Someone is wearing the skirt that I knit for her as a poncho!
This Friday I am teaching a small group of K-5th grade kids to spin, using drop spindles. Since I can't afford to buy them each a spindle I decided to make some.
I considered making spindles with CDs, but then found instructions for using wooden wheels intended for toy making. The wheels are 2 1/2 inches across, and I used 3/8 inch dowels and sawed them down to 10 inch lengths. The dowels were a little too big in diameter, so I had to sand one end until it fit through the wheel, and then glued them in place. I drilled the holes for the cup hooks but managed to break a drill bit in a dowel, and also split open a dowel trying to screw in a cup hook. Of eight attempted drop spindles I ended up with six, which is exactly how many I needed.
The final cost was $15, including a discount that the woodworking store gave to me (yay!) which works out to $2.50 a spindle, so totally affordable!
Anyone have tips for spinning with kids? Wish me luck!
4 comments:
I did the same thing a few years ago with the toy wheels. I had the kids play with some fiber first, spinning with their fingers, and drafting while spinning against their leg. Moving to spindles, I had them spin, park, draft. In other words, start with a leader and a bit of fiber in hand, give the spindle a twist, Park the spindle between the knees, focus on the draft with both hands, then repeat.
kkuntz, thanks for the great ideas! The lesson went extremely well.
This is great! I'm a huge fan of kids learning how to spin! Whenever I am spinning in a public place they come and watch and ask all kinds of questions about the spindle. They also dig the wheel, when it's out at events. :) My 2 year old son is transfixed by it.
Parking the spindle between my knees while drafting is exactly how I learned!
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