Saturday, April 03, 2010

New Low Whorl Spindle



After reading Abby Franquemont's book, Respect the Spindle, I really wanted to try a low whorl spindle. I hadn't really been in love with spindle spinning and high whorl spindles when I tried it a few years ago, so I wanted to see if maybe this style of spindle suited me better. Alas, with Howard out of work so long, there was no money for spindles so he found an old box we had bought at the thrift store awhile back. He thinks it is eucalyptus wood. After he took the box apart, I drew a circle on the best and largest side and he cut it out. We don't have many tools so he used a small hack saw and a lot of sand paper. Very primitive! He managed to get a hole in it for a dowel rod and carved the top of the dowel so it was indented for a half hitch to hold the yarn. Then I spun on it for a couple of days and he sanded more off here and there to get it perfectly balanced. For the unconventional way he got it made, it is really a great spinning spindle, well balanced and fast. I've got spindles I spent a lot of money on and they don't spin nearly as well. It weighs about 1.6 ounces which is just what I wanted and that was purely by chance. It was really a labor of love on his part and makes the spindle all that much more special. And I discovered that I really love low whorl spinning!

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