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Hey, Can you tell me which blogs I should follow to see Harry's updates
Heyy, yeah of course š„°
So @mr-styles and @thestylesindependent are always very quick to update for anything related to harry.
Also @iconicharry @oh-honey-styles and @harrytheehottie i read their blogs like a newspaper lol i really enjoy the way they comment for stuff about harry.
@harrysblackcoat is one of my blog crushes, i believe she's really cool š
Also i love when i see @fkinavocado @fruitmans @youubringmehome @londonharry on my dash š„°
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āšWRITERS AND ARTISTS APPRECIATION POSTš§øā Contents: I'm being quite expressive AXCHOL-
ļ½”ļ½„:*:ļ½„ļ¾ā
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For @the-v-lociraptor
Ayo, Raps, you are incredibly awesome, I would be down to know about your yuusona, an enthusiast Riddle fan I can simply sense it. Classic choice š! I have seen glimpses of you chatting with Ceru and it's only a few crumbs and holy, your brainrot has me invested about your oc lore and background. If we talk more together then I could rant longer---
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For @twistedtalking / (Already sent.)
I gotta say, your concept is unique, I commend you for keeping the characters as accurate as the source material your best as a fellow newer twst writer. Love your incorrect quotes, your ramblings and your humor within the fics you do too. You're doing fantastically and I'm here to cheer you!
ļ½”ļ½„:*:ļ½„ļ¾ā
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For @suiseisyojo / (Already sent.)
Your headcanons and stories are magnificent, Shye š„ŗāØ I feel there's an air of being so well-put, something that when I look, it's like a fairytale with many wondrous moments happening inside and how you display is unprecedented, it's one of my favorites. Your characterization on the boys had me amazed when I go over it to study how it came to be. I love the header and fonts you have ā„ļø it's a line with color like pink or black I suppose š¬
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For @ceruleancattail /(Already sent.)
Let me think how I'll break it down into words, your stories are as if they are cotton candies, tarts, so picture yourself getting thrown into a dream that has scenery so wonderful that you don't want to ever wake up from. In truth, anything sinister is hiding beneath that welcoming grace, the inhabitants there just won't let you leaveš Your writing is both a paradise and can be nightmare depending on the will of your hands.
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For @kurukuryu / (Already sent.)
When I think about your art, it's as if I'm at a cafe ā„ļø where I can smell a lot variety of sweets with dozens of grand aesthetics paintings! Your sketches are marshmallows, I want to gobble them up honestly <33 they are precious, made me melt on my mind tooš· I like seeing you talking about everything in general, your yume, ocs, literally anything. And I hope I can be a good friend to you āļøĖĖĀ·Ė ą¼
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For @cxlemon / @cxsinesis
I have to say, your portrayals are ornate and euphemistic to look and read at. In my opinion, the imagery, metaphors, how you deliver had me think that it's not just standard actions. Makes me wonder how many years and efforts did it take you to polish your vocabularies and style. Because it's an art and a masterpiece. Other nsfw fics highlights more on the behavior part, that's great too but there's loftiness in your themes and narration. You gave me inspiration on what I might doš„ŗ
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For @kunehori
Your illustrations are hypnotizing, it's as if I'm at the ocean, listening to seagulls chirping, it's peaceful, and I feel so happy and smile like a moron when I saw you on my dash. You can draw and devise texts to form a whole universe with the tip of your brush and on papers. It's fluffy. Beautiful. You captured my attention to your ideas and words. I'm speechless and honored you're here, Ari. (Ty for being a pal on my main too andgjshdheb.)
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For @cupids-chamber
When I visualize about the imparting, it leaves butterflies in my stomach, it's so melodious to my ears, I would never get bored by your writing because it's like I'm in a land of ethereal with spells and myths. You have stolen my sight and mind. I'm enamored to whatever you described in the fable. You have motivated me to broaden my perspectives on that fanfics are frankly precious to me.
ļ½”ļ½„:*:ļ½„ļ¾ā
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For @blues824
YOUR DILIGENCE IS ADMIRABLE. You did for a lot of fandoms in your account, ranging from anime to even webtoons, you must be experienced on what you're doing, absolutely no doubt on it. And ahem, if you ever have a side blog, lemme notice, I'll be the first to follow you on it because you're amazing. Like seriously, I meant my praise š°
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For @siphoklansan
Gurl, you have the most delicious abilities to craft things. I hope you will get excellent scores on tests by the way, rooting for you all the way there. I love how you transform our Thai culture and adapted it into your comic panels, it's truly refreshing because I'm very much immersed to when you verbalized it.
ļ½”ļ½„:*:ļ½„ļ¾ā
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For @oepionie
It's official that you are one of my favorites. Your headcanons, drabbles, and fics are poetic. They are what grasped my heart, had me blush and squeal to myself whenever I turned around to scrutinize them. Kind of like how it's luring me into the rabbit hole where Alice has once fallen into a dark abyss. To the unknown and it's going to be adventurous š»
ļ½”ļ½„:*:ļ½„ļ¾ā
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For @treytheslay
I eat up your yandere and dark contents, especially if it's about my fav twst characters. Looking forward to the series and what you will plan in your blog. I'm weak to your prompts because I am so fond and curious on what type you will brew up for us to consume next. Will it be angst? Heartbreaking?
ļ½”ļ½„:*:ļ½„ļ¾ā
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For @miinprn /Not related in twst fandom.
I have been a mutual with you a long time on twt, ever since tog and etc, your doodles and personality is just so comforting to be with and I adore how you color and draw your portraits, they are super pretty. Never stop being yourself, okay? I will always be here for you and encourage you to your goalšŖ“
ļ½”ļ½„:*:ļ½„ļ¾ā
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For @hxjikonn
I am feral for your literature dear Haji, god tier stuff right there, I'm telling you 100% because I'm nuts for your imagination and snippets you have. I am totally fine with you being on hiatus as well. Drink a lot of water, have a great break as you look after yourself in reality and managing your life<3
#twst spotlight#tumblr appreciation#artists on tumblr#mewpangxin rambling#blogs recommendations#writers on tumblr#āreblogs
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Is this anything
#always an awkward conversation to have irl#āi love ai.ā insert that one spongebob holding out his hands with a shadow above him meme#āFICTIONAL. FICTIONAL AI!!!ā#clankerposting#Clay posts#fictional ai#shitpost#hal 9000#robots#p03#electric dreams#allied mastercomputer#ihnmaims#shockwave#transformers#fuck ai#this is an anti ai art blog btw#objectum#saying hello to everyone who reads the tags um... hi!! Really funny to read people recommending me entry level robot/AI media#like yes i have indeed heard of portal and ultrakill. i just didnt pit them in the meme </3#also some guy decided to write in the notes that they were going to crush me into red paste. hot? thank you? ???? weird.
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Emily
#emily strange#Emily the strange#black and white#goth#goth aesthetic#cute#cute aesthetic#girl blog#grunge#alt#music#alt rock#alternative rock#alternative music#music recommendation#aesthetic#gothic#emo#scene#punk#rock#emo aesthetic#punk aesthetic#dark aesthetic#grunge aesthetic#art#drawing
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day 3: your life is mine ā”
(femslashfeb prompt list)
#minifemslashfeb2024#this is how you lose the time war#tihylttw#book jumpscare!#yes I read it because of the trigun tweet#everyone say thank you bigolas dickolas wolfwood#this is based on their early book appearances!#they do change appearances a lot throughout the book tho#it is so epic I also do recommend it#sapphic sci-fi... time travel bullshit... my kind of genre...#bro this might be the first book fanart on this blog#that's wild. all these years. WHERE is my book fanart
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Seen a lot of posts about people coming into your notifications out of nothing and liking your entire blog, but here's a shoutout to the people who do Not follow you, who appear out of nowhere, reblog One (1) post that you are Not the op of, and then you never see them again. Where did you come from girl.
#EDITED bc I think this one goes on ppls recommended pages now#HEY GUYS the question in this post is rhetorical ! i don't actually care. you can stop telling me honeys its ok#i like the mystery. i don't needta know everything#also when i say shoutout. i mean it. i love you guys i am not annoyed. you're all wonderful. keep doing you.#posts by ME#tumblr#like ... you didn't find the post thru tags because I just reblogged it#i made no addition. how did you find me#be free you majestic creatures I'm glad I got to witness you in passing#how tf tho.#did you look at my blog but only one post made the cut. amazing. i love you.
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š Queer Palestinian Books š
šµšø The algorithm is going to keep silencing my posts, but they're not going to silence me. I grew up with little to no books that made me feel seen as a queer/bisexual Palestinian Arab American. Today, it's still not easy enough to find those books online, even though we have thousands of lists, posts, and directories to guide us. To make your search a little easier, here are a few queer Palestinian books to add to your TBR. Please help me spread this by reblogging. Consider adding these to your least for Read Palestine Week (click for resources)! š
š The Skin and Its Girl by Sarah Cypher šµšø A Map of Home by Randa Jarrar š Hazardous Spirits by Anbara Salam šµšø To All the Yellow Flowers by Raya Tuffaha š You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat šµšø The Specimen's Apology by George Abraham š Birthright by George Abraham šµšø Nayra and the Djinn by Iasmin Omar Ata š Where Black Stars Rise by Nadia Shammas and Marie Enger šµšø The Twenty-Ninth Year by Hala Alyan š Guapa by Saleem Haddad šµšø From Whole Cloth: An Asexual Romance by Sonia Sulaiman
š The Philistine by Leila Marshy šµšø Love Is an Ex-Country by Randa Jarrar š Shell Houses by Rasha Abdulhadi šµšø Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique by Sa'ed Atshan š Belladonna by Anbara Salam šµšø Confetti Realms by Nadia Shammas, Karnessa, Hackto Oshiro š Blood Orange by Yaffa As šµšø The ordeal of being known by Malia Rose š Decolonial Queering in Palestine by Walaa Alqaisiya šµšø Are You This? Or Are You This?: A Story of Identity and Worth by Madian Al Jazerah, Ellen Georgiou š This Arab Is Queer: An Anthology by LGBTQ+ Arab Writers šµšø My Mama's Magic by Amina Awad
#queer books#queer fiction#queer#books#queer book recs#book recs#book recommendation#free palestine#save palestine#books to read#book blog#book lovers#booklr#bookstagram#batty about books#battyaboutbooks#sapphic books#sapphic romance
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Shiro Gal Kanojo ga Dekita Riyuu
#manga aesthetic#manga edit#manga#manga black and white#manga blog#manga page#manga panel#manga reader#manga recommendation#anime and manga
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#book blog#bookish#bookworm#book review#books#book recommendations#booklovers#booklr#books and reading#ya books#writeblr#writers of tumblr#writing#fantasy books#creative writing#ya fantasy books#books & libraries#book quotes#writers block#writers#writing blog#writblr#tumblr writers#writer problems#writerblr#writers community#writers corner#writers on tumblr#writerscommunity#writing community
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things to add onto ur morning routineā.ą³ąæ*:ļ½„šš«§
if you have a morning routine that just feels a bit dull or u wanna add some things to ur morning routine to make it a bit better and more fun/girly this is the post for youā¦š¬š
ā” if u dont already, make sure to allocate time to get ready because getting ready sets the pace for the day and when u look glamorous you feel glamorous so its a rly amazing way to start ur day
hot tip šļø - make a get ready playlist that makes u feel confident and feed ur self confidence and self concept. some songs that are on my dolling up playlist are "never lose me" by flo milli, "sweetener" by ariana grande and "promiscuous" by nelly furtado
ā” put some time aside to be active in the morning as a way to get ur blood flowing and just wake u up in general + you'll feel 10x more productive and it also sets the tone for ur day
ā” do something for ur wellness, whether thats simply lemon water or taking some supplements, just do something good for ur body
ā” cartoons/ur favorite show while u enjoy breakfast
ā” go on a hot girl walk and listen to some affirmation tapes or some music and just think in ur favor
#advice#law of assumption#honeytonedhottieāļø#it girl#becoming that girl#self concept#self care#that girl#self love#it girl energy#dream girl tips#dream girl#dream life#self improvement#self development#routine#routines#morning routine#morning routines#hyper femininity#hyper feminine#dolly#girly#girl blogging#girl blog#girl blogger#girly girl#self care tips#self care rituals#music recommendation
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The Ultimate Dark Academia Book Recommendation Guide Ever
The title of this post is clickbait. I, unfortunately, have not read every book ever. Not all of these books are particularly ādarkā either. However, these are my recommendations for your dark academia fix. The quality of each of these books varies. I have limited this list to books that are directly linked to the world of academia and/or which have a vaguely academic setting.
