roses

roses

Saturday, December 07, 2013

A realization.

For the past week or so, I have been doing something of an experiment with my spinning. I have been spinning exclusively using a distaff to hold my fiber. I have come to the conclusion that I am going to continue on in this fashion at all opportunities that this is feasible. My resulting thread has been more consistently even and I am finding that I have less problems with making it accidentally too thin.

I want to devise a method where I have my distaff in a stand of some sort so that I can sit and spin. (Y'all can stop laughing any time now!) I'm thinking about getting one of those oversized vases and filling the thing halfway with glass pebbles. Then I can just shove my distaff into it and have it supported in that manner. I don't exactly have the means to go out and make one of those fancy wooden holders.

Aside from that, I think that after I finish the stuff that I have on my distaff right now, I am going to try to figure out a way to make myself a stick spindle. There are some really nice ones that are out there for sale, but I don't exactly have the funds to be buying them. Looking at the things, I think they could be fashioned fairly easily from a short length of dowel. The part that will be tricky is the whorl.

Again, I don't exactly have the money to go out and buy whorls. I do, however, have the stuff to make some salt clay. So, I could, theoretically, make my own whorl. I am also considering the possibility of using a bead of some sort, because there is some evidence that bead whorls were used during that era.

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