Spindle Spinning

This week all the 3rd and 4th graders started learning to spindle spin.  (I'll be taking pictures next week since my hands were busy all class time this week)  They got to take home their spindles and fiber to practice with. I'm going to post a couple of YouTube videos that they can watch to help them and/or you can watch to help them.

Two things that are good to constantly remind new spinners about are:

1.ALWAYS spin the spindle CLOCKWISE.  Some of the kids had trouble figuring out which way that was.  We had a convenient clock in our room that I could point to, but putting a sticker on their right hand could work too.  I'm going to try that next week.

2. Practice, practice, practice!  This is something that will take time to learn.  The yarn will break as will the piece of roving which might also get tangled with the spindle.  The yarn might come unspun or fall off the spindle.  If you are getting frustrated, put it away and take it out later.

I posted this video last week but I will post it again since it is just like what I taught the kids in class.  We used the "park and draft" method that she demonstrates in this video.




All the kids are still working on drafting appropriately.  This is something that takes a while to figure out how to do correctly and consistently.  Their yarn (in general) right now is very thick.  This is because they are not pulling back enough on their fiber before they let the twist in.  It can be very frustrating doing this at the beginning because if you pull back too much the roving breaks.  When that happens or when they are adding a new piece of roving, I explained that they need to put wispy ends on top of wispy ends and then spin as usual.  Here is a video specifically showing drafting close up.



We will work more on drafting next week.  When their spindle gets full, and with the kids spinning thick yarn it happens quickly, they need to carefully wind it into a ball.  The first part of winding is the most important because they need to be careful to not let the yarn untwist. Letting it sit on the spindle overnight will help it to not untwist as it is rolled into a ball, but I know that many of the students don't want to wait so they just need to be extra careful.  I'm so glad all the kids seem so excited about spinning.  They can spin all they wool they have, I will bring more for them next week.