Dark Academia staples:
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
Dead Poets Society by Nancy H. Kleinbaum
Vita Nostra by Maryna Dyachenko
Dark academia litfic or contemporary:
Bunny by Mona Awad
The Idiot by Elif Batuman
These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever
White Ivy by Susie Yang
The Cloisters by Katy Hays
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Black Chalk by Christopher J. Yates
Attribution by Linda Moore
Dark academia thrillers or horror:
In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
Ghosts of Harvard by Francesca Serritella
Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth
They Never Learn by Layne Fargo
The It Girl by Ruth Ware
Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian
Dark academia fantasy/sci-fi:
Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang
The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
Vicious by V.E. Schwab
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
The Betrayals by Bridget Collins
Dark academia romance:
Gothikana by RuNyx
Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake
Dark academia YA or MG:
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
Ace of Spades by Faridah ĆbĆkĆ©-ĆyĆmĆdĆ©
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
Crave by Tracy Wolff
Wilder Girls by Rory Power
The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Dark academia miscellaneous:
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou
Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A. McKillip
#dark academia#dark academia books#dark academia aesthetic#poc dark academia#light academia#chaotic academia#books and literature#book blog#ya books#books#book recs#book recommendations#the secret history#if we were villains#babel an arcane history#the atlas six#ninth house#legendborn#dead poets society#bookblr#bookstagram#academia#academic#bookish#vicious ve schwab#the maidens#the raven boys#vita nostra
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Asexual Books
Loveless by Alice Oseman
Sounds Fake But Okay by Sarah Costello and Kayla Kaszyca
Is Love The Answer? by Uta Isaki
City Of Strife by Claudie Arseneault
This Doesn't Mean Anything by Sarah Whaler
Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning Of Sex by Angela Chen
Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand
Vanilla by Billy Merrell
Paper Planes by Jennie Wood
Being Ace: An Anthology Of Queer, Trans, Femme, and Disabled Stories of Asexual Love and Connection by Various Authors
Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann
Rick by Alex Gino
Wren Martin Ruins It All by Amanda DeWitt
Love, Ace & Monsters: An Ace Anthology by Various Authors
Summer Of Salt by Katrina Leno
#books#book blog#booklr#readblr#book reccs#book recommendations#bookaddict#bookblr#bookworm#books and reading#asexual#ace#aromantic#aroace#loveless#lgbt#lgbt fiction#asexual fiction#ace books#ace representation#book rec list
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different batboys going in a fitting/dressing room with you - dollish
Dick Grayson (Nightwing)
HC:
1. Playful and Flirty The moment you ask him to come into the fitting room, Dick's eyes light up with excitement. āAre we sure this is a good idea?ā he teases with a grin, but heās already slipping in behind you enjoying the view a little too much.
2. Compliments for Days Every time you try on something new, Dick showers you with praise. āYou look incredible,ā or āThat color is perfect on you.ā Heās genuinely mesmerized by everything you wear and isnāt shy about letting you know. (š)
3. Hands-on Assistance When you struggle with a zipper or a clasp, Dick is more than happy to help. Heāll stand behind you, hands warm against your skin, and he takes his time, savoring the moment (and definitely not photographing it in his mind to remember later)
4. Playful Reactions Heāll jokingly suggest matching outfits or make exaggerated poses in the mirror next to you. Itās impossible not to laugh when heās around, and you both end up having way more fun than you expected. (Posing QUEEN FINAL BOSSš)
(I canāt think of an action sorry!)
Jason Todd (Red Hood)
HC:
1. Reluctant but Willing Jason acts like heās not interested in shopping, but when you ask him to join you in the fitting room, he raises an eyebrow and follows without hesitation. āOnly because you look good in everything,ā he grumbles.
2. Blunt Honesty Jason doesnāt sugarcoat anything. If he thinks something looks amazing on you, heāll tell you straight up. If it doesnāt suit you, heāll say, āNah, not your best look.ā You appreciate his honesty, even if it makes you roll your eyes sometimes. (š)
3. Playful Teasing He canāt help but tease you when youāre trying on different outfits. āAre you sure youāre not just showing off for me doll?ā heāll say with a smirk, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.
4. Protective Presence Jason stands in the corner with a watchful eye, making sure no one bothers you or tries to peek in. Heās protective, even in such a mundane situation, and itās oddly comforting and holds the curtains of the fitting room closed or stands next to the door. (atp please stay home)
ACTION!: As you try on a dress, Jason tilts his head, taking a moment to admire you before saying, āYou should buy it. And wear it for me later.ā The heat in his gaze is enough to make you blush, and he smirks, knowing exactly the effect he has on you.
Tim Drake (Red Robin)
HC:
1. Awkward but Sweet Tim is a bit flustered when you suggest he join you in the fitting room. āUh, are you sure thatās allowed?ā he stammers, but he eventually follows, cheeks tinted pink. (DAMN YOU ON EDGE OF THE BED YOU ABOUT TO FALL OFF)
2. Helpful but Shy Heās not sure where to look when youāre changing, but he does his best to be helpful. If you ask for his opinion, heāll give you a thoughtful answer, genuinely considering how each outfit suits you. (š)
3. Accidentally Cute When youāre struggling with an outfit, Tim fumbles to help, often resulting in the two of you tangling up together. He apologizes profusely, and you canāt help but find his awkwardness endearing.
4. Gives Genuine Compliments When you finally emerge in a new outfit, Timās eyes widen, and he stares for a moment before saying, āYou lookā¦ amazing.ā His voice is sincere, and it makes you feel like the most beautiful person in the world.
ACTION!: Youāre trying on a particularly tricky dress, and Tim offers to help with the zipper. His fingers brush against your skin, and he freezes, face turning bright red. āS-Sorry,ā he mumbles, but you can tell heās not entirely unhappy about being so close to you.
Damian Wayne (older but no smut)
HC:
1. Reluctantly Joins Damian initially refuses to join you in the fitting room. āThatās highly inappropriateā even when youāre dating,But when you insist, he sighs and follows, muttering something about how heās only doing it to protect you.
2. Gives Direct Feedback Damian doesnāt mince words. If he thinks something looks bad, heāll tell you outright. āThatās hideous. You deserve better,ā heāll say, but heāll also let you know when something suits you perfectly, even if he tries to act indifferent. (š)
3. Respectful Distance He stands with his back turned whenever youāre changing, arms crossed and eyes closed. He respects your privacy but will peek when youāre not looking, just to make sure youāre okay.
4. Secretly Enjoys It Though heād never admit it, Damian loves spending this time with you. He might even pick out a few outfits for you to try, claiming theyāre āmore appropriateā but secretly hoping youāll wear something he chose.
ACTION!: You try on an outfit he picked, and when you ask for his opinion, Damian gives a satisfied nod. āIt suits you,ā he says simply, but you catch the hint of a smile tugging at his lips, revealing how pleased he is.
Bruce Wayne (Batman)
HC:
1. Charming and Sophisticated Bruce is the ultimate gentleman in the fitting room. When you invite him in, he gives you a knowing smile and steps inside, immediately making the small space feel more refined. (Loves it)
2. Knows Fashion Bruce has an eye for style and knows exactly what suits you. He offers suggestions and adjustments, making sure you look perfect in every outfit. Heāll even offer to buy you whatever you like, no matter the cost. (š)
3. Effortlessly Romantic Heās the type to help you with a zipper or clasp without you even asking. His touch is gentle but firm, and he makes the simplest action feel intimate and lovingā
4. Playful Yet Classy Bruce isnāt above making a few flirtatious comments. āI think youād look better without it,ā heāll whisper in your ear, his tone teasing but filled with genuine affection. (gl walking tomorrow babes)
ACTION!: You try on a stunning gown, and Bruceās eyes darken as he steps closer. āYou look breathtaking,ā he murmurs, his fingers brushing against your bare shoulder. The intensity of his gaze makes your heart skip a beat, and you realize that even in a fitting room, Bruce Wayne knows how to sweep you off your feet.
This is @dollishbabess work not yours, DO NOT copy or share on other platforms and if you do, I must get full credit Tyš¦¢
dividers from @cafekitsune !
#fanfiction recommendation#jason todd#batfam#batfamily#dc universe#incorrect quotes#hcs#dc robin#jason todd x reader#writers on tumblr#damian wayne#damian wayne x reader#tim drake#tim drake x reader#fem!reader#batboys s/o#batboys fluff#i love tumblr#dick grayson#dick grayson x reader#bruce wayne x reader#bruce wayne#batmom#gf#batfamily memes#dc comics#my hcs#cute#cute blog
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TEACHER/STUDENT BOOK RECS
*if you want me to add a forbidden romance list, let me know*
š This is a list with links to books that have teacher/student, age gap, and experienced/less experienced themes that I have read! These are in order from most recommended to least recommended based on my opinion.
š This will be updated as I read more! Think something should be added to the list, then let me know!
š To find the Age Gap/TeacherxStudent Movie list, click on the link on my pinned post!
āļø= highly recommend/changed my life
š= no smut
š¶ļø=contains smut
š¦=read to really get your rocks off
highlighted=warning
PROFESSOR/COACH BOOK LIST
The Unrequited by Saffron A. Kent-āļøš
ProfessorxStudent & mental health themes
Cute little poet embarrassingly falls for her grumpy professor. Beautiful slow burn and perfectly describes what it feels like to want someone and not feel enough for them. She is such a realistic female lead and reminds me a lot of yāall š. This is THE teacher crush community book. If you donāt read anything read this!!
The Professor by Invi Wright-āļøš¶ļø
ProfessorxStudent
Cute romance by young, new, and self published author. Very relatable female lead. If you enjoyed The Unrequited, you will like this book for all of the same reasons. Quick and easy read, only 240. She isnāt perfect, she clumsy, and I wouldnāt even say sheās socially awkward, she just a normal college student in her early 20s. Sheās a fun narrator. This author has a lot of potential and her writing will only get better.
