Spin-off magazine and a quick search on the net revealed an array of different 'home-made' drop spindles. CD spindles had already been mentioned and these proved both popular and successful.
Once we found that the grommets mentioned were wiring grommets (thanks to ztwist for her intrepid research) and were easily available at my local hardware (Danahers, Mitre 10) it was a quick and easy job to construct the CD.
Here are the ingredients: 1 or 2 CDs, depending on the weight you might like, a 1/2 inch wiring grommet, a 10mm, 12in long piece of dowel and a cup hook.
They were very quickly put together:
1. Grommet inserted into CD
2. Dowel inserted into CD
3. Cup hook could be screwed in by hand, as the dowel wood was soft.
This could be prettied up with all sorts of colour or whittling or anything that takes your fancy...I haven't even sanded mine yet!
The great surprise is that it spins very well. It's an ideal vehicle for teaching and I'll be getting my beginning spinning students to make one in their last class and we'll practice.
Thanks to moorecat for the 'Park and Draft' method of teaching spinning, as it was quite successful. This allows you to spin in two separate actions:
1. Hold on to a close spot on your fibre, give a spin and build up the twist.
2. Park the drop spindle between your knees and then draft out the fibre.
3. Wind on and repeat.
Eventually, it is very easy to combine the two actions and become continuous.
References: Spin-off, Spring 1999
