Drop Spindle Cotton

Abby Franquemont shows you how she spins cotton using an ordinary suspended spindle. No need for specialty equipment! Just learn these techniques and take your cotton spinning anywhere. This is part 1, and part 2 follows.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• handspinning
• yarn
• knitting
• crochet
• fiber arts
• textiles
• how-to
• abbysyarns
• crafts
• hobbies
• spinning
• spindle

[ACDreamVillage]

Mine doesn't thin out like yours; it just twists so much and it's so thick that it twirls( or kindles, it think it's called) if you push it a tiny bit together....When I try pulling it so it thins out, the cotton just pops off the hook and untwists...

[afranquemont]

@ACDreamVillage It takes time and practice to get the timing and the feel right! You need a loose touch with the fibers in your fiber supply hand (the one that isn't on the spindle) and you have to keep moving just barely ahead of the twist or else it will lock up your fiber supply.

It's normal for any freshly spun yarn to kink up on itself when not under tension. If it doesn't, you aren't doing it right and your yarn won't hold together.

Popping off the hook and untwisting -- tell me more?

[Vereteno]

Abby, this is *great* video. I know very well how difficult it is to do a slow demonstration of spinning techniques.

Now couple of suggestions:

1. Can you reduce intencity of the red background on subtitles? Or use bold font on these? This intence red 'eats' parts of letters, at least for me.

2. Can you make your running subtitle run a little slower? They run too fast, once again it might be just me.

Your narrative is very engaging, I love it.

[afranquemont]

@Vereteno Thank you so much! I will see if I can use a bold font -- I can't change the colour on that red bar at all that I can find. I've tried to slow down the scrolling, but can't seem to slow it either -- but I might be able to lengthen it.

I would have used a separate caption... but I'm 2 seconds under the hard time limit for a youtube video. One day I might invest in something other than Windows Movie Maker, but that day is not today, haha.

[jnickerson1977]

I wish I could get the hang of spinning cotton. I grow it organically here at home. I sell it at a yarn store for local spinners. I've tried and tried myself, but can never get it right. When I try to draft out slubs, the thin spots just get thinner till it breaks. it'll draft out ahead or behind the slub where it's already too thin. I have a tiny turkish spindle that I bought just for the cotton. I've also tried it on an upright charkha. Same thing happens on it.

[spirithorsedances]

Thank you so much for this video. I am an advanced beginner spindler, just working with wool at this time, but watching your video and practicing has really improved the quality of the yarn I'm spindling!

[cgoyer]

Great information Abby! Thanks for putting this up.