Gabrielās Inferno by Slyvain Reynard-āļøš
ProfessorxStudent
Such a good dark academia book. Beautifully written and actually has a movie adaptation. I would definitely recommend this if you want a realistic couple but a bit more serious. Characters have so much depth
Off Balance Series by Lucia Franco- š¦
CoachxStudent
Warning: female lead is age of consent NOT legal age.
If you want something really forbidden and fucked up, read this. If you want the MOST insane sex scenes, read this (MINORS STOP). I really donāt even want to add this series to this list but for the girls who wanna go there, have fun. I started this when I was still in high school, read the 3rd one as an adult, itās not as easy to read now. Take that info as you please
Lessons In Sin by Pam Goodwin-š¶ļø
TeacherxStudent with 18 Y.O female lead
Troubled rich girl gets sent off to a catholic boarding school and falls for the asshole Dean of the school. Smut is pretty good, plot works. Iām not going to say itās bad, I think whether or not itās enjoyable depends on the person. It wasnāt bad, I just wasnāt obsessed. If youāre just trying to live vicariously through her (arenāt we all), then it works!
Teach Me by L. L. Ash-š¶ļø
ProfessorxStudent
Really good start, and I do mean GREAT startā¦ I just feel like the sex scene came too soon (Ch. 9/32) and it threw me off but I also like SUPER slow burns. Itās still a good book. I enjoyed the male love interest, Professor Harlo. Theyāre cute together. Grump and Sunshine.
Dark Notes by Pam Goodwin-
TeacherxStudent & themes of abuse
Probably DNF-ing
AGE GAP BOOK LIST
Something In The Way Series by Jessica Hawkins-āļøš
Sisterās Boyfriend/Husband & āI saw him firstā
Most beautiful romance series Iāve ever read, best written books by Jessica Hawkins. I recommend all of her other books. Lake is 16 when she first meets Manning but nothing sexual happens between them for another 3 books until sheās in her 20s. Beautiful slow burn with characters full of depth.
Sinner by Sierra Simone- āļøš¦
Brotherās Best Friend & religious themes
Amazing character creation and mapping. These characters feel real! This book is about āteachingā a girl about sex before she becomes a nun. Itās not just a bang bang, hump hump book. It has heart and it really good. If you enjoy religious themed romance, you may enjoy Priest by Sierra Simone too. I didnāt š
Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas- š¦
Exās Dad
Most popular forbidden romance so whatever youāve heard about it, dump it. This might be the most tame book on this list. Pacing is good, well written main character. Insane amounts of smut but it doesnāt drive the story forward so feel free to skip it if you get tired.
Love Unexpected by Q. B. Tyler- š¦
Ex Stepdad & parent death
This book is HOT! However after the first few scenes, I got a bit tired of the smut. Well written enough female lead with a rushed ending. However if you just need something to read and not despise it, itās good enough.
Strictly Off Limits by Jessica Hawkins-š¶ļø
Dadās Best Friend
Jessica is my favorite author so Iām a bit biased but she definitely isnāt a smut writer. This novella wouldāve been better without smut however it isnāt super present and doesnāt really drive the story forward so donāt feel like youāre missing anything if you skip the smut!
The Doctor by Nikki Sloane- š¦
Exās Dad
personally didnāt care for this book, smut starts off way too quick and Iām more of a slow burn girl. It is a novella however, it was still too quick. However! You may love it <3
š If Iām not reading fast enough for you and you want to see what I will be reading in the future here is my Amazon TBR, have at it!
š If you want to see a more organized bookshelf of what Iāve read, here is my Goodreads!
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learning to spin on a drop spindle: a beginnerās lengthy yet comprehensive guide
I put this monograph together for a friend, but many other people wanted to read it as well, so here it is !
Fig A: Parts of a Drop Spindle. (image source. notes are mine. Click for higher res !). Apologies in advance for the lack of image descriptions--for the most part I use images because I canāt figure out how to describe the thing in words, so describing the images is kinda the whole issue. If anyone wanted to write them for me Iād add them to the original post in a heartbeat !
How to Get Started Drafting and Spinning
So, you have your fiber and your spindle--now what ?
Friendly pre-tutorial reminder that radfems can fuck right off if they think Iām writing any of this for their benefit. Iām not. I hope they all choke on their spindles <3. This is a safe space for trans people first and foremost.
(Check out this post that goes into picking a spindle and your first fiber, if you donāt have one yet)
First, you might wish to practice drafting a little. Drafting is the process of drawing the fibers out from, for example, a strand of roving or a rolag, into a thinner, airy length. To draft, loosely hold your fiber in your dominant hand, and pinch the very tip of the fiber with your thumb and forefinger of your non dominant hand. Then gently pull. If you pull all the way, you should notice that your fiber detaches from the fiber source eventually. For yarn, we want very very long lengths, so we donāt want that to happen. To get a continuous length of drafted fiber, simply change where youāre pulling from as you go. For example, you can draft out 2 centimeters/1 inch of fiber, and then move your fingers 2 cm/1 in back toward your fiber supply, and draft again.
The thinner you draft (or pre-draft*), the thinner that fiber will spin up. Once we start spinning, youāll see how adding twist immediately compacts the fiber quite a bit, so you need to draft much thicker than you actually want your yarn to be. When pre-drafting specifically, if in doubt--draft thicker. You can always draft it out a little more as youāre spinning.
Figuring out how to draft smoothly can be one of the harder parts of learning to spin, but even before knowing how to do it perfectly you can still create good yarn.
Check out The Joy of Handspinning website to see drafting in action, as well as several different types of drafting.
Also check out this video explaining pre-drafting roving. 1:00-2:30 is especially helpful. If itās not clicking from this video, search youtube for āpre drafting fiber for spinningā and watch til you have a better understanding.
*pre-drafting just means drafting before spinning--so itās the same type of thing as drafting while spinning, but without having to wrangle your spindle at the same time. Iād recommend pre-drafting at least a bit of your fiber until you feel comfortable doing it. Then you can spin with your pre-drafted fiber, and itāll be easier than if you hadnāt pre-drafted.
Tips: If you have a bottom whorl spindle, you may also want to practice spinning the spindle before it has any fiber on it, just to get a feel for how it moves. You could do this with the bottom point in a bowl or on a flat surface like a book or table. Try rolling the top of the shaft between your thumb and index finger. Donāt worry about it toppling over frequently--your spindle will be suspended by the yarn that youāre spinning, so it wonāt topple !
If you have a top whorl spindle, you might have a harder time getting it to spin without being suspended, because the center of gravity is so high. Instead, try tying a piece of thread or scrap yarn to the hook (if it has one) or below the whorl (look for figure B below) and secure it with a half hitch knot. Then try spinning it like that, and let it hang freely to unwind itself whenever it has too much twist before you try again.
You can also try spinning a bottom whorl suspended by scrap yarn or thread. The advantage of trying it while itās suspended is it can allow you to watch twist being added and see what it does without messing with your handspun, as well as letting you get a feel for how it moves while suspended. If you have a bottom whorl, Iād give both a try !
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Now that you can draft, youāre gonna want to attach your fiber to your spindle. Some people use a leader to do this--itās a pre-spun loop of yarn that you tie to your spindle. Then you loop some pre-drafted fiber through the loop of the leader, add twist til it holds, and off you go.
Another way to do it is without a leader. Iām much more familiar with this method, and I find it way easier, so Iāll go into more depth on this one:
1. Take the end of your pre-drafted fiber (you will need enough pre-drafted fiber to go from the underside of the whorl to the very top of the spindle, and then back again. If youāve pre-drafted way more, donāt worry. Weāre just working with this short amount for now, but it can stay attached). Make a slip knot at the end. You can roll the fiber between your fingers to add some twist if youāre having trouble making a slip knot with it. (Tip: if youāre having trouble getting the fibers to roll, wet them slightly with water or spit and it will be much easier)
2. Put the slip knot on the bottom point of your spindle, and slide it up so that itās at the whorl.
3. Gently wind the pre-drafted fiber up the spindle shaft, until you are at the hook or top. Wind it over the hook (or do a half-hitch knot at the top--if thereās a groove near the top your half hitch should sit in there, otherwise it should sit as close to the top as possible while still being secure. You may drop it a few times while learning where the perfect spot is--such is life). Be careful with pre-drafted fiber--depending on staple length and fiber type, it can pull apart quite easily. The trick to keeping that from happening is to keep it a little slack and loose until you have added twist to it.
4. Pinch your pre-drafted fiber between your thumb and forefinger on your dominant hand, about 1 handās width from the top of your spindle. Turn the spindle in the direction you intend to spin your yarn (usually this will be clockwise, or to the right). Spin the spindle until you have the desired amount of twist. You should notice that all the fiber above the hook/half-hitch has twist, while the fiber below it has none. You need all of it to have twist, so letās even it out--pop the half-hitch off with your thumb/unwind the yarn from the hook, unwind the yarn from the shaft so that the entire length youāve worked with so far is stretched out. This will allow the twist to equalize. Now wind it all back up and put the half-hitch back/wind around the hook again. You may need to repeat this a couple times to get your starting fiber fully twisted (donāt worry though--you only need to do this at the very start. From here on you shouldnāt need to equalize twist like that until the next time you start from an empty spindle).
Youāre done attaching the fiber--now you can spin !
Fig B: How your yarn should sit on a spindle, both top and bottom whorl
If that doesnāt make sense, hereās a video showing how to attach it with and without a leader. If that doesnāt help either, search youtube for āhow to attach leader to drop spindleā and keep looking until you have a better understanding.
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So you know how to draft and your fiber is attached to your spindle--now itās time to spin ! There are 3 different parts to spinning a singles on a drop spindle.
1. Adding twist. This can be done with just your hands, but the spindle makes it a whole lot faster. This is the purpose of a spindle--to add twist very quickly (and as a bonus, itās a handy place to store the yarn as you spin it !). All you have to do is spin the spindle, and the only trick is to make sure you always spin in a consistent direction--donāt start a project spinning clockwise and end it spinning counterclockwise ! Youāll have an impossible time plying it then. There are a lot of different ways to spin a spindle--youāll see a few watching the videos here, and more if you search out videos of drop spindling yourself. Whatever method is comfortable and practical for you is what you should do.
2. Drafting the fiber. You already know how to do this part !
3. Winding the yarn on. When your yarn is long enough that adding more length will make it hard to work with, youāll want to wind it onto the spindle so that you can get back to spinning. To do this, pop the half hitch knot off the top/unwind from the hook, unwind along the shaft, and wind it near or at the base of the whorl, in the orientation seen in the very first picture. Always wind in the same direction that youāre spinning, to stop your yarn from flying off.
I would highly recommend starting with the method known as āpark and draftā while you learn. In this method, you first add a ton of extra twist (usually as much as you can) and then put the spindle down and draft until that extra twist is used up. Then you wind on, and repeat. This isolates the actions of spinning so that you are only doing one at a time, which makes it a lot easier. Most people move on from this technique once theyāve figured it out, but you donāt have to--the drawback is that itās typically slower, but hey, spinning is a slow craft anyway. There is no wrong way to spin, and everyoneās hands and bodies have different needs and work in different ways.
How to Park And Draft
First, use your dominant hand to pinch your pre-drafted fiber a few inches/6 cm above the top of the spindle.
