Well, I’m not sure which comes first…the fact that I’m thrifty or that I like to make things, but the combination always ends up fun, a bit frustrating, and ultimately satisfying. This time I decided to make a spindle to spin my beautiful America Eskimo dog’s down. 
Do you remember the old purple roll of cotton batting in your linen closet? I found a bat at the local hospital auxilary spring fair a few months ago. I figured I could use it, but I needed a spindle.
So the hunt was on. I like fumbling about at Salvation Army and Value Village and found some old wooden kids’ trucks with wooden wheels, a few grimy wood parts from an old loom in Campbell River, and an old wooden coffee cup stand with little pegs that screwed into its centre wooden post.
I disassembled them and reassembled them. I glued them and whittled them.
And now…I have a bunch of pretty little spindles. I’m so tickled.
I tried them on a variety of yarns. I don’t have the spinning process down right yet (I am actually very far from getting it right!), but it wasn’t hard to tell that wool was going to be the easiest ( has super long fibres or “staple”), the cotton was moderately difficult, and my dog hair was virtually impossible (super short fibres).
I’m trying to spin a bit of each into a yarn ’cause I’m trying for soft. The wool is very prickly, so I will keep trying to meld different fibres together without the wool.
I’ll let you know how it goes. And as usual, I am excited to do it right.
Youtube has lots of demo videos if you need to learn how to make your spindles work.
