LOL Kelly, Noreen's right - I don't mind a bit! Frankly, since I don't think I
saved that post, you saved *me* from a lot of retyping. Thanks! )

Bibe, trust us. veg You said:

I had a look at some of the drop spindle techniques, and it's
difficult to see how all those strands will get 'together' and form
a piece of yarn. Looks like fun tho.

....really, it does work! Spinning works the same whether it's done by fingers,
drop spindle, spinning wheel, or machine. When you get to the end of one length
of yarn you've spun, you leave a tuft of the fiber loose and open--still fluffy
and untwisted. This is overlapped with another tuft of your unspun fiber. You
draw the two out together (which is called drafting), start spinning again, and
voila - your join is made. The twisting of unspun fibers is what holds it all
together. Very clever idea of our ancestors, no?

You can even experiment with that stuff they put in bottles of aspirin to keep
the pills from rattling around - supposedly cotton. g (ghu knows what it
really is nowadays; if real cotton, then it's pure lint, not good spinning
fiber.) Or if you happen to have some cotton balls in your medicine cabinet,
use a couple of them. Both are made of stuff that's really really short, and
hard to spin, but you can get a very basic idea of the process by playing a
little. Just don't expect much from the results. g Think of it as
experimentation.

Fluff a couple cotton balls (or wads of ??) up and pull them gently apart to
open up a bit so they're not a tight mass - you can't get the fiber to pull out
if it's all compacted. Then tease out a length of fairly even thickness from
one end a ball, and roll the strand on your leg to twist it. Before it gets too
tight at the unspun end, pull out another length, and repeat the rolling
process. You'll have to keep these lengths fairly thick, because again, this is
*lousy* stuff to spin. Easier if you keep it thick, you'll get less frustrated.
And frankly, cotton is a trickier fiber to spin, anyway, experimenting or for
real. Wool is much easier, which is why everyone keeps pushing it on beginners.
g It's got those little barbs on the fiber, and just naturally wants to stick
together. Cotton - or mystery fiber - doesn't.

Anyway, when you only have about 1" left of unspun fiber, overlap that onto
fiber pulled out from the other ball. Pull them out a bit more, both sections
together, then spin, keeping them overlapped.

It won't hold together very *well*, since the stuff isn't the greatest
material...but you will see that yeah, with longer fibers and some practice, by
gosh, it could work! ) That's it - the entire basis of spinning. Once you've
got that, all you need is some decent fiber and practice. Go for it!

Monica
(lordy, don't you just love enabling? bg)
CMMPDX2 at aol
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