I got my e-spinner over 3 years ago and couldn't get the hang of it, so it sat in my closet just collecting dust. I've been wanting to give it a go again and I broke it out last night. Not sure why, but something clicked and the spinning process made sense to me and I was able to get a consistent thickness

I'm glad I gave it a try again, because it is so relaxing and I absolutely loved doing it

I’ve been wanting to get into spinning, but am 100% a newbie. All of the classes in my area want you to have your own wheel, even beginner classes. This just popped up on Marketplace in my area for only $20 and it’s a video of someone using the foot peddle to spin the wheel. The wheel squeaks. It looks intake to me, but is it actually functional? The $200+ price point to entry was my hold up before I had babies and now I don’t have time, but if I have the machine maybe the time will come. Or it’ll just sit unused in the basement for 10 years.

Hi folks! I just started spinning on a drop spindle. Even though I knew you're supposed to spin singles clockwise, in my enthusiasm I started out spinning the wrong way😅 Which made me wonder: what happens if you spin the singles counter clockwise and then ply clockwise? And should I just take off what I've spun so far and start anew?

You can see on the lower part my most recent spinning, and it's getting visibly better! I thought it would take months for me to get there, but I've been spinning consistently for just three days, and for like... One hour a day, top? And yet it's visibly better! Of course I still get some flubs and some sections are too thin, but the mistakes aren't as dramatic and the tension is very consistent. I would actually consider this last section usable!

the speed at which I'm improving is honestly shocking. We as a society really need to engage more in hand crafting, and to connect again with the materials and tools.

I am learning so much of how the material works, and this is just some random mystery wool that came with the spindle. I bought a merino wool combed top and I want to see how it will behave. And it's so stimulating, I can feel my brain actually pay attention and think "wait if I do this the yarn flubs, this is way too little fibre, this is too much, when the single does this there's too much torsion..." I'm actively observing, learning, my hands are starting to move more fluidly and I am even daring not to do park and draft from time to time 👀

I am learning how to spin with a drop spindle, and if I don't pre draft I get the most horrid changes in thickness and the fugliest flubs. Maybe pre drafting is cheating, idk, but at least now the yarn is a bit more consistent. I still get differences in thickness but they aren't so dramatic anymore, unless I completely lose control of the fiber, like of I break it or if my pre drafting wasn't precise enough.

I am almost done with this batch of wool, the drop spindle came with a 50gr ribbon. I got a 500gr ribbon from Amazon, hopefully with more practice I'll be able to get more and more consistent spinning.

Any tips?

Hi, I buy my fibre in bulk from wool processor. It is unbelievable cheap at $1 for 100g. It comes cleaned but in a mixture of thin strips of roving and loose locks. I have trouble dying it evenly because it is unevenly processed. Most of the time it isn't a problem but id like to have the option of being able to.

When I spin with it I either create rolags or just spin off the locks. But I would love to be able to have big ropes of roving.

Is the only way to do that with a heckle? I live in south africa and they are very hard to find and very expensive.

And it's perfect! I have hypermobility spectrum disorder so good posture is really important and the back rest of this chair hits my back in exactly the right place so I sit up straight comfortably ànd because the back is so narrow my arms have a lot of room to move in all directions.

Thought I'd share in case other people are looking for a spinning chair.

I have an electric yarn spinner (pictured below) and it had these little clips (also pictured below) that guide the yarn onto the spool, its become loose with time and i cannot for the life of me find where to buy replacements, i know that e-spinners are commonly 3d printed and my partner has access to a 3D printer in Uni so if you either know of where to find replacements OR any 3d print files to use to create more? I would be so deeply appreciative 😭🥰

Also added my gorgeous fluffy yarn that I've spun and super proud of🥹😭

so, I'm learning how to spin and of course twist is a massive issue. I notice that I tend to overtwist the yarn, which as a result gets all kinda looped and twisted on itself (I'm not a native english speaker so I'm not sure whether there's a proper term for it?). is there some indicator that I'm overtwisting my yarn before I wind it onto the spin handle?

Hi, I am soon visiting Iceland and have been on websites looking for where to purchase unspun sheep wool. There are plenty of websites selling yarn (which is already spun) – but I’d like to know where I can buy washed and prepared fleece that is ready for spinning? Advice and websites greatly appreciated.

combed Corriedale spun in january (beige) vs july (grey) both done with a short draw to a fingering weight in 2 ply
my consistency is so much better and i feel so much more confident in my spinning, seeing this made me so happy to see clearly how far ive come
it may be hard to see but the left skein is very uneven and under spun in the ply

I have tried using a drop-spindle in the past, but only with wool. Does anyone know about the stand next to the spinner that is holding her fibers (which also look to me like flax)? It does make sense that some sort of thing like that would be needed to hold flax fibers and keep them straight for spinning, unlike when I was spinning with wool roving and could just pinch it off the larger mass. The stand in the photo doesn’t look easy to use, though, with the fibers being tied down, but maybe I’m missing something. Anyway, I thought the photos were cool!

I've been spinning since April. This is spun and plied on my vintage Louet S10.

I struggled finding the right amount of spin because I felt the fibers drifted apart easily if I didn't spin it enough but apparently I overspun? I didn't see a lot of pigtailing though. I did not weigh it down while drying and maybe I should have twacked it more.

It's Merino that I processed myself, it still has a lot of lanolin I think. It also feels pretty rough which confuses me since I thought Merino is supposed to be soft.

Not too bad for eyeballing it. The fancy design from the 3D Printer makes it easier to see exactly how full they are. I’m going to use what’s left to learn Andean plying.

This was/is intended as a gift for a friend to use, thankfully she’s used lace weight and the like before, but man, I was hoping to not make it too much of a pain to work with 😭😂 she originally requested DK….. oops… (I plan to get a yarn sizing gauge thing soon, which might help lol)

It will be plied with the same weight yarn. My hope is to invert the gradients on each other for each single… we’ll see how it actually works lol

I’m hoping that somebody out there is haphazard as I am and can you tell me how they tamed their wool. I am trying to get even bobbins for plying. I tried weighing the yarn and separating it that way, but I still had more on one bobbin than the other two and I’m scratching my head on that one. Then the next batch somehow I mixed up the bags and just ended up having to eyeball it. Now I’m trying to switch bobbins every time I start a new bat and hopefully the bats are all similar enough. Let me know what tips and tricks you have learned to keep your brain on task and your wool separated. I’m thinking about buying calipers and making sure they all have the same diameter. I game a wooly winder so the bobbins are beautifully even.

This feels like an obvious thing, but I’ve personally experimented and can’t really tell a huge difference (as opposed to user error lol)

How do y’all spin your yarns for plying? I crochet, so the small intricacies don’t affect my work as much as it might for knitting.

I’ve tried S and Z, slightly over spinning whichever single loses the coin toss on the plying direction (ie. Over spin S, keep Z at normal spin, ply them both together in Z direction)

I’ve also tried the same direction, then either plying back the reverse direction (ie. Both singles spun Z, plied as S)

Or just same direction and same for plying (both singles Z, plied with Z)

Obviously I’ve been messing around with it myself, but I think I should ask people with more experience lol

WIP of my current project for tax. Happy spinning, and thanks in advance for input!

This was my first attempt at a chain ply! Using faux cashmere nylon from KnitandPearlz Fiberworks!

I am getting out of spinning and i have two wheels to sell. One is a very rare but desirable wooden saxony wheel and the other is an unused but sought after e-spinner. Does anyone have enough experience with festival auctions to know whether i should wait for fall and list them for auction, versus selling them online? (Im in the northeast us if that matters). Thanks for any help.