roses

roses

Sunday, April 06, 2014

DIY Turkish Spindles.

I whipped up a pair of ertaz Turkish spindles. One is made with two sets of chopsticks and a dowel. The other is using four barbecue skewers for the arms of the spindle. I haven't started spinning anything on the set made with the chopsticks. I think I'm going to give it a whirl (pun intended) tomorrow when I take a break from my writing.

I am currently spinning a bit of silk on the bbq skewer one. My goodness is this thing light. The stuff that I am making with the silk would definitely be declared to be frog hair by my Mother-in-Law. I honestly have no idea how many yards I have made thus far. My little ball of thread is almost the size of a large marble. The spindle is still terribly light for that bit of thread. My best guess is the weight of the thread is approximately equivalent to fishing line, at best. This is my first time spinning silk and my first time using this spindle.

I am fairly certain that I can not go any finer then I am right now. I will be plying this because I don't think it would have the tensile strength to be used alone for anything. I was kinda thinking that it would be nifty to make a wedding ring shawl. It looks like I am going to have the materials to make one from wool and one from silk now.

All I need to do now is find a pattern I like and finish spinning up this silk.

No comments: