Unusual Tools for Spinning

One of the challenges this month with Nerd Wars was to craft something using atypical tools – either spinning, knitting, weaving or crocheting.   Since I’d learned how to “spin with a rock” earlier this fall, I thought it would be fun to spin and ply a small skein of yarn using a rock…and other unsual tools.

 

I started with some very fluffy Rambouillet wool – very squishy and lovely to work with.  I spun like a fiend using my rock and little stick/piece of wood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I finished the singles….then needed to ply them together.  I decided to build a "Lazy Kate” out of empty toilet paper rolls, some chopsticks, some rubber bands, and an empty shoe box. 

 

I wound each single onto one of the toilet paper rolls.

 

 

 

 

Next, I mounted the “spooled singles” onto the chopsticks of my “Lazy Kate”.

 

 

 

 

I then plied the two singles together to create a two-ply yarn…again, using just  the rock and small piece of wood.

 

 

I skeined the resulting yarn using a niddy-noddy that was just the lid of the shoe box.  

 

 

 

 

The resultant skein of 20+ yards of heavy worsted yarn is proof positive that you don’t HAVE to have expensive equipment in order to spin yarn!  It takes a lot longer to spin this way than with the drop spindle, so I think I’ll stick with the drop spindle for hand spinning!