Introduction to Spinning, Part 1

If you're interested in spinning your own yarn, this video provides you with all the information you need to get started. Park and draft with a drop spindle with this tutorial!

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• spinning
• handspinning
• fiberarts
• fiber arts
• yarn
• wool
• crafts
• fiber
• spindle
• Abby's Yarns
• abbysyarns
• Abby Franquemont
• drop spindle
• tutorial
• spindle tutorial
• spinning tutorial

[lovelyethereal]

Hi,

Thanks for your videos. I have a satin angora bunny and we gave her a haircut for the heatwave. Now we have a lot of satin angora hair and need to spin it. We have a top whorl spindle and as soon as I have the courage, I'll try to spinit. I have visions of beautiful shawls, scarves and hats. But watching your how to spin part one can you suggest any modification fitting for satin angora?

[afranquemont]

If you're interested in learning to spin your angora, I would still probably start with wool to get the idea first. Angora can be slippery and take getting used to, and you'll need to get comfortable with how spinning works for it to work out well for you. In the long run, you also may find you prefer to blend the fiber with wool by carding or combing, in order to get more mileage for your fiber and avoid it being too warm in a finished garment.

[hilmill15]

This is a great video. Have you ever done this using rabbit fur?

[afranquemont]

Angora rabbit hair is definitely a spinnable fiber, but in general I wouldn't recommend it for most brand-new spinners as it's a little slippery to handle. You can pluck it from your own rabbits if you have them, or buy it ready to spin or blended with other fibers, from a variety of sources.

[flmason]

Hi Abby, nicely done. :-)

Suppose I wanted to spin a bowstring in the wild. Looks like I could carve a drop spindle pretty easy from local wood.

But how well do shorter fibers, like say cotton or some natural "puffs" out there slice together?

For example, suppose I tried to spin using cotton balls as a worst case, does it still work the same?

[afranquemont]

A more approachable yarn weapon would be a sling, which can be made from anything and requires learning to do moderately complex braiding or twining. The sling can also be used as a spear-thrower, though I've never done that. Snares would be another hunting solution to consider. Lastly, spinning a bowstring would best be done using compound cable plying structures, and those might take some advance study to do well on the fly, though it's not impossible at all.

[peninahleah]

Wow, I agree. If this is a preview of your book... I wish this video existed a few years ago when I started spinning b/c I did not really grok drafting or staple length. I still consider myself a newbie spinner and learned some spindling techniques which have already made my life easier (the loop/walking under tension to wind onto the shaft, you *don't* want to know how i was doing it but it did stretch my arms!)

[balmagowry]

These are really splendid; just what the spinning n00b (and the n00b's teacher!) needs, totally a service to the spinning community. I do have one question, though: why not address the *direction* of spin? I've noticed that's one of the first questions most new spinners ask. I know there's no law, but I think clockwise is typical enough to serve as a reassuring starting point. I usually teach people that way (though I also explain that there are exceptions that can be discussed later on).

[chanceler25]

how the hell did i get here from glowstringing videos

[MyDogHasATrollFace]

This is defenitly how to teach a rat to spin.NOT!

[ccrcountry]

When i finish the string is very kinky. How can i do for correct that?

[Zswordwielder]

I WATCHED THE ENTIRE VIDEO!! WHY!!!! I WAS LOOKING FOR PENCIL SPINNING!!! THIS IS NOT WAT I WANTED TO SEE!!! yet i watched it.....



[yvonne007bgu]

thank you for this video! I have an interest in spinning using a drop spindel (spinnign wheels are so expensive!) but i was really intimidated when I started reading about it; seeing it be done and having it explained so well made me feel more like this is something I could actually do!

[gooch18241]

wtf was that?

[secretsoiree]

You have done an excellent tutorial on this! Thank you for sharing! (-:

[PrOcraStNAtoR]

not pen spinning :(



[TheCarla2112]

ooohhhh...... i thought dis waz a shufffle vid

[HConstantine]

@afranquemont There was a large angora production facility at Auschwitz. They used the fur as insulation in aviator's jackets.