Spinning Yarn on a Spindle
An Ancient Living Tradition
The Bayeux Tapestry, a fragment of which is pictured above, is one of the greatest masterpieces of all textile art. It is not, in fact, a tapestry. Rather, its superb images are embroidered onto a pre-existing fabric. Even a short meditation on the number of hours and hands needed to execute this can induce vertigo. How much more acute this sensation becomes, when one considers that every thread, both of its woven background and its careful stitching, was spun by hand on spindles.
The spindle, for those unfamiliar, is a stick with a weight either at one end or in the middle, which facilitates prolonged spinning. It was, for thousands of years and the world over, the dominant method for spinning thread and yarn. We have evidence of spindle-spinning from the 5th-3rd millennium BC; the spinning wheel was not invented in any form until at least the 6th century AD, in either India or the Middle East, and it did not become widely used in the West until the 14th century. In the fragment of the Bayeux Tapestry pictured above, the sail depicted would have been made entirely from spindle-spun threads. Even today in the Andes, production spinning for weaving is carried out on spindles. Spindle-spinning, therefore, is a living tradition, and one which offers to the curious who care to dip a toe in, a veritable ocean of history, insight and pleasure.
My love of spindles began well before I knew what they were. I learned to knit as a kid, and was always fascinated at the idea of spinning. I still remember vividly a living history day at school, where we were shown a spinning wheel and some fluff. Naturally none of the adults present had the slightest idea how to use this contraption, but my imagination was fired. I had a romantic notion that someday I would learn how to spin on a wheel.
As I got older this seemed like such an antiquated notion I gave it up, as I had given up my knitting. When the latter reentered my life, however, the idea of spinning was reintroduced to me by a friend when I brought my knitting to her house.
“You should try spinning.” She said.
“But aren’t wheels expensive?” This was the extent of my knowledge about spinning at the time.
“You could try it with a drop spindle. I did that a while ago, it was really fun.”
Now, I had a vague notion at the time of what a spindle was but, having grown up on a diet of Sleeping Beauty and rosy images of Colonial Williamsburg, I was pretty ignorant of the spindle’s true and rich history. I was therefore somewhat skeptical, and didn’t immediately pursue this idea. However, when the pandemic had been dragging on (and on) I became hungry for new fiber skills and, having learned quite a bit more about this wonderful tool, I caved into temptation and bought myself a starter kit of a spindle and some wool. I believe this cost a grand total of around $30, and I still use the spindle to this day.
Now, I will admit it took me a while to get going on the spindle. For a simple task, it is deceptively gnarly. It didn’t help that the fiber I got with the kit was Merino, which I later learned is a notoriously tricky wool for beginners. Even with optimal fiber it takes a while to be able to spin on a drop spindle without—you guessed it—dropping the spindle! I was determined, however, and after a few (read: many) stops and starts, with a switch to some easier wool, (Cheviot, to be precise,) I fell head-over-heels in love.
So, how does one go about actually spinning yarn on a spindle?
The Process
First, we start with the loose fiber. This can be sheep’s wool, alpaca, cashmere, Angora rabbit fur, silk, cotton, flax…the list goes on, especially when we start delving into synthetic fibers. As with many fiber crafts, there is a preparation element here. Each of these fibers is prepared slightly differently for maximum spinning efficiency and ease; there are also general preparations useful across a range of fibers. Some of these are quite time consuming, while others are quick and snappy. All have their place. Very often the hobby spinner can purchase pre-prepared fiber, which is what I have here; this is wool from a Border Leicester/Shetland hybrid sheep, and it has been prepared by a mill into a preparation called roving.
But how does one take this fluff and make from it a strand of yarn? First, we must tease out a length of fiber, and catch it with the hook of the spindle, like so:
Then, we begin to twist in a clockwise direction, all the time gently pulling (or drafting) the fiber, until we have a nice length of twisted wool.
Then, we can carefully take off this length and wind it around the spindle, again in a clockwise direction. The direction is important, because we want to maintain the twist we’ve put into the fibers; if we were to wind the strand (known as a “single”) on in the opposite direction to that in which twist was added, it would weaken the twist.
And now we are spinning!
The Sequel: Plying
If you look at most yarn destined for knitting and weaving, you might notice that several strands are twisted together. This is accomplished by plying several single strands (or “plies”) together. In order to do this, it is helpful to wind off our finished single onto a bobbin, like so:
Once we have as many plies as we would like for the finished yarn, we can simply take those plies, tie them together at one end, and spin them together in the OPPOSITE direction (counterclockwise, in most cases) to the direction we spun the singles. This creates a balanced twist, so that the yarn doesn’t want to constantly kink up on itself. (Here is an example of what happens when you ply in the same direction that you spin.)
Finishing
And then we have yarn!
But wait!
There is a very important step left; and that is washing our fresh skein of yarn in a hot bath. This helps to set and balance the twist further. After leaving it to dry, we can wind it into a skein—and it is ready for our knitting needles or loom!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this look into how yarn is made on a drop spindle. I will be back next Saturday with an update on my wardrobe project. In the meantime I hope you have an exciting and satisfying week!
P.S.: For anyone interested in delving further into spinning yarn on a spindle, I cannot recommend Abby Franquemont’s book Respect the Spindle highly enough. The author grew up spinning in the Andes, and her book is both practical and inspiring.