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Sally, my first customer for this lighter Turkish spindle, kindly wrote this lovely review: |
| Michael has created a lovely tool in his 21 gram Turkish spindle. He is a mathematician and understands the physics: it spins for longer and it spins faster, even when loaded with a full cop of yarn. The unusual spiral at the tip means it’s much better balanced than with a half hitch at the side, and where you twirl the shaft the spiral is narrow, so you get more speed; also you only need to grip the spiral lightly to spin it, so even after a couple of hours of spinning, your hand and shoulder won’t feel strain. I take my spindle everywhere and find I can spin for longer and get a lot done in less time. It’s great for fine singles and you can ply the yarn on his 30 gram Turkish. Try putting your balls of yarn into two old teapots to ply and feed the yarn out of the spout! You get tension for your plying and it works better than many other methods I’ve tried. |
By the way, the yarn in the photo is all made with local wool, dyed with plants from my garden!
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| Everyone should have a spindle. It’s very meditative, and so very portable - I use it to spin in the park, at work, on the train... and then I weave with my yarn, sometimes making 800 grams for a coat. The spinning takes ages but it’s my favourite part of the creative process. In fact, for spinning a fine yarn the spindle almost outdoes a spinning wheel. And compared with a wheel the cost is tiny. For much of human history we spun with spindles all day, every day. Even the yarn for ships’ sails was spindle-spun - and yarn has been found that was spun and dyed 30,000 years ago. It takes a bit of practice but it’s so worth the effort. Armed with a spindle and a very basic loom or knitting needles you can make anything. And satisfy the soul!
Sally Hands |
