I recently learned about drop spindle spinning and I am so excited about it! I was at an old wood resale place a few weeks back and I noticed a spinning wheel and I realized that I don't actually know much about spinning and I decided that I probably should! Up till this point I had never heard of nor seen anything about drop spindle spinning though apparently it is one of the oldest and most commonly used methods for turning wool into usable yarn. As I did my research and learned more about this art, I realized that I had to try it! But how could I "get my feet wet" without paying to much for the water. It's one thing to spend a lot of money on something you know you're good at and you know you love, it's another to spend it on a whim that you might end up hating. Besides all that, it's really just not my style! So I began thinking about what yarn is traditionally made from. Sheep's wool is a given, but I have no sheep, angora rabbits, alpacas ... but what else has soft fluffy warm fur? Cats, dogs... I used to have a cat similar to a Norwegian Forest Cat she had the most lovely long soft gray fur. Dogs such as collies, retrievers, hurding dogs and huskies also tend to have a lot of long fluffy fur!
This however interesting still wasn't helping my cause much as I don't currently have any pets, fluffy or otherwise. So my thought process continued on to natural fiber, cotton and flax. Well near my house grows a lot of milkweed, and to be honest I know a lot of people with fluffy dogs. But it would probably be a long time before I ever get around to any of that. Drop spindles however, are also very good for twining. So I decided to make my own very ruff Turkish Spindle to give it a try and it was amazingly satisfying and relaxing, which in turn turned my thoughts to recycling and reusing. Why not take old, used, ugly, stained or holey sweaters, scarves and other knitwear from say your local thrift store. Simple wash, unravel, dye and re-twine to make new yarn that you can knit or crochet with! Here are my two cheaply made Turkish spindles, one is made from sticks and string the other from tongue depressors and a chopstick!
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