@textilearts @fiberarts @fibrearts #Spinning
I am, right now, seriously tempted to get an electric spinning wheel. Even though I'm not supposed to be buying any new yarn. Because the thing which caught my attention and interest was the idea of RECYCLING scrap yarn, by carding it and spinning it into new yarn.
Also, I like the idea of doing my own yarn-plying, specifically for yarns which I already have which are one-ply yarns.
BUT part of me says "NO! Too expensive! Don't spend money!"
And another part says "No, why do you want to dive down the rabbit-hole of ANOTHER craft?"
Expensive? Yes. The frustrating thing is that Australian sellers seem to ONLY want to sell the Ashford e-spinner, or other (European?) e-spinners which are even MORE expensive than the Ashford.
Sure, I could buy a cheap one from China... which doesn't have the right plug and probably won't work.
And before you say "The Dreaming Robots Nano e-spinner is cheap", firstly, they are out of stock and won't have any available until August, and secondly, exchange rate and postage makes it not-cheap.
What should I dooooooo?
Kerr Avonsen (she/her)
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •1. Doesn't take up a lot of space.
2. From my attempts at learning spinning when a teenager, I think it would be a lot less stressful to learn where I don't have to be controlling feet and hands at the same time.
3. Diabetic means that I'm more vulnerable to injuring my tendons, so I don't really want to take the risk of having to do treadle spinning.
4. The do-multiple-things-at-once would be even more of a problem trying to learn on a Drop Spindle.
CypherS
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •Kerr Avonsen (she/her)
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •So far as I can tell, here are the main advantages and disadvantages of the different types of spinning tools.
E-spinner:
Pro: takes up less space
Con: $$$$
Pro: only need to worry about your hands, not your feet
Pro: both hands are free
Pro: not going to injure my feet
Pro: the speed is steady (which some might consider a con)
Traditional wheel:
Con: takes up more space than I have available
Pro: it's traditional, there's more teaching material available
Con: I might injure my feet
Pro: more control over the process
Drop spindle: (which I think includes Turkish?)
Pro: takes up much less space
Con: have to keep on turning the spindle with your hand, the spin doesn't keep up the way a traditional wheel does
(Hey, does that mean you have to do the drafting with only one hand? Surely that would be more difficult?)
Pro: more control over the process
Other kinds of spindle -- I don't know enough about them to say!
Aspirational Dandy
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CaySwann
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Kerr Avonsen (she/her)
in reply to CaySwann • • •Re (4) I am an IDIOT.
I actually go to the Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria once a month for my Kumihimo group (that's Japanese braiding). So OBVIOUSLY I should ask the people there about spinning!
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Elena ``of Valhalla''
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Kerr Avonsen (she/her)
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • • •Kerr Avonsen (she/her)
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •Unfortunately, I've checked their web-page for what courses they teach, and they only teach wheel-spinning, not spindle-spinning.
CaySwann
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •CaySwann
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •- YouTube
www.youtube.comKerr Avonsen (she/her)
in reply to CaySwann • • •Kerr Avonsen (she/her)
in reply to CaySwann • • •@fibrearts @fiberarts @textilearts
I was so inspired, I did not want to wait, and seeing that you'd made spindles from wire and sculpey, I decided to do something similar, with wire and a ceramic bead (glued together with epoxy glue).
It did NOT want to spin. It kept on un-spinning when I tried to spin it. HOWEVER, the "wrap the thing around the rod horizontally and then pull it off vertically" did actually work as a way of imparting twist. So, my "spindle" is basically a rod with a useless bead on the end. But hey, I have made some sort of yarn-like substance, go me!
The "roving" is a bulky "roving yarn" which I got from eBay a while back, so it's probably some kind of acrylic. But I pulled out the fibres and stacked them as you demonstrated, and that seems to work.
Kerr Avonsen (she/her)
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •@cayswann #Spinning
I'm wondering now if I'm Doing The Spinning Wrong, because the spindle is perfectly happy to spin when there isn't anything attached to it. It spins away as I spin it, in either direction, but as soon as I try to spin some yarn with it, it goes "Spin! Reverse Spin!"
Of course I can't tell if I am Doing It Wrong or if I Made It Wrong.
(sigh)
Kerr Avonsen (she/her)
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •I am hopeless at this. (sigh)
I mean, I was expecting the lumps and bumps, but if I can't even get the bloody thing to spin, I am useless. (sigh)
Vereesh
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •@cayswann it's OK! There is a learning process, and some people pick it up immediately, and others take longer. I took much longer! (so much longer...) but I did persist, and now I'm pretty good at it. At least good enough to suit myself, lol.
The other commenter is right, a heavier whorl might help. That's what got me going. But mainly, it's just developing the muscle memory. Try breaking it down to one thing at a time, because it is complex. 1/
Vereesh
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Vereesh
in reply to Vereesh • • •Stéphanie Vilayphiou
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •I would say you should put more energy in your twist. When you have fiber, it's harder to twist, and when your twist has lost its energy, it twists in the other direction. Hope this helps?
Edward L Platt
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •Kerr Avonsen (she/her)
in reply to Edward L Platt • • •I was afraid of that. So I basically made it wrong. I thought it would be okay, since the tutorial/demonstration was done on a similar spindle (only with presumably less mass, because the bead was polyclay rather than ceramic).
Ah well.
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CaySwann
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •@elplatt @fibrearts @fiberarts @textilearts
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CaySwann
in reply to CaySwann • • •@elplatt @fibrearts @fiberarts @textilearts
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CaySwann
in reply to CaySwann • • •...You might really enjoy reading "Respect the Spindle" by Abby Franquemont -- not just because the book is EXCELLENT but also for ideas about shapes and sizes of spindles. How much does this spindle you made weigh? I love a lightweight spindle (15g or less) but also I started on a heavier spindle (more than 30-60+g). Playing with more or less weight as well as the shape will also affect the ease of spinning. You got this!!
@elplatt @fibrearts @fiberarts @textilearts
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Kerr Avonsen (she/her)
in reply to CaySwann • • •The spindle weighs about 30g -- I deliberately chose a heavy ceramic bead for it. So I guess it is a middle-weight spindle?
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CaySwann
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •And now you have a starting place for trying other things! Yay! You might also try tying sticks to sticks to approximate a cross-arm spindle. (Many people still say "Turkish spindle" but they are used in more than just Turkey AND other shapes are used by Turkish spinners. So "cross arm" is what I recommend now.) It might be easier to park a spindle that cannot roll away.
@elplatt @fibrearts @fiberarts @textilearts
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Kerr Avonsen (she/her)
in reply to CaySwann • • •I DEFINITELY do not want to injure myself, because it would take me months to recover (chronic illness sucks).
CaySwann
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •Kerr Avonsen (she/her)
in reply to CaySwann • • •And I've sort of been trying park-and-draft well, ish. The frustration is that when I try to add the twist, the spindle un-twists!
And even when I manage to add twist, the twist doesn't want to travel up the thread - yes, I am putting tension on it.
Edward L Platt
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •Kerr Avonsen (she/her)
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •I am now reconsidering my options, now that I have more data.
1. The spindle I made for myself will not do.
2. Indeed, if it makes my hands ache, it may be unwise to continue with any kind of spindle; I did not factor in that risk when I was considering the pros and cons of spindles. I have to be a lot more careful than I used to be, because my chronic illness makes me more likely to get tendon injuries (and makes it much more difficult to recover from them). (I know, because I got Trigger Thumb in one hand, and instead of taking weeks to get better, it took months)
3. I had hoped that making myself a spindle would be a quick and easy entry-point to spinning. But it looks as if, for me, it is not.
4. This brings me back to an e-spinner.
Stéphanie Vilayphiou
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •I first started to spin with a drop spindle and it was very instructive but it is soooo long...
The e-spinner is perfect for tiny spaces and for me, it was less stressful to not having to think about hand/feet coordination.
Maurice from dreaming robots is always attentive to feedback and gives very good support. A lot of things you can 3d print yourself for replacement parts or new bobbins. I really like his approach. And no I have no shares in Dreaming Robots 😅
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Kerr Avonsen (she/her)
in reply to Stéphanie Vilayphiou • • •@vvvvvilay @elplatt @cayswann
Not being in the US means that I'm going to be hit on the exchange rate, so the eew 6 isn't going to be as cheap for me as it is for you. Being able to 3D print parts is not an advantage for me because I don't have access to a 3D printer.
