Tag Archives: Turkish spindles

Before and after – full spindles, naked spindles

One of the things I like to do when I am spinning on spindles, is to select a bunch of them to explore. I have a strong desire to learn as much about support spindles as I can, and my spinning time is limited. At this stage of my spinning journey with these new (to me) tools, I am not overly fussy about the yarn, so I will happily combine support and suspended spindles into my explorations.

In the photo below, there are three cross-piece (suspended) spindles AKA Turkish spindles along the top; and in the next row a suspended spindle by Eric Stapleton; and support spindles by Texas Jeans, CreativeJayne (the next two); can’t remember the maker of the dark wood Phang; and the last one is by Carry Cherry. The last four spindles I purchased online, only viewing photos and hoping for the best. These did not disappoint. They are a variety of weights and shapes. I move from one spindle to the next as determined by my attention span, temperament, and interest in the task at hand.

The fibre I’m spinning is mostly wool with some silk/yak made into rolags on my blending board.

I will spin on one spindle for a day or so, and then switch to another one. And so on. Doing this allows me to compare the spindles, the amount of energy it takes to get the spindle into motion, the amount of time it holds a spin (or doesn’t); and how the weight feels and affects my hands. When my hands, mostly my right thumb, gets sore, I stop. I take a break, wash the dishes – warm water helps soothe the sore muscle. And then a few hours or days later depending on how sore my thumb is, I start again with a different spindle.

With each spindle I am learning new things; new strategies for winding a cop or turtle; new techniques for keeping the spindle in motion; and with the support spindles, I am also exploring the different styles and materials used in the spinning bowls. It really is a rabbit hole of things to explore; spindles, fibre preps, spinning bowls, and then of course, techniques.

In the photo below I show (all but cross-piece) spindles without the yarn on them, so you can see their shape. I wouldn’t say that each spindle was full – but they were mostly full enough for me. As you make and store the yarn onto your spindle, it adds weight to the spindle. The process of winding the newly spun yarn onto the spindle is called building your cop. The cop is the name of the stored yarn. Even that part of the process takes skill and decision making.

So with each spindle I’m learning, reflecting, and mostly enjoying the process of making yarn with a stick. Working with several at a time gives me a chance to do instant comparisons and over time, I’ve learned what my favourite shapes, weights, and lengths are.

More to come about that.

Does spindle weight matter?

Leave a Reply

At the Langley Weavers and Spinners Guild Annual Sale, I added two Turkish spindles to my collection — a 20 gram Pacific Yew and a 35 gram Arbutus. They are beautiful tools, lovingly and carefully made by a high level spindle maker and crafter – Ed Jenkins.

I am often asked the question – what effect does spindle weights have on the yarn we make? Or more specifically – what weight of spindle should I buy?

So I felt a bit of an experiment was in order. I lined up three Turkish spindles – of three different weights — 20, 35, and 50 grams. I used the same fibre to spin yarn on each spindle, trying to keep the yarn weights similar.

For clarity in this discussion, let’s call them spindle 1, 2, and 3 from smallest to largest. Here are my observations:

When spinning spindle 1, the smallest one, I noticed that it didn’t keep a spin for as long as the others. It was easier to set into motion than the other two, but even so, I had to flick it twice as often to get enough twist into my yarn. It was also hard to keep the yarn the thickness I wanted. This spindle wanted me to spin fine yarn. The thicker the yarn, the more it slowed the spindle down.

Spindle 2 kept a spin going for a long time. It needed a bit more of a flick than 1, but kept the spin going. It was easy to draft the fibre and keep the yarn density the same throughout.

Spindle 3 kept a spin going the longest, but it was the one that needed the most effort to flick. Once the spindle got the weight of fibre on it, it got harder to flick.

Once all the spinning was done I made plying balls from each turtle – that’s what we call the singles yarn that is being stored on the spindle. I marked them with removable stitch markers so I would know which yarn belonged to which spindle.

I plied the singles with my Snyder Steampunk spindle and then washed the yarn.

I’m having trouble with my camera, so photos of the washed skeins will follow later.

LESSONS LEARNED:

The main thing I learned from this exercise is that it is difficult to spin yarn of equal weight with different weights of spindles.

The smallest and lightest spindle (1 – 20 grams) wanted the yarn spun fine. When I spun fine yarn on it, the spindle kept the spin. When I made the yarn thicker, to meet the grist of the other two spindles, the spindle slowed down quickly and need more effort to spin. The resulting yarn is not as consistently spun as the other two.

There wasn’t as dramatic a difference between the two heavier spindles, despite there being 15 gram difference between them also. What was noticeable was for the heaviest one how much more effort it took to put the spindle into motion once it started to accumulate spun yarn. A 50 gram spindle with 15 grams of fibre on it means 65 grams you are putting into motion.

So what weight of spindle should you buy? Whatever one you want to make the kind of yarn you want. Just know that it is more difficult to spin thick yarn with a light spindle, and more difficult (but possible) to spin fine yarn on a heavy spindle.

Have spindle, will indeed travel

1 Reply

I love my Turkish spindles. I love their look, their weight and the fact that they slow me down. I love the way they come apart and can be stored easily. What I didn’t like for a long time was the fact that once I got started with one, I was stuck with the shape. This made transporting it to and from work a bit tricky.

Until I spied a very interesting thing on Instagram one day. A fellow Turkish spindler posted a photo of heading to the beach with her spindle and other stuff all in a bag. What was missing from the spindle was the shaft. How is this possible?

And then another Turkish spindler, when we were discussing winding on techniques, mentioned that she removes the shaft and flips her turtle, so she can wind on, building the turtle from both sides. I haven’t quite figured that trick out yet, but what intrigued me again was this idea of removing the shaft and being able to put it back in.

I tried removing the shaft. Duh. Nothing terrible happened. All the singles stayed in place and I was able to easily put it back. Now it is easy to travel with my Turkish spindles. The photo essay below shows how. Spindle with several grams of spun singles: