I might need to send Etsy a thank you after this self isolation period. I think I have been coping pretty well with not over eating or being overly sedentary but I have been kind of soothing my fears and anxiety with small business online shopping. I was disappointed about missing Knitting in the Heartland back in April whereI was supposed to take a drop spindle class. So I grabbed life by the bootstraps and ordered a drop spindle I knew nothing about on Etsy. When it got here, I just fired up YouTube and started watching lessons….

I watched about 40 minutes of tutorials and just got myself started. I pulled some mystery wool roving from my inherited spinning stash and go to learning. I am using the “park and draft” method of drop spindling on a top whorl spindle. I have no idea how many ounces my spindle is. It’s nice and heavy and seems to making yarn quite nicely.

Drafting has been a steep learning curve. I am working on a long draw method that focuses on getting a thin line of fiber without breaking it. I am still working on this skill. My wool was in roving form and I’m peeling off strips and spinning from those. The fiber is not the nicest but it’s working fine for this beginner.

My yarn is definitely thick and thin in nature. I’m working on not over twisting and getting consistent drafting. I’m not sure I’m succeeding but I am sure having fun! I have about an ounce of this mystery fiber so it shouldn’t take me that long to spin up. I’m really interested to see what comes our of this? I am definitely spinning a singles yarn as I have zero brain space to ply this small amount of fiber.

Happy Spinning!