The Ashford e-spinner has a few advantages for me (despite the fact that it is quite expensive). Ashford seems to be the default spinning equipment provider over here in Australia (seeing as Ashford are based in New Zealand, that makes sense) -- it is Ashford, Ashford everywhere. So, I would expect that local support would be easier. Secondly, the Ashford does look like it is very well made; solidly built and well designed. Sure, it is bigger and heavier than the eew, but since I'm not planning on taking it out and about with me, that isn't something I'm worried about.
One thing that concerns me is that if I got an eew 6, and then found I didn't like it, I'd have to go and buy an Ashford anyway, so why not bypass that and go straight for the Ashford?
That's possibly silly of me, though.
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CaySwann
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •Weighing your own options and making your own decisions is not silly at all, it's completely appropriate!! Please feel encouraged from this spinner at least. And hey, nothing says you won't eventually also like a spindle somewhere, someday.
I also took some photos of a cross-arm spindle, just to help out a bit.
@fibrearts @fiberarts @textilearts
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Stéphanie Vilayphiou
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •Kerr Avonsen (she/her)
in reply to Stéphanie Vilayphiou • • •E-spinner is now ORDERED!
(!!!!!)
(!!!!)
(Yes, an Ashford. In a bundle with stuff like Niddy-Noddy and Corridale fibre.)
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Elena ``of Valhalla''
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CaySwann
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •SO EXCITED FOR YOU
@fibrearts @fiberarts @textilearts
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Stéphanie Vilayphiou
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •Kerr Avonsen (she/her)
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •@vvvvvilay @elplatt @cayswann
After a very irritating saga with FedEx yesterday, my E-spinner has now ARRIVED!!
Yay!
Ashford e-spinner 3, now unboxed and (with a little detour to watch someone's unboxing video) assembled. It turns on and whirls around, so, good.
Alas, no spinning for me yet, because DEADLINES. Four Kumihimo braids to do before Friday, because Friday is Kumihumo Group meeting day.
But, hey, I can ask the spinners there what stuff is good for a beginner, yes.
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Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • •@Kerr Avonsen (she/her) I've only done drop spindle (not turkish), and I can confirm that on space, price and portability it's quite hard to beat (I've made some of mine by carving a stick I've selected in the woods¹ with a knife, and some flour, salt and water for the whorl).
how many hands you use to draft depends on the style of drop spindle: in the medieval European style I use you keep one hand basically on the spindle to keep it rotating, the other hand to draft, and the third hand... ehm, the distaff (another stick and a length of tape) holds the fiber in place.
In the style I started with, which I think is Peruvian, and commonly used in the modern spinning community, the spindle is flicked to make it spin while hanging in air, and then the hand is free to move to the fiber to draft once or twice; in the park and draft variation for beginners the spindle is spun to impart twist, then the spindle is kept stationary e.g. with the legs and both hands are used to draft and distribute the twist just imparted.
I believe that in the Turkish style the spindle is supported on the floor, but I don't know exactly how one keeps it spinning and drafts, since I've never tried one.
I can't really compare with wheels and e-spinners since I haven't tried one (yet? but the advantages of drop spindles are quite suited to my needs)
¹ starting with a bought dowel rod is easier, and TBH still not that expensive
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Kerr Avonsen (she/her)
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • • •Elena ``of Valhalla'' likes this.
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • •@Kerr Avonsen (she/her) exactly what I did!
(one of my hobbies may be collecting hobbies, *and* making tools for other hobbies is an hobby in itself, which gives me another reason for it)
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Kerr Avonsen (she/her)
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • • •@valhalla (grin) Indeed! I ended up making more lucets after having tried out professionally made ones, and my favourite is made of heavy copper wire wrapped with leather thonging.
I also made myself a bunch of tiny and huge knitting looms (for tiny and huge yarn). Well, the tiny ones were more for making i-cord which had more than four stitches to it.
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Vereesh
in reply to Kerr Avonsen (she/her) • • •I use an espinner because of my disabilities. I can spin in bed, which is great for me. I also use a support spindle for the same reason. Both are portable.
Turkish is support. The spindle rests in a small bowl in your lap or btw your thighs. I love spinning this way, although it can strain my shoulders. At first, you mostly "park and draft," but as you develop skill, you can draft while keeping your spindle going.