Spinning.CraftNiche.com

Are you looking for a meditative pasttime that is productive as well as relaxing? Well then, learning how to spin yarn on a drop spindle might be just the thing for you.

Anyone can learn how to spin beautiful yarn using a simple, inexpensive drop spindle. You don’t need a spinning wheel to learn to spin yarn.

To get started, you need some fiber.

Wool is the easiest to learn on. It is relatively inexpensive, the fibers are a good length to create yarn and wool fibers have little barbs on them, so they want to stick together.

If you have fiber of your own, such as alpaca, dog (known as cheingora) or llama you can use it to start, as long as the staple length (the length of the individual fibers) is about 3 inches long. Shorter or longer fibers are more of a challenge to work with.

Drop spindles are readily available on ebay, also. Look for one that looks straight, solid and not too light or too heavy. A 1.5 to 2.5 ounce spindle seems to be easiest for beginners to start on. It is heavy enough to maintain spin, but light enought that the yarn does not break.