Drop Spindling

Up until recently, I've usually had very few good things to write/say about spinning yarn on a drop spindle.

QueerJoe's Spindling History
Mostly, I used a drop spindle as a way to learn how to draft fiber, so that it could be spun into a reasonable idea of a single.

A friend of mine gave me a Christmas gift one year that consisted of a small canvas bag with some natural off-white roving and a wood drop spindle that looked like it was made with a simple wooden disk with a dowel through it. It also included basic instructions on drop-spindling.

From this, I taught myself the basics of spinning yarn. Adding twist, drafting fiber and plying.

But mostly what it taught me was that spinning yarn on a spinning wheel, would be MUCH more efficient and fast, so I went and bought myself two spinning wheels, and I've never looked back.

Until Now
I had been informally follwoing a guy named "Fuzzed" on Ravelry, who's real name is Ed. I find his sense of humor to be irreverent and VERY funny. WonderMike told me that he makes incredibly interesting hand-made drop-spindles and sells them on his blog - http://tiltawhorl.blogspot.com/.

I checked them out and realized I had to have one of his cool creations, but every time I'd see a new creation, it would already be sold.

Finally I caught his blog after a particularly productive time where he had made a bunch of spindles, and I snagged myself these two.







Not only are his spindles amazing to look at, but for the first time, I was able to enjoy drop spindling when I used the smaller of the two to start spinning up some very fine alpaca.

Now I've come to understand why people enjoy drop-spindling, even when they could be spinning faster/more efficiently on a wheel.

Current Knitting
Despite not making much progress on the latest Woolcott & Co sock, I figured I'd at least post a picture.



Current Spinning
I don't have any pictures of my alpaca spinning on the "Tri-Pink" drop-spindle, but I was able to finish spinning the singles of the Cormo/Corriedale blend from BBF.



Now I just have to get the mohair/Shetland blend singles done so I can ply them together.