spinning with a pretty basic bottom whorl spindle that we got off ebay complete with 1/2 pound of ready to use fiber and the pamphlets I mentioned above. It took her a little bit to get the hang of it but she does fine now. The starter set we got her was around $10-15 so it's not expensive at all to get started! Carders cost more if you plan to prepare your own fiber rather than buying it ready-to-spin in roving or top form. My carders were around $55. The first bit of wool I prepared I carded with a $3 dog slicker so it is possible to do it without the carders but I must say they speed the process up incredibly.

As I said I have sheep and I have had the joy of preparing my wool from scratch including washing, drying, carding, and spinning. It's actually pretty neat to be so involved with the process from the start but it is a lot of work. Last week I did the shearing myself for the first time so now I've got experience with every step of the journey. However my sheep now have the world's ugliest haircuts! When we got them last fall I got the seller's fall shearing of wool with my two ewes and I have sold some and used some and still have quite a bit. I really should be trying to sell it but it's so nice and I have a hard time parting with it...

[Tengokujin]

So, tell me about drop spindling. It seems like it takes a while to get the feel for it. Is it quite slow to end up with a usable amount of yarn? I've been checking out some sites for spindles and stuff.

DH thinks I am crazy to be thinking about this.

[Iarwain]

It took me only a few minutes to get the feel for it, but it took longer than that to get good at making it smooth and even and to quit dropping the spindle 'cause I let the draft get too thin. My first yarn was kind of lumpy, but lumpy can be nice too. I'm still no expert but my yarn's a little less lumpy now. I only started spinning 5 months ago. Spinning with a drop spindle isn't terribly fast but it is a peaceful way to pass time. The first month I produced about 340 or so yards of 2 ply yarn. I haven't been spending as much time on it lately so the output isn't as much.

If you like fiber you'll love it! It's kind of therapeutic and relaxing and I just love handling all that fluff! It's also nice that you can take it along with you and do it anywhere. I think a spinning wheel would be nice (much faster I'm told!), but you can't put one of those in the diaper bag to take along. Not to mention that they're soooo expensive...

[mama-hobbit]

It's been years but YES!

I love spinning... very relaxing!!

Using a drop spindle is fairly easy to get the hang of, even kids can do it, and not too much money... but be careful - next thing you know you'll want a wheel and then you'll have bags of wool laying around the livingroom and then you'll start begging DH for sheep.

They would cut down on his lawn-mowing duties you know! ;)

[Iarwain]

.. but be careful - next thing you know you'll want a wheel and then you'll have bags of wool laying around the livingroom and then you'll start begging DH for sheep.

They would cut down on his lawn-mowing duties you know! ;)



LOL! I went through those phases pretty quickly! Actually the sheep and wool were here BEFORE I tried spinning.

Totally true about the lawn mowing. I just mowed yesterday and today. It made me want to fence the rest of the property and increase our flock! Sooo nice that I didn't have to do the areas we have fenced for our woolies. They're awesome, they even cleared out a bunch of raspberries and other brushy stuff that was taking over.

[hbmamma]

I want sheep, just I can have free access to wool. :O (Just part of a bigger plan...horses, chickens...regular little farm.) I love to crochet and have tried spinning once, I was instantly in love with it! I used a small spinning wheel, I think back then, it was about $300. Would be a great investment. :grin (all that money saved on yarn)

[UltraMother]

I've tried it a bit, and it's kind of fun. But I don't really get the whole drafting part, and my yarn could be best described as "thick and thin" tho it's not meant to be. I bought a learn-to-spin kit from Carolina Homespun that was really nice.