Basic Drop Spindle Tutorial

[Music] hi so I was going to do this way back there but it just wasn't doing it for me so here I am s you guys want to get closer to me today I'm going to be showing you how to use a drop spindle and I've included these drop spindles in the packet that I have available in my Ed shop so if you want to buy these I've got the link down below somewhere down here I've provided for you a simple Maple drop spindle I've given you a top whirl drop spindle which means this whirl is at the top and all of your yarn is going to accumulate down here and then you're going to be spinning from this hook over the top of the Whirl I haven't given you a liter yarn because I don't like liter Yarns when I spin um when I first started I did not use a lader yarn I thought it just added an extra step it was a little complicated I just went right ahead without it so because we're a little bit closer and a little more intimate you're not going to be able to see where I park this thing I'm going to be teaching you the park and draft method so we're going to start with our moving I've given you about four ounces of corydale wool you'll be able to choose your colors and be unique like the unique person you are so what you want to do is take a chunk of your corydale that I provided for you just pull it the further apart your hands are when you pull a chunk off the easier it is closer you get you're still grabbing onto the same fiber because these fiber these fibers are very long so pull it far and then it'll just come apart like that throw that away you don't need that right now if it's easier and I think it is easier pull these two apart they'll just want to come apart like that and then trust me this is going to be a lot easier to work with if you're a beginner get rid of that so now you've got your drop spindle your Maple drop spindle and on this drop spindle on the Whirl there's going to be a notch see that little Notch there remember where that is that's going to be important later so when I say you want to draft drafting is the uh process of pulling apart the fibers so what I'm doing right now that is drafting so what you want to do draft a thin line or thick who cares doesn't matter how whatever you're comfortable with draft out some yarn or draft out some Fiber and then you're going to hook it onto the rest of the roving so now you've got that but it's going to come apart so you're going to want to twist it and that is the entire idea of making yarn you're just twisting fibers together so hook it again connect that end to itself and twist now that is way over Twisted which is what we want when we're starting out this is the trickiest part so you're twisting you're going to use this hand to stop the Twist from crawling up into the rest of your fiber and then grab it here so this is your next stopping point this is the new stopping hand let go and now the twist that accumulated down here has crawled all the way up into that yarn that you drafted out or into the fiber that you drafted out twist some more hold on stop it so now you're not going to be able to see because we're super close and intimate so I'm going to bring my knees up this is what I do I park them I park it park it right there park it and draft go so we've already had some spin in here and by parking it it keeps it from going anywhere so twist pick one direction if you don't pick a direction you're going to end up untwisting everything and it's going to come apart so pick a Direction that's most most comfortable for you I picked counterclockwise for some reason uh when I use my wheel it's counterclock or it's clockwise and for some reason when I decided to do a drop spindle it's counterclockwise I don't know it just feels comfortable so I'm going to spin it counterclockwise until it stops and it sort of comes back on itself I park it pinch draft let go pinch draft let go pinch draft let go brought my knees down because it's taking a lot of air out of my lungs twist twisting parking it my knees are down here draft they go [Music] park page let go so after a while you're going to start to lose that accumulated twist and you're going to need to do it again so you're going to pinch it up here twist some more park it pinch drift there go so now you have quite a bit of yarn be careful that that doesn't end up on the other side of your Hook when you do this because it'll come right off it'll make you really frustrated and want to swear a lot so you're going to find where that Notch is told do to keep track of that find your Notch put the yarn into the Notch and then you're going to start twisting it I'll try that again so it's easier to see find your Notch put the yarn into that Notch and start winding it onto the shaft of the spindle so now you're going to want to leave a good amount of yarn left at the end that way you can bring it up bring it up into the notch it just makes everything easier or not twist it onto the hook and you're ready to go again spin it bark oh it's too small you guys can't see see let go just let go here we are DFT let go twist Park draft I go now if you lose it let's say it comes apart that's not a big deal don't worry about that all you're going to do is keep your grip here draft a little bit here and then mush it together so I'm holding them together with this hand right here holding it together pinch just like normal little let go you might have lost a little bit of twist so you might need to help it a little bit with your hand and then if it's still not quite enough give it another couple spins here come down Park draft inch leg go don't worry so much about it being completely even you're new and the thing that we always tell ourselves is part of the charm of hand spinning is that it's imperfect I you guys like that until you're satisfied and if you're never going to be satisfied then you need to reevaluate your life I don't want to overwhelm you with a lot of vocabulary we can do that another time I'll have some more vocabulary in the description in case anything is in case I went too fast because I do go kind of fast but where it's really important if you really start to get into this it is important to understand words but it's not too terribly important when you're a beginner the important part is getting the the Rhythm down and starting to really feel like when you're twisting you can feel how twisted your yarn is up here you can start to feel it tighten and that really helps you figure out when you should stop because if you go too far it'll break it just takes practice but it's unbelievably satisfying when you make something out of yarn that you spun especially if you really like to crochet or knit that's all there is to it this is a single ply yarn that we're making I'll do more about PES later or you can look it up the internet is a fountain of information that's pretty much it that's all there is to it when it comes to making yarn is just twisting it's not quite finished I will be making a video on how to finish up your yarn it involves soaking it in water in warm water or hot water um and I'll go over that in a different video so that's it for today if you have any questions for me leave them in the comments down below or send me a message at any one of my social media Outlets um I'll have all the information in the description along with some vocabulary like I said hope you guys enjoyed the video and found it useful and I'll see you later byebye