Spinning on a Turkish Hand spindle

Hand spinning on a Turkish Hand spindle. This is a low or bottom whorl spindle with a unique set of "crossed pieces of wood" at the lower end of the shaft. These are able to slide on and off the shaft. You wind the yarn around these pieces into a ball, then slip them off at the end and instead of having to "wind off" you have a ready made ball of yarn. I don't do a full ball, but do demo how to wind on and remove the ball. This is a rather large, heavy spindle best for medium to heavy wools - and is definitely slower than other low whorl spindles and much slower than high whorls, but it has a special place in the hearts of hand spinners.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Turkish Hand spindle
• spinning
• wool
• hand spindle
• spindling
• drop spindle
• hand spinning

[RallyJudge]

Glad it helped.

[Spin2Weave]

@RallyJudge This particular spindle was purchased in St. Louis about 16 years ago. It's walnut. I have NO clue who made it. It is quite4 heavy so only good for heavier type yarns. 

[Karmaslaugh]

What do you think about a beginner starting on a Turkish?

[teceyS3]

Wally is so cute :)

[WestEndCal]

Great, but you cant see whats going on at the top of the picture, how you're getting the fibre from a thick piece to a long piece. I have not been able to master this at all, and have to pre-draft my fibre totally, down to the the thickness I am going to spin, then wind into a loose coil on my lap then attach to the 'leader,. I can't be using both hands to draft with because I need one hand all the time to keep the spindle going. It's just too many things at once and not enough hands!

[Ritercrazy]

You did good girl. Don't worry about anything. You're giving educational info for free. Complaints about your videos are ungrateful. Just keep going. You do great!

[missfrancesdingdong]

Is this a Gillan spindle ? Looks very much like one I acquired in the early seventies in CA...

[charischannah]

This was really helpful! Thank you!

[MigotoOokami]

Thanks so much for this video. I'd seen Turkish spindles, but I found the design strange. Now I see how it works and the benefit of this type of drop spindle.