Drop Spindle Experiment

I've been admiring the work of a few yarn artists. These people take wool from a sheep, sometimes having to prepare it first and then spin it into beautiful skeins. A lot of these artists are hand painting the yarn in beautiful mosaic colors. My friend at Knitting Dragonflies was happy to send me a couple youtube videos on drop spindles and give me some advice. She's in my blog list if you'd like to check her out. I am powerfully curious and I love making things from scratch.

In the videos, I watched people use items like old CD's and door stops so I knew I could use my imagination! Hockey puck I thought and Daniel's got them. If he'll give one up. So you need an upright, a weighted center and a hook at the top.

I had a 1/2" curtain rod dowel already drilled in the center, one less step.

Now the hard part, how difficult will it be to drill a hockey puck? Mark the center, be careful here because you don't want the spindle to wobble.

Oh, my dowel is 15" long, but you should cut yours according to the components you use. I felt this would be a good length for mine.

This 1/2" drill bit gave me no trouble going through the hockey puck. I had it secured in our vise while drilling.

I gently pointed the bottom end with an exacto knife and sand paper.

And gently rounded the top of the dowel and screwed in my hook. Daniel gave the hook a bit of a squeeze with pliers first to close it up a bit more.

It seems to spin real well. I tested it with some regular yarn. All I need now is some wool. I'll show you that tomorrow!