Spindlicity-an online magazine for handspinners

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By Janel Laidman

There are many different types of spindles out there, and purchasing your first spindle can be a confusing process. A spindle is basically a stick with a weight on it to help it spin. The first differentiation you might notice is top whorl and bottom whorl.

In the first photo you see a bottom whorl spindle (A) and a top whorl spindle (B) side by side. The top whorl spindle has the whorl (the disc part) near the top of the shaft. Conversely the bottom whorl spindle has the whorl at the bottom. Both of these spindles have hooks at the top of their shafts, however many bottom whorl spindles do not have a hook. A lot of bottom whorl spindles require the spinner to make a half hitch at the top of the shaft to hold the yarn on. They often have a small notch or sometimes a split and notch to catch and hold the half hitch.

In this article we are going to concentrate on top whorl spindles because the majority of spindles on the market right now are top whorl and they are easy for beginners to learn on. The overall weight of a spindle affects what type of yarn you can easily make with it. A heavier spindle makes a fatter yarn, a lighter spindle makes a thinner yarn. When beginning to spin it's best to choose a spindle on the medium to heavy side (1.5 - 2.5 oz) to get sufficiently thick yarn and avoid the frustration of having your spin quit halfway through each draft.

Top whorl spindles are comprised of 3 main parts, the whorl, the shaft and the hook.

The whorl: The shape of the whorl can have an effect on how long or fast the spindle spins, and usually contributes the greatest amount to the overall weight of the spindle. In general a larger diameter flatter whorl is more stable and longer spinning, whereas a smaller more spherical whorl is a faster spinning spindle. The shaping of the whorl can also affect the stability and speed of the spindle. For more information see our article Spindle Physics in the Spring 2006 issue.

The shaft: The shaft can slightly affect the stability of the spindle but more importantly it affects the capacity, i.e. how much yarn you can load on the spindle. The longer the shaft, the more you can get on your spindle. It is possible to make a spindle out of only a whorl, however a shaft allows you to have a handle on the whorl and makes it easier to spin. A tapered shaft tip allows the spinner to generate more torque on the spindle by spinning it at the thinner part of the taper tip. This gives you more spin for the same amount of finger effort. In the second picture we see 3 different shaft tips, two tapered (A), one blunt (B) and one fancy (C)

The hook: The hook affects the smoothness of the spin. There are several types of hooks out there. In the third picture we see a cup hook (A) a smooth curve handmade hook (B) and a pointed curve handmade hook (C). The pointed curve hook is the most precise, because your yarn is always at the same spot when it's at the top of the hook. However if a pointed hook gets out of alignment it is less forgiving. The handmade smooth curve hook is the next most precise because the curve is usually a smaller radius than a standard cup hook and the hook is nice and deep. This allows the yarn to come off the hook in a narrow range at that top of the hook. It also has a little forgiveness when the hook is out of alignment. The cup hook is often found on less expensive spindles and can be quite serviceable. It is a commercially made hook that usually has a larger radius than the handmade hooks. The yarn has a large area where it can come off the top of the hook while spinning. This type of hook can sometimes be hard to adjust because it is difficult to tell where the yarn should be coming off the hook and because they are usually made out of large gauge wire with a short neck which is difficult to adjust.

When shopping for a spindle, test spin the spindles if you can to see how each one spins. If they are a little wobbly, try gently stabilizing the shaft to see if the spin evens out. If it does, chances are the wobble came from your twirling technique and not from the construction of the spindle itself. If the spindle continues to spin eccentrically, then you may need to align the hook.

Next Issue: Aligning your hook.