Now just spin the spindle clockwise, until it wonāt really spin any more. (Donāt try to get ~the most twist ever achieved~ or anything like that--your yarn can potentially snap from too much twist. Take your cue from the spindle--when it stops wanting to spin, youāve got enough twist.) Donāt let the twist advance beyond where youāre pinching it off.
This is important--if the twist gets into your fiber, it becomes much harder to draft it. But donāt worry, you can undo this by pinching just above where the twist has entered your fiber, and with the other hand just below (pinching the actual yarn here). Now (with the hand thatās pinching the yarn) roll in the opposite direction that youāre spinning in. This will move the twist down into the rest of your yarn. Let go of where youāre pinching the fiber, slide your yarn-pinching hand to where it usually is as youāre spinning, and get back to it.
Your leader/yarn should be very kinked up and wiry. Now put the spindle between your thighs (or between your knees, under one knee, or under something heavy that wonāt damage your spindle. Thighs are convenient, but if itās uncomfortable, try putting the spindle somewhere else. It needs to be held firmly in place and not move around). This is the āparkā part of āpark and draftā.
Now, you want to be pinching the twist off at the same spot, but using your other hand instead. I usually pinch right above where Iām already pinching and let go with the lower hand.
First weāre going to just bring the twist up the pre-drafted fiber by sliding your pinching hand up the fiber, slowly and gently. You should see the twist follow behind your hand as it enters the fiber. If you have lots of pre-drafted fiber, you might wind on, add more twist, wind on again, etc. You could also draft out your pre-drafted fiber (this is what the majority of more experienced spinners who pre-draft do) while you go.
The ādraftā part of āpark and draftā is just like pre-drafting, but one end is attached to a spindle. This gives you something to lightly pull against, if you want. Draft slowly and with purpose.
At a certain point, you will run out of excess twist. At this point, wind on. If youāve only done a short length, you can also add more twist, park it again, and go back to drafting.
If youāve run out of armspan but still have lots of excess twist, unpark your spindle (let it hang free) and allow it to untwist a little, monitoring it closely. If this happens often, try to put less energy into twisting your spindle, or allow it to twist for less time.
The amount of twist that your yarn has matters a lot--it will impact your finished yarn hugely. A yarn without enough twist will be very limp and might even fall apart as you handle it. A yarn with too much twist will be wiry and inelastic. You want to find a middle ground where itās got just the right amount for what you intend to use it for--a hard, inelastic wool yarn can make a good bag, but not a very good hat.
To see how much twist youāve added to your singles as you spin, try a plyback test ! This is really quick to do on spindles--just relax the distance between your fiber supply and the top of the spindle. When the yarn is no longer taut, the live twist will cause it to twist back on itself. With too little twist, you may just get a few sad loops (or no loops, if itās super undertwisted). With too much twist, you may get tons of tight little curls of yarn. With a good amount of twist, you should have a few good curls (just one if itās a short length of yarn, or several if itās your armspan) that arenāt too tight. Those curls are what your yarn will look like once 2 plied, so itās a great litmus test for whether youāre adding the correct amount of twist or not.
Fig C: What different amounts of twist looks like in your singles.
To fix too little twist, just spin the spindle a little extra until it looks right. To fix too much twist, either draft more fiber or else let the spindle untwist a little.
You can and should do this before winding each new length on, at least while youāre still learning the motions.
Check out this video of how to spin with the park and draft method ! 0:00-4:45 is intro and attaching the leader. 4:46-9:00 is the method itself (note to friend: donāt watch past 9 mins). If this video doesnāt work for you, search ādrop spindle park and draftā on youtube.
A few interim tips
1. Itās critical to hold your fiber supply loosely. If you find that you have put a lot of force into drafting, then you are either holding your fiber way too tight or your hands are too close together (or potentially both). Drafting should not require force. If it is requiring force, adjust your grip and your hand placement continually until it gets better, and refine from there.
2. Try to put some tension on the yarn as you wind it on. This will make it sit a little neater and flatter, so that you have a more stable cone of yarn and can fit more on it.
3. If you draft out your fiber so much that it runs thin and just sort of disintegrates, just pull off the most wispy parts from your yarn and the fiber supply, then hold the two together again, making sure to overlap by several inches/6-10cm. Gently draft out a little and add twist before putting that join under the weight of your spindle, or it will fail again. You can join from one fiber source to the next one (necessary with rolags, hand combed top, and strips off of batts) in a similar way; make sure to leave a little unspun fiber for a good join, and overlap the end of the first fiber source with the beginning of the second by about an inch/2.5 cm.
4. If your yarn snaps (rather than your fiber running thin as you draft), itās because it was A) twisted way too much B) spun too fine for the drop spindle youāre using C) both A and B or D) your spindle has become heavy enough that it can no longer spin as fine as you were spinning.
For A, B, and C: remove as much twist as you can from either end of the snapped yarn, then put both ends in your upturned palm, overlapping them over the whole width of your palm. Add enough either water or spit to get them good and wet (not dripping, but they do need to be wet). Now place your other palm down on top, and rub vigorously for about 30 seconds until the ends have joined together. If necessary, you can also just tie the ends in a knot, although itās not invisible and you can usually feel it in the finished yarn.
For D: is your whorl removable ? If so, remove the whorl and continue spinning. If not (and for the vast majority of beginnerās drop spindles it wonāt be), your spindle is full ! Even if thereās still room, itās too heavy to continue spinning on for that project. You could keep going spinning a thicker yarn, but that means your yarn will randomly get thicker somewhere near the end, which works for very few projects. If this happens to you when thereās still tons and tons of room on your spindle, that means in general you ought to spin thicker yarn on that particular spindle if you want to fill it up all the way.
Okay, I spun yarn, now what ?
So at the moment, you have what we call a singles (some people just say āsingleā). That can be used as is, or it can be plied--that is, held together with more strands of singles and twisted in the opposite direction. But either way, you need to get it off your spindle !
If youāre going to leave it as a singles, then youāll be winding it into a skein (weāll get into that later). If you want to ply it though, youāve got a lot of options. (Iāll get to how to actually ply later, this is just discussing those options.)
Many Methods of Plying
Plying Straight Off The Spindles
First, if youāve got multiple spindles capable of spinning the same weight of yarn, you could just set your full spindle aside and spin another one. Youād need at least 3 spindles (the third, ideally, a bigger plying spindle) to get a 2 ply yarn, and 4 spindles to get a 3 ply with this sort of setup. This is what I do with supported spindles, since I have many, and I can attest that it saves a lot of winding time and is terribly convenient.
But itās also probably not doable for many people, and itās ridiculous to buy 3 drop spindles when youāre just getting into it !
Wind And Store
Second, you can wind your singles onto something for storage, and then use your now-empty spindle to spin another singles. Two great things to store yarn on are small rocks and empty toilet paper (loo) rolls.
Winding it around a small rock is better than just winding it into a ball for plying, since the rock will weight it and stop it from flying up in the air once you start plying. A big pebble works great. With this setup, youād want to put all your balls of singles in a bowl or container of some kind, hold the ends of each, attach it to your spindle, and let them roll around as you ply.
They can tangle (mine usually donāt, but it can happen), so the toilet paper rolls might be an upgrade--these can be put on a stick, and the stick can be put on something (or you can poke two holes in a cardboard box, put the stick through one hole, load the rolls onto it, then put it through the other hole as well) to keep it stationary so that the rolls... well, roll. This requires some storage space (usually if you do this often, you donāt wanna make a new one every time, so keeping it is preferable) and is honestly not a huge upgrade... unless you have a ball winder that can wind the yarn onto the TP rolls for you, in which case this is a big time saver. If you donāt have one and donāt have issues with tangling, the rocks will probably work just as well and take up a lot less space.
Fig D: Diagram of a Simple Ply Box
Ply Bracelet
Thirdly, if you want a 2 ply yarn specifically, you could wind it onto your hand and make something called an Andean Plying Bracelet. Hereās a link to a page that goes into it in detail. I highly, highly recommend learning how to do these. They look a little complex, and I couldnāt tell you the motions if my life depended on it, but I can do them with my eyes closed while not paying a whit of attention. They rely entirely on muscle memory, so once you learn them, theyāre easy as pie.
The whole point of a plying bracelet is to get 2 strands of yarn out of 1 singles. You could of course wind a singles into a ball, then wind half of it onto another ball, and then ply from there. But a plying bracelet is a lot faster, and will always match up exactly.
One downside of a plying bracelet is that, as the name implies, it goes on your wrist. So if you keep needing to put your spindle down to take care of other things, youāll need to pull off the plying bracelet as well (or carry the whole thing with you). They can be stored on a cylindrical object thatās smaller than your wrist, or sometimes also draped on hooks or put on the spindle shaft itself. I donāt usually encounter problems when pulling on or off my plying bracelets--it doesnāt seem to tangle them--but if youāre plying while cooking or watching a child or something else that might require you to stop immediately and hurry over to whatever needs tending, then you might want to save the ply bracelet for another day.
Chain Plying
Fourth, you could wind your singles into one ball, and then chain ply it. Chain plying is a way to turn one singles into a 3 plied yarn. It also preserves stripes in your singles (weāll talk about this in more detail later), so it can be perfect for a very colorful singles.
Chain plying is simple. Do you know how to tie a slip knot ? Of course, because you needed one to start spinning ! (Although hereās the link to how to tie a slip knot again, if you need it.) So that means you basically know how to chain ply as well.
Step one: tie a slip knot at the end of your singles (you want a very short tail, since thatās basically waste). Make the resulting loop nice and big, and lay it over your singles. Pull the singles through the loop--now you have a new loop ! Make it nice and big as well. Lay it over your singles. Pull the singles through.Ā Repeat until youāre at the end of your singles (try to have your last loop be a very small one). To finish, place the end through the loop, and then just pull on it until it tightens the loop. Note that you typically are adding ply twist and winding on as you do this, but you can also just chain ply an entire single and wind it into a ball as you go, then add twist once youāre done. That can be a lot easier to wrangle, if youāre having difficulties.
You might notice that this is basically a really open crochet chain. Yep ! It needs to be open so that the twist can enter the yarn, but you can do very big or somewhat smaller loops--although no matter what, you need to keep the loops large enough to at least hook a couple fingers through them so that you can make the next loop. Note that sometimes, the bump at the start of each loop can be felt and/or seen. Also note that chain plying is best done with smooth singles that can slide against each other. It can be done with a bumpy, lumpy yarn that sticks to itself, but bumps and lumps will catch as you try to chain, and if the yarn sticks to itself then it wonāt slide nicely, which can really slow you down.
You may find that you prefer holding the ball of singles as you chain, or you may want it in a container on your lap/on the floor. You could also make a little wrist pouch to hold it, although take friction into account--if you make it out of wool yarn, choose a smooth one.
Ply Ball
Fifth is a sort of hybrid of a few of the others Iāve already mentioned, called a ply ball. To make a ply ball, simply wind two or more singles together into a ball (Iād suggest winding them around a small rock for a ply ball, too). The number of singles you wind in your ply ball will be the number of plies your yarn will have. A chain plied single wound into a ball is also functionally a ply ball.
