Growth of a turtle

I first picked up a drop spindle in 2007, and while spindling was my first mode of spinning, once I got a wheel my obsession with product versus process meant that I didn’t use a hand spindle very often.

Then I discovered Turkish spindles.

Turkish spindle are a type of low whorl spindle, but I like to think of them as a combo spindle-ball winder. One of my challenges in using drop spindles is what to do with the singles once they’re done. Winding each cop off into a plying ball is tedious, but I don’t have enough spindles of the same weight to just madly keep spinning on subsequent spindles to ply everything once the singles are done. Turkish spindles eliminate this issue by creating you’re very own center pull ball as you spin the singles.

Spinning on a Turkish spindle is a bit like knitting with self-striping sock yarn, or modular projects - I want to keep going to see what color comes next! For the last cop I spun, I took a picture of each layer to keep track of the changes - the cops are endlessly gorgeous!

Layer 1

First layer of brown and teal singles on Turkish spindle

Layer 2

Second layer of green singles on Turkish spindle

Layer 3

Third layer of brown and teal singles on Turkish spindle

Layer 4

Fourth layer of green singles on Turkish spindle

Layer 5

Fifth layer of brown, teal and light blue singles on Turkish spindle

Layer 6

Sixth layer of teal, brown and green singles on Turkish spindle

Layer 7

Seventh layer of green and teal singles on Turkish spindle

Layer 8

Eigth layer of brown, teal and green singles on Turkish spindle

Layer 9

Last layer of brown and teal singles on Turkish spindle

Of course spindling is much easier to fit into short stretches of free time during the day, so in the last busy week I’ve been spindling during the day (hello slow work calls!) and working on the sweater lot of fiber for a design project in the evening. It’s slow going but I hope to get through this braid of SweetGeorgia fiber by the end of the Tour!