Doing the Drop Spindle Twist and making Art Batts

Let's do the twist!

With CDs, rubber washers, sticks, hooks and a little hair from the Colombian sheep in hand, Riverbend Fiber Arts guild members and guests enjoyed a presentation and hands-on demonstration on spinning yarn with a drop spindle.

Spinning is the process of introducing twist into fibers so they stick together to form yarn or thread. For the physics majors out there, it's the process in which the surface area of fibers is increased so that through friction, the fibers are held together. However you choose to describe it, know that with a few simple materials, you can create your own yarn.

Mary Wells prepares the roving.

"Spinning with a drop spindle is very portable," said guild member Mary Wells, who presented the program. "Nomads spun yarn with these devices while riding their camels on long journeys," she added.

Mary described the differences between top whorl and bottom whorl spindles and how the spindle weight affects spinning thin and thick yarns. Check these links for more information on the physics of hand spinning and applying Newton's Law of Motion to spinning: how drop spindles work.

C'mon everybody, let's twist that fiber!

Experienced spinners assisted beginners with the mechanics of hand spinning with a drop spindle.

 Those who decided to give it a "whirl" adopted their own spinning style.

 

 Hand/eye coordination and practice, practice, practice...

It's not as easy as it looks.

An Intro to Art Batts

The second half of the program was an introduction to creating art batts for spinning art yarns. An art yarn is an eclectic mix of fibers, textures, or colors combined in a single yarn. 

Left: rovings ready for carding or spinning.
Right: examples of spun art yarns.

Art yarns run the gamut from thick-to-thin sections in a single strand, to the spontaneous addition of fillers and embellishments (flowers, bits of paper, ribbon, beads, etc.) that are spun directly into the yarn. Just about anything goes with art yarns.

To make an art batt, colored rovings and locks were "teased" or combed and then combined on the drum carder.

Another method for creating art batts was to make layers of different fibers and sandwich the layers together. One color of roving was laid down with a contrasting color on top. Spinning from the fold with these art batts is an easy way to add complexity to the color scheme of your art yarn.

Layering rovings to create an art batt.

Making art batts and art yarns is lots of fun and offers immense potential for creativity. And, you don't have to be an expert to use them in your knitting, crochet, weaving or felting projects. Simple stitches and patterns let the beauty and originality of art yarns shine through. So, park you camel, grab some colorful roving and sit and spin for a while.