After learning how to twine by hand, I started to want to know more about spinning yarn (next logical step, yes?) I didn’t want to jump into buying a spinning wheel, but I saw many Pinterest posts about drop spindles. I admit, I attempted to make a drop spindle from a hooks, a dowel, a screw, some play dough, and the bottoms of aluminum cans. I used the bottoms of two aluminum cans filled with play dough to give it weight.

It was functional, but very wobbly. After perusing more drop spindle designs, I found reference to a Turkish spindle, which is assembled in such a way that you made “turtles” or balls of yarn as you spin. This seems much better than spinning to a spindle, then winding from the spindle to a ball.

So I made one.

I had left over Roman Olive Wood from a spoon I had made, so I planned out my spindle design, used the bandsaw to rough cut the shapes, a drill press to rough cut the slot and drill the spindle holes, and a chisel to refine to slot. I then sanded the whole thing first with a belt sander, then by hand. I finished it with Tung Oil (which took several days, argh, the waiting!).

It doesn’t spin perfectly (I can’t get it to spin like a top), but it works much better than the dowel and aluminum contraption. I ordered some Merino wool roving (I read that was better for beginners) in wild colors, and set out to learn to spin. There is definitely a learning curve; my yarn width is still inconsistent, but it is interesting and another good survival skill.