Ply balls are extremely portable--you only ever need to work with one at a time, so you can just keep it in your pocket without worry of tangling, and itās not attached to you or a box or another spindle. The downside is that it generally requires you to either have multiple spindles (ex: fill up two spindles, wind both off into one ply ball) or do extra winding (ex: fill up your spindle, wind it off to a rock for storage, fill up your spindle again, now wind from the spindle and the rock to get your ply ball. Add more winding for more plies).
However, you can also wind a ply ball from plying bracelet (yes, thatās more winding--but now itās portable, and youāve just turned one singles into a 2 strand ply ball) or even chain a singles, but wind it into a ply ball instead of plying it then and there to get a 3 strand ply ball (this also might let you play around with really long or really short chains without having to think about ergonomics as much, since your spindle isnāt involved).
Ply balls can also be helpful if youāre having issues wrangling your singles while you try to ply, since theyāre laid together already--so theyāre worth an attempt if you are having trouble keeping your yarn in line while plying.
Thereās a short (but full of tips) article on ply balls here.
Thereās even more ways to ply--look into "plying from a center pull ballā (similar to a plying bracelet, but requires a ball winder or a nostepinne) and āply on the flyā (chain plying at the same time as spinning the singles--highly portable instant gratification). There may also be others that Iāve forgotten or not heard of, hopefully mentioned by others in the notes !
So Many Ways to Ply--How to Choose ?
So, every plying method and every number of plies has its own effects on the finished yarn, and you can use those effects to get the yarn youāre after.
By the way, if youāre not familiar with yarn weights such as lace weight and worsted weight, you should read this first !
A singles is great for your soft, fluffy, luxury stuff--cowls, hats, mittens that won't get a lot of wear, or shawls. It also preserves the colors that you spun exactly--so if you spun a beautiful perfect rainbow singles and the most important thing to you is that it stays a rainbow, you could leave it as a singles ! You can knit, crochet, weave, and nalbind with them like normal (I actually really prefer them for nalbinding--they felt easier so the joining is quicker), although because they havenāt been plied, theyāre a lot weaker to abrasion and snapping. So theyāre not ideal for things that need to be durable, and if youāre spinning short and/or fine fibers, you may find that even with some care they still donāt last very long, so keep in mind that stuff made from singles probably wonāt be passed down or anything like that. But still, Iāve knit several small pouches from singles that have held up just fine being tossed around my room. One advantage to note is that you have the most yardage and the least spinning time this way, so itās a very ātime cheapā yarn--you spin 100 yards/90 meters of singles, and you get 100 yards/90 meters of yarn. No time spent plying. However, it is as thin or thick as you spun it, and however consistent or inconsistent your spinning is, thatās your end result ! A lot of spinners (me) balk at this.
2 ply is next. I use 2 ply for almost everything besides socks--itās quick, itās fairly durable, and it looks very pretty (and an error correction: is ideal for lace). A 2 ply halves the amount of yarn you end up with--if you spin 100 yards/90 meters and 2 ply it, youāll end up with 50 yards/45 meters. It also has a distinct āhandspunā look--2 ply knits up to a messier fabric. I really love that effect, but if you want a neat, uniform fabric, donāt do a 2 ply ! Iām not sure how it affects crochet or weaving, unfortunately, but do I suspect itās similar with crochet. It also bulks up your yarn--itāll be a little bit less than double the thickness of your singles, usually. 2 ply holds up alright to gentle/moderate daily wear, and is great for hats, gloves that donāt need to be hard wearing, scarves, and bags that wonāt need to bear a huge amount of weight. Itās a workhorse yarn--you can use it for almost anything, and itāll probably be okay. The only thing I would never use it for is socks--thatās a 3 or 4 ply project.
Letās talk 3 ply ! 3 ply can be achieved either through chain plying or else as a traditional 3 ply--meaning 3 separate singles all plied together. Youāll get very different effects from these two methods in terms of both color and even-ness. If your singles had any stripes of color, with chain ply they will remain as stripes (this could be an alternative to your rainbow singles !). With a traditional 3 ply, your stripes will all blur together, and youāll get a varied and multicolored yarn. You will get 1/3 of the yardage/meterage of your original singles, so a 3 ply yarn takes longer to make than a singles or a 2 ply. But it is also about 3 times thicker than your singles, so if youāre struggling to spin thick singles but want a thick yarn, 3 ply is a great option.
If your singles are very even, youāll see no real different between chain ply and traditional 3 ply (except for the bumps at the start of each loop--they are usually visible as well). However, if your singles are kind of all over the place, chain plying magnifies this. On the other hand, a traditional 3 ply really evens out any inconsistencies. Even though Iāve got a few years under my belt, I am not a very consistent spinner, simply because I can neither visualize nor remember the weight I ought to be spinning, so itās always a total guess (damn aphantasia). Beginners are also often inconsistent spinners, just due to lack of muscle memory. Either way, a traditional 3 ply can be really helpful in creating a fairly smooth, even yarn from really wild, inconsistent singles.
Fig E: comparisons of chain ply and traditional 3 ply, in terms of consistency
Lastly, 4 ply. 4 ply will turn your heavy laceweight singles into a light worsted, if it puffs up in blocking enough. I love 4 ply for my supported spindles mostly, since those spin very fine yarn and I donāt have a use for anything finer than sock weight yarn. Itās also very durable, and a laid 4 ply (like a traditional 3 ply--just 4 strands held together) make good socks. A cabled 4 ply (take two 2 ply yarns and ply them again) makes terrible socks, but is still very durable and has an interesting rope like appearance and texture. 4 ply in general is great for socks, bags, blankets, and especially sweaters, as it doesnāt pill much and will stand up to heavy wear. However, you have to spin 4 times the singles to get your finished yarn--a 100 yard/90 meter 4 ply skein requires 400 yards/360 meters of singles, and then more time for plying. So these are rather slow. Theyāre an awesome option for a fiber that refuses to spin up to anything other than the finest lace, and they will make great objects and garments that will last for a good long while.
Past 4 ply, you kind of just get rope. I havenāt ventured past 4 ply much--give it a shot if youāre curious !
The Why of Ply is a great article on the different aspects of different plies, and touches on some stuff I donāt mention (like stitch definition and cables) if you want to know more ! Highly recommend it.
How to Ply
So... you know at least a few methods of plying now, know how many plies you want your finished yarn to have, and you may have even already wound a ply ball or filled all of your spindles. Which means itās finally time to ply everything.
To start, you need to attach all your plies to your spindle. For the methods that Iāve discussed (with the exception of chain plying), youāre going to do the following: gather the ends of your plies together, and make one slipknot with all of them. Then put the slipknot on your spindle below the whorl, the same way you would when spinning singles (and when not using a leader).
For chain plying: chain your singles until youāve got about a foot or a third of a meter. Now you want to attach it to your spindle. Take the very first slip knot loop and slip it onto the spindle, below the whorl.
Now, secure your yarn by wrapping it around the hook or else with a half hitch knot, and spin the spindle counterclockwise (anticlockwise). You should immediately see the plies twisting together to form plied yarn.
From here, you will proceed basically the same way as you did when spinning singles--youāll add twist to your plies, then wind on. This can be a really great opportunity to practice doing things while the spindle is in motion; you wonāt be drafting, but depending on the type of plying youāre doing, you may be chaining, pulling from a ply bracelet, or simply letting the plies slide through your fingers (you do want to tension them and keep the twist from getting past your hand). If that requires too much coordination, feel free to park and ply--that is, spin the spindle to add excess twist, park it and let it into your yarn, then wind on.
If you try to ply your yarn the same direction that you spun it, youāll notice that it doesnāt really turn into a cohesive yarn, and instead becomes wiry and the plies donāt slot neatly together. If you notice this happening, turn your spindle in the other direction. A yarn that is both spun and plied in the same direction wonāt be stable or strong, and will tangle the second you try to work with it.
This is why itās helpful to be consistent in which direction you choose to spin your singles, by the way--if you always spin wool clockwise, then you can know with certainty that it will be plied counterclockwise.
We refer to yarn as having either Z twist or S twist (this refers to whatever the finished twist is, so a singles that youāre never going to ply, or a 3 ply yarn, for example). This just makes it a little easier to talk about and recognize what weāre doing.
Fig F: S and Z Twist in plied and singles yarn
Itās essentially a mnemonic device that allows you to glance at your yarn and go āOh! I spun these three singles counterclockwise, so I should ply them all together clockwise.ā I often have to draw an S or Z in the air (just like I sometimes have to draw an L in the air to pretend I can reliably tell left from right), but it is pretty foolproof and will prevent you from, for example, trying to ply an S twist singles with a Z twist singles and then wondering what on earth went wrong.
By the way, this page has a really helpful chart on what direction you might want to spin in based on what you intend to do with the finished yarn. For example, crocheting (right handed style) with S twisted yarn will remove the twist as you work, but knitting in continental or English style (or crocheting left handed style) with that same yarn will add twist. Most spinners spin their singles to have Z twist and ply them with S twist--but if youāre a crocheter or knit Eastern style this will unply your yarn as you work, and you are encouraged to try reversing things to have better results with your handspun projects. The more you know !
Now, back to your plying. You may be wondering how youāre supposed to know how much ply twist to add, which is a great question, because plyback tests donāt work when youāre actually plying. Those are for when youāre spinning your singles. Instead, I do what I call a āhanging testā. Just hold out a length of plied yarn between your hands and let it hang (not pulling it taut--the yarn should have a nice downturned curve). A balanced yarn--that is, a yarn that has equal and correct amounts of spin and ply twist--will just hang nicely. An underplied (or underspun) yarn will usually also hang nicely, but you will see gaps inbetween the plies. This is no good at all. Gaps wonāt just make your yarn look bad, they'll also make it split when you work with it, and will be less durable and more prone to pilling, felting, and eventual disintegration after much use.
On the other end of the spectrum, an overplied yarn (which may have both too much spin and ply twist, or may be underspun and then overplied in an attempt to fix ones mistake--which wonāt work, by the way. You need to go back and add more spin twist to your singles) will twist in the middle instead of hanging. If it only twists a tiny bit, youāre fine. But if it twists a lot, thereās problems. Overtwisted 2 ply yarns tend to be aggressively smooth--this is only relevant for 2 ply, since those have a sort of pearled silhouette. If your 2 ply is smooth, then youāve most certainly overplied it. 3 and 4 ply are always smooth, however, so a smooth profile for one of those is to be expected.
Fig G: Ply twist in 2 ply yarns. Do these yarns have S or Z twist ?
Donāt worry if your first yarns arenāt perfectly spun or plied (really--they wonāt be). Every spinner is striving for something different with their yarn. Some are aiming for total technical perfection, some aim for exquisite fineness, some aim for beautiful colorways and for finding the softest and most lovely breed of sheep. Some just want to spin, some just want usable yarn, some just want a pair of socks that last on their feet and find commercial sock yarn to be about as durable as wet paper (that would be me). You certainly donāt have to know what you want to get out of spinning right away, but the point is that every single spinner has their own standards that they hold themself to, and you donāt need to (and shouldnāt !) try to meet others standards. Especially when still learning, but also just all the time and forever.
Iāve Plied My Yarn, Now What ? OR I Just Want Singles, Now What ?
