Once upon a time, I learned to spin. Yes, I was a mutant who spun real, usable, even yarn on practically my first try. But, as much as I loved spinning, and loved my spindles, (most of which at the time were homemade by me toy wheel spindles) I quickly put the spindles aside in favor of a wheel. I felt the wheel was more efficient. Faster. It spun the yarn I wanted with less teaching to the sky.
For over 2 years, I blissfully spun primarily on my wheel, and then wheels, only picking up the spindles for occasional sampling, our to play. The had become toys to me. Toys I loved, but they did not get much use.
These spindles were all but one, top whorl spindles of varying weight… A bosworth, a Kundert, plenty of toy wheels. I still believed, and spouted the common belief that spindles are am excellent way to learn, but most often, I did not choose one for a real project, and if I did, it would get forgotten or put aside soon.
What I had not taken into consideration was that the spindle on which spinning had first clicked for me was not a top whorl, hooked spindle, despite the prevalence of that type of spindle. It was a little, bottom whorl, hookless spindle that was given to me by a friend.
I didn’t realize till recently, when I became strongly addicted to support spindles,That it was not really true- Wheels are not neccesarily more efficient OR faster than spindles- if you use the right tool for the job, and the right tool for you.
granted, if I am spinning worsted weight yarn, and have the same block of time to spin on either wheel or spindle, I will likely spin more on the wheel. this is simply a case of not having to stop and wind on.
take another case, though. example- I want to spin super fine laceweight yarn. do I choose wheel or spindle? Spindle, without doubt. My spindle (in the case of superfine lace, it will be supported of some type) will spin far faster, and a supported spindle can wind on yarn VERY fast. the fiber becomes yarn at lightening speed, versus on the wheel, which can only spin as fast as its fastest whorl x the speed I treadle at, and while I CAN spin fine fine lace, I will have to either wait for what will for me feel like a VERY long time while I treadle enough twist in, or I will need to treadle like a madwoman.
another different example. Iwant to spin worsted weight yarn- the yarn that YES, is faster on the wheel. but my kids WON’T LET ME! I have 3 kids (if you follow the blog you know this) and they are not always happy to let me sit down at the wheel. My oldest wants to sit and spin himself, my daughter wants to “help” or wants to go play outside, the littlest is mobile now and wants to crawl/pull up all over the wheel, and has a habit of pulling on things that he should not. like fiber and freshly spun yarn. Maybe I have just 5 minutes, maybe I have the length of a walk down the block, maybe I have to go sit outside while the kids play. cant bring the wheel, but I CAN bring a spindle. in this case, it will be a nice fast midweight bottom whorl spindle. WITHOUT a hook.
Seriously, I will always pick a bottom whorl without a hook if I have a choice. and have been known to alter spindles which come with hooks- in the case of my ashford turkish, I completely renovated it.
Now, I am truly addicted to my spindles again. they are not just toys, and each of my supported spindles has a well progressing, if in some cases, weight small, project on it. I say weight small because when I am spinning supported, I am typically spinning for fineness, and it may be as little as an ounce, but that ounce may be 200-300 yards of yarn at the end.
I still don’t think I could ever spin for production on a top whorl spindle, though. those spindles are for teaching, and for playing. they are pretty, but they are not production tools. for ME.
Another spinner may spin exclusively on top whorl spindles, and be very happy with them. but it’s not me.
I am expirementing with every type of spindle I can get my hands on now. supported spindles are my current favorite, and I love spinning fine on them. but there are many kinds of support spindles. there are russian spindles (which range in weight, and are further seperated by the distinction of being either “true” russian spindles, or “american” russian spindles), french spindles (which are twirled in the hand instead of spun either in a bowl or suspended), tibetan spindles (whihc are spun similarly to russian spindles, but have a distinctive bowl style whorl towards the bottom), Phangs (a type of whorl-less spindle from the ladhak region which is spun supported in a bowl or other surface), taklis (made for spinning cotton, very small, fine shafts, and lightweight), Navaho spindles (very large spindles meant to be spun against the thigh while sitting down), and more.
among suspended spindles, there are the typical top and bottom whorl spindles, then there are more specialty spindles, like the ahka spindle, which is mid whorl, very light, and meant to be first turned in the hand and then dropped for suspended spindling, and there are semi-suspended spindles, like french spindles with brass caps which are twirled in the hand and allowed to free spin suspended for short bursts…
It is my goal to use and own at least one of every basic “type” of spindle. so far, I have top and bottom whorls, I have turkish, and russian, and takli, and a homemade ahka. I have a navaho spindle, and thanks to a destash, I have a tibetan and a hybrid french/russian spindle called a rose spindle. I am working to carve my own phang, and I am drooling over a bulgarian spindle.
