I have a number of people who want to learn spindle spinning, yay! So I needed a low cost way to make some spindles so they can try it out without a large expense. It turns out my leather smoothing tool that I used in one of my Frankenstein spindles is about $7. I’m glad I didn’t glue it in! I did find several posts on using wooden toy wheels. My local hobby store had packs of 8 wheels, and packs of 8 dowels! I bought the 2” wooden wheels (I wanted larger, but they weren’t in stock), and 3/8” dowels that were pre cut to 12”. I also purchased a pack of metal cup hooks.

I wanted the holes in the wheels to be smaller than the diameter of the dowel, but not quite as small as they came out of the bag, so I enlarged the hole with a 5/16” drill bit. With a band sander I then tapered the top of the dowel so the wheel could fit on, but not slide all the way down. Because the whorl (wheel) is friction fit, it makes it easy to switch out for a larger or lighter whorl later. I put a point on the other end so the spindle can also be used as a supported spindle (because why not?) I sanded the shaft (dowel) with 220 grit sandpaper, then 400 for a smooth finish.

Then I used a small gimlet to make a hole on the top of the shaft for the cup hook (it is better to pre-drill the whole so when you screw in the cup hook, you are less likely to split the wood.

Finally, I slid the whorl over the shaft and screwed in the cup hook. Tada! Spindle!

Since there were eight in the package. I made eight.

Something else caught my attention in the craft store. There was a super bulky “yarn” that was more like roving (one of the ways fiber is prepped for spinning). I bought some (with a coupon!) and found that it is easy to spin! This particular “yarn” is made of acrylic, polyamide, and wool, and the fiber length is similar to merino wool. The store carried wool roving, but mostly for felting, not spinning, and in small quantities. There is enough fiber in the skein for hours of practice!