Now your yarn needs to come off the spindle ! But not the way weāve been taking singles to ply off the spindle--we need to make whatās called a hank. A hank is basically a loop of yarn thatās been tied so that itās nice and secure. These loops can be pretty big (mine are all 2 yards/1.8 meters) or as small as the distance around your hand--it all comes down to what you wind your yarn onto.
I have already made a tutorial that goes into quite a bit of depth (and has pictures, even), so Iām gonna speed through this part a little bit.
1. Find something to wind your yarn around. A Niddy noddy is the preferred tool for the job here, and will make it much faster to wind and thoughtlessly simple to calculate the yardage/meterage of your yarn (Iāve seen people use yarn swifts as well, and they certainly look very speedy), but they are by no means required. Substitutes include: a large hardcover book, the back of one or two chairs, your hand (ideal for very small amounts of yarn), your forearm (for smallish amounts of yarn--wrap between the thumb and forefinger and go down to the elbow, then back up), or anything else that wonāt deform with pressure and is holding relatively still.
2. Wind your yarn around that thing. You may need to start with a slipknot to attach it to whatever it is youāre winding on, or else a piece of tape. If youāre using your forearm or hand, you can simply pinch the end to hold it in place. Unlike when winding your yarn onto your spindle, when winding your yarn into a hank, you want to use as little tension as possible so that you can get a more accurate measurement of length later on. Also try to keep your winding tidy--in an ideal world, the yarn should be traveling almost the same path every time, not a few inches to the left one time, then wildly skewed to the right the next time.
3. Tie off your hank. Once youāve finished winding, you need to secure your hank so that it doesnāt tangle. You can use either scrap yarn or else the ends of the yarn you just made (I prefer the latter, since the ends tend not to be very good anyway, so at least they donāt go to waste. In this case, snap off or cut both ends--the length you should cut depends on how thick your hank is). Find where both ends are--you will need to tie knots near the ends so that you can attach the ends to them. Tie an overhand knot a few inches/5cm below the first end, and then hold that end alongside one of your strands of knot-tying yarn, and tie another overhand knot. Repeat this with the other end. Make sure you havenāt overlooked any strands of yarn and left them out of the tie--thatās a very easy way to get tangles.
4. Remove your hank. Gently push your hank off of whatever you wound it on. Put it to the side--now we want to measure. Use soft measuring tape (or a piece of inelastic string or yarn, if you donāt have one--you will then need to measure that against a rigid measuring tape) to span the entire path that your yarn traveled. Write down that number, and now count the number of strands in your hank. Multiply the two numbers together. Now convert your inches or centimeters into yards or meters, and you have your yardage or meterage !
Ex: You wrapped your yarn around your palm, which measures 10 inches. There are 41 strands. 10x41=410. 410 inches is roughly 11 yards. Or: You wrapped your yarn around a small book, which measured 21 cm. There are 50 strands. 21x50=1050. 1050 cm is of course 10.5 meters.
Fig H: Winding a hank on a hardcover book.
It can be very helpful to label your handspun yarn. The yardage/meterage is critical information when it comes to using patterns, less so if you donāt use patterns. But thereās other info that you might still find handy to know later on, such as what the fiber is, where and when you got it, when you spun it, how you plied it, any info on the dye job, what the yarn weight is, what spindle you spun it on, whether it is part of a set, how much it weighs, etc.
Some of my really verbose labels might look like this: Avocado dye and copper mordant hand dyed in the fleece 2020 Cormo Bought 2019 Spun for 2020 TDF 2 plied on wheel 210 yards 3.4 oz light worsted weight
But most of my labels just have the yardage and breed, if I label them at all. I tend to document things online and also remember spinning my yarn better than I remember anything else going on in my life, so Iām a little lazy about labeling. Your labels should include the information that you think youāll find helpful in the future, or that you know you wonāt have another way to recover if you end up forgetting.
Blocking your yarn
Donāt attach that label just yet--we arenāt totally done with our yarn. It has one or two more steps before itās ready to be used, and that first step is called blocking. Thereās a few ways to block yarn--wet blocking, steam blocking, and resting.
Wet blocking: Get your hank of yarn wet, using anything other than very hot water (this could start felting your yarn). You could run it under the tap for a minute or else let it sit in a bowl of water with a little hair conditioner for about half an hour, if you wanted your yarn to be a little softer, then rinse the yarn. Squeeze as much water out as you can, then hang it to dry. You can (and should) also snap or thwack it--but I've gone into detail on that in a link below.
Steam blocking: Get a source of steam going--like a pot of water simmering or a very hot tap running. Using tongs or a long wooden spoon, hold your yarn over the steam and slowly rotate it until the whole skein has been steamed. Donāt let the yarn touch the water.
Resting: If neither option above is possible, you can also just let your yarn sit for at least a week. This lets the twist settle down, so itāll be a lot easier to work with. However, it doesnāt do anything else that blocking does, so it wonāt really show you your āfinishedā yarn, and may lead to problems down the road.
So--why did we just do that stuff ? Well, we blocked our yarn to reset the fibers, basically. During the spinning, we put the fibers under tension, and they more or less stay in that slightly stretched state. But itās not really stable--the next time they get wet, theyāll spring back into the natural crimp that the wool wants to have (this changes drastically depending on breed and even individual sheep), and will often puff up. The hank might lose a little length and your yarnās weight (not as in ounces or grams, but as in lace, dk, or bulky weight) often increases some. So if youāve made your yarn into something before blocking it, with the perfect gauge and nice drape, the first time you wash it youāll find that itās thicker and a little smaller and has less drape. It might not fit anymore, or the seams might be messed up.
This is all entirely avoidable if you just block it before you do anything with it, so I highly recommend that you do.
The other thing that blocking does is set the twist, so your yarn wonāt kink up as you work with it--even a perfect, balanced yarn can kink up as you work if the twist is live--which makes it a lot more pleasant. Resting sets the twist as well, as mentioned above.
Iāve gone into blocking in more detail in this post here, if youād like to know more--Iād especially recommend reading the last section about snapping and thwacking your yarn.
Once itās fully dry (and remember--wool can hold a lot of water and still feel dry, so give it a little extra drying time just to be sure) it only needs to be wound into a ball before you can use it ! Congratulations on your handspun yarn--thatās a real achievement.
Storing your yarn
If you donāt plan on using it right away, you may want to skein your hanks up to keep them compact and tidy. To do this, put your thumbs on the inside of your hank, and pull it taut. Then, one thumb at a time, twist in the opposite direction that you plied in. Your hank should start to kind of look like rope. Once it has a lot of twist (enough that youāre struggling to add more), find the center point of the hank, and fold it. With 2 yard hanks I tend to fold it over my knee, but a doorknob or something else would work just as well. It should immediately look like an oversized piece of yarn--thatās because we just twisted it one direction, and then folded it in two and let the excess twist twist it in the other direction, which is the same way you ply yarn ! There should be a loop at each end where your thumb was--take your thumbs out and put one loop through the other. Now you can attach your label and youāre good to go !
If itās a very small hank (one thatās been wound around the palm, especially) youāll probably just want to wind it into a ball instead. You could do this with any length of yarn--itās not an ideal way to store wool yarn ultra long term, since staying wound into a ball can stretch out the fibers again, which means youād need to wind it into a hank and re-block it if you wanted to make an accurate gauge swatch or something. Short term (a year or less) itās just fine.
If youāre wondering how to wind up a big hank into a ball without tangling, just sit down with your knees up, and put your knees inside the hank, then move your knees apart until the hank is taut. Now you can wind in relative peace, free from tangles. You can also use a yarn swift, if youāve got one.
I would recommend, by the way, using up some of your first skeins as soon as possible (you might want to keep your very first skein so that later you can see how far youāve come--I really wish I kept mine). You wonāt know how your spinning is until youāve used it, so to prevent you from getting to skein #40 thinking youāve been doing great, only to discover that your yarn is actually unusable... use your early yarn ! Evaluate it, make judgements, and learn from it. Does it need more twist ? Is it very lumpy ? Are there lots of spots where it went thin ? Do you like how the colors turned out with the plying method you chose ? These are all good questions to ask yourself as you use your yarn.
Moving On From Park and Draft
Once youāre comfortable with the park and draft method, you might want to try moving on to true suspended spinning. As I said earlier--it may not be for you, and thatās fine, but you wonāt know if you donāt try. True suspended is quite a bit faster than park and draft, so if you want to speed up a little, you should give it a shot.
In park and draft, you first add twist, then park the spindle to draft your fibers into yarn. In true suspended spinning, you set the spindle going and draft while the twist is being added. This eliminates the whole āstanding/sitting there with your arm outstretched, waiting for your yarn to accumulate twistā section.
The easiest way to get into true suspended spinning is to work your way up to it--try drafting just a little bit while your spindle is building up twist during park and draft. To give yourself more time, set the spindle spinning slower. Then try drafting a bit more. The goal is to draft at the same rate that twist is added, meaning that you can wind on pretty much as soon as the yarn is too long to keep spinning.
The trick here is to adjust the speed at which your spindle spins rather than the speed at which you draft. You can only draft so fast before your technique gets sloppy, and past that youāll be focused far more on keeping pace with the twist being added than on drafting evenly.
So if I find that I spun my spindle too aggressively, I still it immediately and try again, but slower this time.
I answered an ask about this a while ago where I went into a little bit more depth, if youāre interested.
And if you havenāt seen it, the pinned post on my blog is a lot of stuff like that all collected into one post for easier perusal. Some of them Iāve already linked to earlier in this post, but others I havenāt.
Small Projects, Scrap Projects, and Big Projects: Tips for All
You may be wondering, What the hell am I supposed to do with this yarn ? This isnāt even enough for a pair of fingerless gloves !
Which is a fair concern--endlessly accumulating small skeins of yarn can be frustrating if you donāt know how to use them up.
Drop spindles are limited in how much yarn you can make on them, and while you can make huge skeins by joining smaller skeins together, they may not all be the same weight ! Or they may not match. Or it may just be really boring.
You may also be doing a lot of experimenting, and ending up with 30 yard/meter skeins that you canāt even make something tiny with.
Small Skeins: For single skeins that are too small for gloves, hats, etc, you may still be able to make things like pouches (for yarn, crochet hooks, dice, coins, etc), baby socks or hats, coasters, or other small items. My spinning wheel oil holder is a little basket crocheted out of some handspun, and I have a mini tape measurer on my keys with a cover crocheted over it from handspun as well. You might have to invent things to do with your handspun, but using items that you made enriches your life--I promise.
Scrap Projects: What about tiny skeins ? Or maybe youāve already made all the coasters and baby socks and spinning oil holders that you could possibly need, and now the small skeins are piling up again. I humbly submit the Scrap Yarn Project--my favorite type of project by far. Iāve been slowly working on a handspun scrap blanket for about 2.5 years, using tiny scraps, small skeins, and leftovers from projects alike. I knit 5x5 inch stockinette squares (some have colorwork, some have different stitch patterns, but mostly I let the yarn be the star) and for the most part just try make squares that are thick enough to stay warm but thin enough to have a little drape. Itās an incredibly satisfying project.
Fig I: An older image of the authorās handspun scrap blanket in progress. The yarns used range from fingering weight to super bulky, and are spun in all sorts of different ways. But it still feels very cohesive.
