Drop Spinning Yarn with a Wrist Distaff - Timelapse

In this timelapse video, Megan is working with superwash wool, a top-whorl drop spindle (The Babe) and a handmade felted wrist distaff. A distaff is designed to help keep fiber clean and neat while spinning, and keeps it from catching in the yarn as it is being spun. It also helps limit fiber shedding onto clothing and furniture, and minimizes collection of particles, pet hair, or random fuzz into the fiber.

To see more spinning info and videos, visit www.theartofmegan.com. Thanks for viewing!

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• spinning
• drop
• spindle
• wool
• distaff
• wrist
• megan
• lacore
• theartofmegan
• spin

[iokheaira]

Lovely yarn! You've really come a long way from that first video with you as a beginner :)

Does "conditioning" the roving by pre-drafting it slightly make it easier to spin thick and even singles? After getting past the thick-and-thin beginner phase, I've found spinning thick and even more difficult than spinning thin.

[theartofmegan]

I personally think so, yes. I tend to pre-condition most of my fiber though, even if I'm spinning something thin or thick-thin because it loosens the fibers' grip on each other so that any fine tuning I do while spinning is easier, be it evening out any bulky areas to create an even thick yarn, or to make quicker work of thick-thin work on a spindle. I do love a good thick yarn!

[theartofmegan]

Also, part of it depends on if I'm going for a woolen or a worsted yarn. I also work with mostly commercial top or hand-carded rolags, so when I'm doing rolag work I tend to do a bit less pre-drafting, especially if I'm looking for a fluffier yarn.

[mystictree1]

Coming from a wheel spinning background to a spindle spinning, I have never used a wrist distaff. I had hoped that this vid would show how you prepped it but it didn't :(

[iokheaira]

Thanks :) have to try that when spinning for thicker worsted singles. Oddly enough, I've found that when spinning very thin it doesn't seem to matter so much if the fibre is a bit compacted, and actually can make it easier. Strange.

Rolags are so much fun! Recently I've done long draw with the spindle without pre-drafting the rolags, but then I'm not making very thick rolags to begin with so any pre-drafting would result in thinner yarn than I want...

[Ayutastique]

Super awesome :000