ok,, finally figured out the spindle,,, but now,, how do I keep the "yarn" from winding up?, talking about the part between the shaft and my hand,, it spins up and doubles over on itself. Any ideas what Im doing wrong , ?? (has to be me, always is)

-- sopal (sopal@net-port.com), December 10, 2000

Answers

If you are just letting the spindle drop and holding the other end and it is doubling up, then it sounds to me like you are spinning the yarn too tightly.

If when you attempt to wind the yarn on to the spindle and it doubles up on you then you are not keeping tension on the yarn while winding. In order to wind the spun yarn onto the spindle you must keep the yarn under tension or else it will double up on you.

-- R. (thor610@yahoo.com), December 10, 2000.

If you are worried about the yarn tending to wind back on itself when you release the tension, just keep the tension on while you wind it onto the spindle. It is good to have a bit of extra twist in the yarn so that when you ply it, it will have a good ply that is not loose and does not try to double up when tension is released.

If you can clarify what you mean by "winding up," we may be able to be of more help.

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), December 14, 2000.

When you have spun a length of yarn and want to wind it on your spindle shaft, loop it over your elbow to keep it from twisting back on itself while you wind it up.

-- Yolanda E. Breidenbaugh (ybereiden@peoplepc.com), December 27, 2000.

I got my spindle out yesterday and I was a complete dunce. I forgot how tricky it was to get the hang of it. I must have dropped it a couple of dozen times and finally quit after doing a few yards. Went back to my wheel out of frustration. But I still want to re-learn this as it's so portable so maybe I'll try a little every day and hopefully it will come back to me. Good luck to all of us I guess!

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), December 27, 2000.