Here’s one good way to start winding yarn onto a low whorl or bottom whorl spindle, shown with a dowel-and-a-drawer-pull make-it-yourself spindle: With spindle on its side so it’s easy to control, just wrap the end of your yarn or leader around it in one direction: Go several wraps up, tightly. You can hold the […]

One of the questions I hear often these days is “I have a spindle with no hook or notch to hold the yarn — how do I work this half-hitch thing I’ve heard about?” I grew up spinning this way, on Peruvian low whorl spindles which are as simple a spindle as you can get: […]