I like the square approach (and of course if you wanted to crochet granny squares, that would work perfectly too) because itās modular, so you can decide halfway through that you donāt want a sweater, you want a bag--and then just sew the squares into a bag, instead. But it doesnāt need to be squares by any means--you could also make scrap yarn sweaters, hats, socks, scarves, etc., that are constructed normally.
The only thing to look out for is yarn weight--in some cases, you might want the weights to all be very similar. Socks, for instance, wonāt do well if you have parts that are bulky weight and parts that are light fingering weight. You could hold yarns together to get similar weights if necessary, or just only add to the project when youāve got another scrap skein of worsted weight or whatever. For squares you can use any weight of yarn if you want, but you should change your hook or needle size to get a fabric thatās a similar density, so your stitch count will change from square to square.
Big Projects: These can be difficult even for experienced spinners, because consistency is key to ending up with an even fabric. Not from armspan of yarn to armspan, but from skein to skein--if the weight changes, things can suddenly get much more complicated while you try to correct for the skeins that are too thick or too thin.
One way to try and mitigate that is to not ply anything until youāve finished spinning all the singles--that is, if you need 10 skeins of 2 ply, spin 20 spindles worth, then go through and pair off your stored singles, thin with thick and average with average. It can definitely be more tedious to do it this way, but if youāre worried about consistency, it might be a good idea.
It also might not be necessary. Try to let your mind stretch back over the whole course of human history--as a species, weāve been spinning yarns for pretty much all of it, and until very recently, what you spun was what clothed you. If the skeins you spun for your new cloak were all different weights, well... you probably either repurposed those skeins (IF you could, and thatās a pretty sketchy IF) or you shrugged, wore a lumpy cloak, and got on with life. Perfection isnāt everything, my friend. Either way, do whatās going to make you happy. For me, Iād be just fine with a lumpy cloak.
Out Of The Basics: A Few Further Pushes Into The World of Spinning
Thereās many, many techniques out there, and an infinite variety of yarns to be spun. Some require tools, some donāt. Some are very advanced, and some quite simple. There are many other tools to spin on besides drop spindles. Thereās also processes related to spinning--such as dyeing, fiber prepping, and wool washing--which can greatly enhance your spinning enjoyment and variety. I canāt teach them to you today, but I can certainly tell you about them so that you can look into them yourself !
Changing Up Your Fiber or Techniques to Get Different Effects
We touched on this earlier in the section about the number of plies--a 2 ply yarn will knit up into a bumpy, slightly irregular fabric, and a 3 or 4 ply will be very regular and neat. But thatās not the extent of what you can do to change your yarn up (without buying anything new). Iām going to throw some terms around now--youāll need to google them, because this is already absurdly long.
For one thing, if you have roving, you can try splitting it lengthwise and fractal plying your yarn for a very beautiful self-striping but marled effect. You can also try spinning it from the fold on multicolored roving, which keeps the colors separate instead of muddied, which can happen otherwise.
With any fiber, you can always mix and match, or add pops of color ! If youāre spinning a bunch of gray rolags, for instance, you can occasionally detach the rolag, spin a tiny bit of blue roving, reattach the rolag, and go back to spinning. Depending on how you ply it, this could produce almost specks of blue or else slips and streaks.
Speaking of plying, the way you make a 2 ply can really change the colorway of the yarn if your fiber is a gradient or multicolored. Say youāve got roving thatās a gradient from white to purple--if you do a plying bracelet, your yarn will be part barberpole, part gradient: a purple ply with a white ply at one end, and then gradually transition to the midpoint of lavender-pink in the middle, with both plies the same color. But if you plied it the other way, by wrapping your singles onto storage rocks and then plying from those, youād get a yarn thatās got one pink ply and one white ply at one end, and one pink ply and purple ply at the other.
Chained 3 ply versus traditional 3 ply will make a huge difference as well. If your fiber has stripes, chain plying it will preserve them perfectly (as long as youāre careful to start a loop at the color change--or if you wanted it to fade in a little, you could start partway through a color change), whereas a traditional 3 ply will always marl them, no matter how careful you are about evenly splitting your fiber into 3 sections.
If you like really colorful and bright yarns, you might enjoy cabled 4 ply (where you ply two 2 plied yarns together). If your starting 2 plies are already colorful, youāll get super colorful yarn with a cabled 4 ply--to me it always looks like dashed lines in different colors.
A laid 4 ply can also make some interesting color combinations, and is perhaps the ideal candidate for mixing random singles together, since it has 3 other plies each singles can hopefully be tempered by. And a yarn that has 3 plies of one color and 1 ply of another color can be interesting indeed !
Itās not just color that you makes an exciting new yarn, though--you can also try making boucle, or thread plying or autowrapping, or spinning beehives, spinning beads into your yarn, spinning thick and thin yarn... the possibilities are almost endless. Iād highly recommend giving āThe Spinnerās Book of Yarn Designsā by Sarah Anderson a read if you can--she discusses all of these and many more, and shows how to do them. Other good books thatāll show you how to make lots of different kinds of yarn, or how to tailor your yarn to your needs, are: āYarnitectureā, by Jillian Moreno, āSpin Artā by Jacey Boggs, and āYarn Spinning With A Modern Twistā, by Vanessa Kroening. Your library may well have copies, and if not you could likely request they buy it.
You Donāt Have to Drop Your Spindles
...Because thereās other kinds of spindles ! And things that arenāt spindles, but on which you can also spin !
There are Turkish Spindles, which are functionally almost identical to drop spindles (and you can drop them, to be fair), but you wrap your yarn around two detachable interlocked arms that also function as the whorl. When you remove the arms and spindle shaft from the turtle (not cone) of singles, you can then 2 ply with it immediately using both ends. Turkish spindles are great if you love 2 ply and hate winding.
There are Supported Spindles, which come in many forms but are essentially fancy sticks with pointy tips that you spin in bowls. These have more winding than drop spindles because you spin in very short lengths at a time and wind onto a temporary cop thatās just below the tip (itās much faster than if you wound all the way down to the cop near the bottom). However, you use them while sitting or even (with a bit of wrangling) laying down, and your arms stay in a comfortable, much more relaxed position while spinning. It also spins, as a default, finer yarn than your average drop spindle (I can achieve a very fine and consistent laceweight on any supported spindle, but have only managed that on my tiniest and lightest drop spindle). And they are very fast tools--with proficiency, they can be much faster than drop spindles. Supported spindles are great if you find drop spindles painful, if you have low energy, if youāre mobility impaired, or if you want to spin finer yarn.
There are Spinning Wheels, which come in many shapes and sizes but are the fastest way to make yarn by hand. There are a few objects which could fall under the umbrella of a spinning wheel (namely Walking Wheels, Charkah Wheels, and Electric Wheels) which do not have treadles, but the majority of spinning wheels are powered by foot treadles and can spin faster than you can spin a drop spindle. They also remove winding from your list of duties (for the most part), since the flyer will wrap your newly spun yarn onto the bobbin as you go. New spinning wheels can be prohibitively expensive, but you can also find used ones for ludicrously cheap on craigslist, at estate or garage sales, at antique shops, or other places where old items might be sold. (You can also often find them at affordable but not cheap prices at fiber festivals). Be sure to research the parts of a spinning wheel before you try to buy a used one from a non-spinner--there are many SWSOās (Spinning Wheel Shaped Objects) out there that will fool you. Spinning wheels are great if you want to make larger amounts of yarn, or want to make yarn faster.
There are Electric Wheels, which are small machines that will add twist and wind the yarn onto the bobbin for you, so all you have to do is draft. New low end models are much cheaper than new spinning wheels, and they take up far less space. They also remove the element of treadling, so if you are intrigued by spinning wheels but have weak legs in any capacity, these can save you a lot of pain. I have a spinning wheel and canāt spin on it much anymore, because my knees and hips dislocate almost immediately. I switched to supported spinning primarily, but an electric wheel would be a good substitute as well. Electric wheels are great if you want to make more yarn faster, but canāt afford a spinning wheel or donāt have the space for them. They are also one of the more accessible tools for those with severe mobility impairments.
And thereās still more, although I canāt do a pitch for all of them xD. Thereās Tahkli Spindles for spinning cotton, Navajo Spindles that are long thigh-spinning tools, Medieval Spindles that are easy to whittle replacements for if you break your spindle a lot, and even more beyond that. Many cultures have their own traditional spinning tool, each with their own techniques and strengths, and if drop spindles arenāt doing it for you but you still want to spin, I implore you to check out other kinds of spindles !
From Sheep To Sweater (Washing and Processing A Raw Fleece)
Most people learn to spin from roving (even if it might not be a very good beginnerās preparation), although thereās also rolags, batts, top (both commercial and hand combed), sliver, and cloud. But what if you could start with a raw fleece (unwashed, with vegetable matter and lanolin and who knows what else) and make things out of that ?
Thereās some immediate advantages to starting with a raw fleece (even over a washed fleece). For one, raw fleeces tend to sell very cheap. This will depend on where you live, but the vast majority of fiber that I buy these days is raw fleece, and Iāve never spent less on fiber. At a fiber festival, I once paid $10 USD for 2 pounds (slightly under 1 kilo) of raw Shetland fleece. So--theyāre cheap. As soon as someone starts putting work into a fleece, like washing it or dyeing it, the price immediately jumps.
Second, if youāre looking for the most bang for your buck, starting from a raw fleece is the way to go. You need to wash it, skirt it (take out the really terrible or gross bits), perhaps sort or grade it if itās multicolored or thereās clear variation in fiber quality, dye it (if desired--I only dye my white fleeces, as I quite like brown and gray and black), process it into spinnable fiber, spin it, ply it, and then knit/crochet/nalbind/weave/do whatever else your heart desires with it. A single raw fleece can last me a month even if I work on it tirelessly, and I might have paid $20 USD--a little over an hour of wages for me.
It also brings you a lot closer to your work. I canāt say I felt very attached to my fiber when I worked exclusively with roving, but sorting through a pile of hand washed Southdown Babydoll locks while I comb them into top to spin into sock yarn on supported spindles that I whittled myself--I can tell you, I feel pretty damn connected to my work, to the ridiculous little sheep whose wool I have, to my socks, and to the wool itself. It adds a lot of depth, both to the experience, and to my understanding.
Itās also honestly pretty easy. To wash a fleece, you need a dedicated wool pot (as in, donāt cook in it again), a bit of dish soap, and some time. Put the fleece in--donāt crowd it, just work in batches if your pot canāt easily fit all of the fleece--add cold water and a squirt of dish soap, and let it cook on the stove for about 45 minutes, without a lid. Donāt let it boil--ideally it should be steaming but not quite simmering. You can use a dedicated wool spoon/tongs to gently and infrequently stir the wool. The water should get pretty gross. After 45 minutes, start the tap running (you need to rinse the wool in very hot water--if you let temperature shock happen, it could felt), drain the water, and rinse the fleece. Then repeat--filling up the pot with hot water now--until the water stops looking dirty at the end of the 45 minute cooking time. Rinse it one more time, and then let your wool dry, ideally on a clothesline but over a vent/spread out flat on a towel is fine too.
Yes, it really is that easy. If youāre worried about felting or otherwise ruining the entire fleece, you can always start by washing just a handful, so that way if you ruin it thereās not much waste. But Iāve washed at least a couple dozen fleeces that exact way, and Iāve never ruined one.
