It's not all about wheels

Sometimes it's about ... spindles! For various and sundry reasons, I've been enjoying a renewed interest in drop spindles. I blame it on Abby Franquemont. She is a Spindle Enabler. Spindles are great tools, both beautiful and (if done right) functional. Many spinners get started on a spindle before moving on to wheel spinning, and some of them never go back to spindles. That's kind of a shame, because spindles really have some advantages over wheels.

1. The are more portable.
2. They are in more people's price range.
3. They make great taunts for cats.

I would also add to that list that spindle spinning improves my ability to draft evenly, but I don't know that everyone experiences that particular benefit of spindle spinning.

Earlier this week I was in a bit of a funk and decided I needed some shopping therapy, and so I treated myself to a couple of cadillac-quality spindles from Goldings. They arrived today, and now I have a pretty brass chain in my fiber room with a Kundert, two True Creations, and two Goldings.


It's a nice way to display them and will be just a bit more difficult for my big cat to chew on them. Here are the Goldings in more detail:


That's a medium weight (about 1.6 oz) top whorl spindle. All but one of my spindles are top whorl spindles, tho' on my list of Things To Do is to learn how to use bottom whorls and supported spindles.

Here's the lighter weight Golding Lignum Vitae:

I like the wood on this one - it's a rare, dense wood and a most interesting olive brown.

And last but not least, my two True Creation spindles - a 1 oz. and a .6 oz.


When I'm spinning the more exotic fibers like cashmere or guanaco, I prefer to do it on a drop spindle. I appreciate having a greater focus on spinning when I'm working with something rare, and drop spindles, for me, require more focus. It works out well.

Tomorrow I'm going to take a few spindles with me to a holiday dinner party. Maybe there will be someone there I can help aspinnerate! :-)