After washing and drying your fleece, you need to prepare it. I typically prepare enough to spin for a day at a time, but you could also do it all at once if thatās more your style. Thereās many ways to prepare wool, and Iāll discuss most of them at least in brief, but weāll start with teasing. This is where you take a lock in your hands, and tease it open. Let any VM (vegetable matter) fall out or pick it out yourself, and open the lock up to the point that you can no longer see any lock structure. Itās now spinnable, just like that ! This is a pretty slow method, but if you start out your raw fleece journey buying just a few ounces/50ish grams of fleece, itās perfectly doable to tease it all open by hand.
If you have money to put into the endeavor, a humble pair of hand cards (70 TPI will card most wools), or you can kind of make do with two pet brushes like these (although at that point, spend $10 USD more and you have a pair of hand cards, so idk what the point of that is, unless you already have them) is a very good place to start. Load the fiber onto one card, card it until itās uniform, roll it into a rolag, and itās spinnable !
You also have hand combs, which are a lot more expensive than hand cards, but which can process very long fibers and can get out all the vm. Cards donāt remove a lot of vm, so combs is the way to go for super vm-y fleeces. They also produce hand combed top, which spins up into a very compact, strong, and abrasion resistant yarn--great for socks.
Past that are drum carders, which are machines in the way that spinning wheels are machines--manual, but they certainly automate the processing of fiber for you. These can be expensive indeed, but process fiber very quickly and are a great choice if you plan to sell the fiber, if you want to start with raw fleece but havenāt the dexterity to do it by hand (and there are electric drum carders as well--otherwise, you are turning a hand crank), or if you want to process high volumes of fiber because you just go through it that fast.
Honorable mentions include flick carding (both cheaper and slower than hand cards--you work with a couple locks at a time and open them up by flicking them with a tined brush), blending boards (these donāt process raw fiber, but they turn already processed fiber into batts--so you can blend many wools very easily for different textures or colors. These are like painting with wool--so fun !), and willowing (I havenāt tried this one yet, but you lay out your wool and repeatedly hit it with willow branches or other bendy sticks, which opens the fiber and also sends it flying all over the place. It looks very fun, and rather slow, and is also free as long as you can find a willow tree).
This website describes some of those methods (and one I didnāt get to) if youād like to check it out.
Colors to Dye For
Wool takes dye very readily, and you probably come into contact with several natural dye materials every day--onion skins, avocado pit and peel, daffodils, coffee, black tea, thyme, even grass ! You donāt have to be working with fleece to dye it (although dyeing fleece gives you so much color variation and is very fun)--you can also dye roving very easily. Batts, rolags, and top less easily, although itās possible with a lot of care.
For most natural dyes, you need to collect quite a lot of it, and then let it cook overnight on low heat. Boiling (sometimes even simmering) can kill the color, so youāve got to be patient. Crock pots on low or medium are great for this. If you can cook it two days, all the better. Let it sit and cool for at least 12 hours, then strain it. (Tip: you can store natural dyes in jars in cool, dark places for at least a year without any ill effects--so you donāt need to use the dye immediately)
The majority of dyes need something called a mordant (I go into more detail about mordants in this post if youāre interested). There are many mordants, but some easy household ones are alum, baking soda (bicarb), copper (put a few bits of copper pipe in a jug of white wine vinegar, let sit for a few weeks at least before using), or iron (same as copper, but with rusty nails. Use a plastic jug !!! Metal will rust and glass can break). Most people mordant their wool by putting it in their dedicated wool pot with some water, adding the mordant, and letting it cook on low for an hour. Then drain the water and add the dye.
Natural dyes need to cook for a while to set--I usually let them cook overnight at least.
For batts, rolags, and top, you can do something called solar dyeing--carefully mordant your wool as usual, then place it in a jar with the dye, and put the dye outside in the sun. Over time (at least a week--often months, especially if you donāt live somewhere warm and sunny) the heat from the sun will warm the water and dye the wool. You could also try storing the jar somewhere you know will be warm, such as near the stove or fireplace.
You donāt have to use natural dyes either--there are also acid dyes, or food coloring, kool-aid (sugar-free), etc. Iām a lot less familiar with those, so I canāt go on at length. They can be a good choice if you donāt have the time for natural dyes, or if you want to get specific colors and not guess what your wool will turn out as. Look into them if you have any interest !
Dyeing your own wool is immensely satisfying, and can be a very cheap (or free, in the case of many natural dyes if youāve collected or grown them yourself) way of obtaining more color, if you find that you keep ending up with a lot of white wool.
Endless Breeds of Sheep
There are many breeds of sheep on there (not endless, sorry--although there will always be new breeds being developed, so endless in a way !), and they all have different qualities, both in terms of the sheep themselves, and the wool they produce.
Do you want your wool to be very hard wearing ? Down breeds such as Southdown (one of my absolute favorites), Shropshire, or Dorset can be quite durable, and are resistant to felting. You could also go for stronger, coarser wools such as Jacob or Romney--coarser means stronger with wool, and softer tends to mean weaker.
Do you yearn for a softer wool ? Cormo is fantastically soft, as are Rambouillet, Debouillet, and Merino. Many lambswools (meaning the fleece from a lamb--the older a sheep gets, the coarser its wool tends to be) can be softer than their breed standard, so seeking out lambswools even from breeds like Jacob or Rya (both usually strong wools) can lead to soft fleeces.
Of course, there are more considerations than just soft and hard wearing, but thereās pretty much a breed for everything. If youāre interested, āThe Fleece & Fiber Sourcebookā by Carol Ekarius and Deborah Robson is an incredible resource, and covers just about every breed under the sun (with pictures, samples, notes, recommendations, and interesting bits of history), as well as most non-sheep fiber producing animals as well ! Speaking of...
Thereās Not Just Wool
Thereās also many non-sheep fibers, and plant fibers too !
Animals with easily usable fiber include: alpaca, llama, angora rabbits, goats, camels, musk ox, and more ! Their properties are usually different from wool--all of the fibers from the animals above have little to no crimp in their fiber, meaning that they arenāt elastic like wool is. Theyāre also varying degrees of warm (cashmere--the undercoat fibers that come from many different breeds of goats--are extremely warm, but still not as warm as musk ox down), and some are unbelievably soft. If you can, I highly recommend getting a little cashmere, a little camel down, or whatever other exotic fiber strikes your fancy. Theyāre very fun to experiment with, and small amounts can easily be worked into projects to add warmth, drape, or softness.
We canāt forget about silk, either--produced mainly by certain species of silkworms, although most insects undergoing complete metamorphosis produce silk of varying quality as well. Silk is a very interested fiber to spin--but it can also be reeled instead of spun, which is how you can get extremely thin silk pieces without even needing to spin thread-weight yarn.
But in early human history, before we domesticated sheep and bred them to have better wool than they started out with, we spun things like inner tree bark, flax, nettle, and cotton. These all require very different techniques than wool, but most of them can be spun on the same tools (and all but cotton can be hand twisted into cordage instead, if thatās more up your alley). They are also inherently cooling--fabrics made from linen will keep you very cool indeed--so if you live somewhere hot where having wool objects is mostly pointless, donāt despair ! Thereās still stuff for you to spin.
Connect With Others !
Iām about done with this monograph, but thereās a few last things I want to share.
First is the existence of Fiber Festivals--you may or may not have some in your area. Theyāre extremely fun, and you can meet many spinners there. Theyāre also usually a very cheap source of fiber, as prices are often a lot lower at festivals.
Second is the existence of Spinning Guilds--again, you may or may not have one locally, but if you do, you might want to join ! There are also spinning clubs and groups, which might be a little lower-key and more welcoming to beginners.
Then thereās TDF, or Tour De Fleece. You may have heard of the biking tournament called Tour de France which happens in July--well, every year a lot of us spinners do a tournament ourselves, but itās generally not competitive (except on Ravelry--there are teams and points and everything). For the most part, participating in TDF just means setting a spinning goal for yourself from July 1st to July 23rd (the end of the race) and then trying to achieve it. For a lot of people, this means spinning every day. Some set goals like āget through this whole fleece I bought 10 years agoā or āspin a sweaterās worth of yarnā or ālearn how to spin flax, finallyā (thatās what I did last year). Or maybe it is just spinning every day--even if just for 20 minutes. On tumblr you can see otherās work and post your own under the tag #TourDeFleece2023, or #TDF2023 (thereās many variants as well)--weād love to have you !
Lastly, thereās International Spin In Public Day ! To be honest, nobody can really agree on what day that is--allegedly, itās the 3rd Saturday of September. (For me, itās literally every day that I leave my house, but I digress). But Iāve also seen posters for October, for September 10th or earlier, and just generally lots of different dates. Iād say play it safe--if you see someone say itās International Spin in Public Day, go spin in public just in case :D. The purpose of a day like this is to bring spinning back into public knowledge--letās face it, most people in the western world have zero clue how yarn is made, and couldnāt differentiate a spindle from a spatula. This sucks ! Spinning is such a great activity--it can be meditative, calming, fun, exciting, or a background motion to other activities that allows you to actually pay attention (if you have ADHD). And I think a lot more people would spin, and would enjoy it, if only they were exposed to the idea. You certainly donāt have to act as Spinningās public outreach officer, or anything like that... but when people ask what youāre doing, explaining it patiently and encouraging them to look into it does everyone a favor.
In Conclusion
I hope this has been helpful and not too confusing ! Itās really important to note that Iām just one guy--I donāt know everything, and I might not always have the best techniques. Looking for information on spinning from multiple sources is a good way to get a well-rounded understanding, and to correct common misconceptions that you might have already learned. Perhaps more importantly, thereās pretty much an infinite number of ways to do almost every single step Iāve described here, and if the way I showed you--or the video I linked to showed you--isnāt working, donāt despair ! Thereās nothing wrong with you, you probably just need to do it a different way. I must have watched 3 dozen videos of people drop spindling before it finally clicked with me.
I hope Iāve opened up the world of spinning to you at least somewhat ! There are many things I didnāt touch on, and lots of stuff I wish I could talk more about, but at the end of the day I mostly wanted to 1) show you how to make yarn and 2) pique your curiosity about the whole rest of it. If you have questions, Iāll try to answer them (Purple, I will of course answer all your questions and also attempt to mind read your questions before youāve even asked them so that I have a 10 million slide power point done by the time the question is out of your mouth), but check the comments and replies first ! Someone else might have answered it already.
Thanks for reading, and happy spinning !
Fig J: The author holding his old drop spindle, spinning at a doctorās appointment. The spindle now belongs to the friend for which this monstrosity of a tutorial was written ! :D
#spinning#drop spindle#beginner spinning#tutorial#handspinning#handspun yarn#fiber arts#i truly have no idea how to tag this#its over 13k im so sorry#swords i did end up adding tipping to this blog bc of your recommendation thank you !#i cant seem to add tips to posts that i made after tipping was enabled tho. which is very annoying. so its just on all my posts for now#hopefully will fix that later#this did take about a week of writing ! so if anyone#(BESIDES PURPLE FOR SEVERAL OBVIOUS REASONS THIS WAS A GIFT FOR YOU <3)#wants to show some appreciation if it helped you at all#i would be very thankful as i am so goddamn broke lol
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