Script for
Episode 141:
How to Keep Track of Your Spindles
I've never actually caught them in the act, but I am convinced that spindles breed in captivity. One day, you buy a spindle. Then you buy another. Then, somehow, before you know it and without even trying, you have a spindle collection. Clearly there is magical spindle hanky-panky going on when I'm not looking.
Hello there, darling Sheepspotter! Welcome to Episode 141 of The Sheepspot Podcast. I'm Sasha, and my job is to help you make more yarns you love. In today's episode, I'm going to share why and exactly how I keep track of my spindles.
I'm not much of a spindle spinner myself, but I love spindles. I think they are beautiful, and I find them pretty irresistible just as objects. Plus they are so small and easy to pack. Why not throw a couple in your bag?
The result of this devil-may-care attitude is that I have a tendency to buy spindles that are very similar to each other, like my two birds-eye maple Bosworths, purchased more than a decade apart. I adore birds-eye maple, which explains how I acquired the first one. But by the time I bought the second I had completely forgotten that I had the first. So to prevent this, I created a spindle tracker. It's a table in a Google doc, so it lives in the cloud and I can access it from anywhere. So the next time I'm in the Bosworth booth and I'm tempted to by a third birds-eye maple spindle, I can only hope that I will consult the tracker, if I'm not too drunk on the wool fumes.
I'm going to tell you what information I track and why, so you can easily create your own, but why reinvent the wheel? I've created a downloadable PDF of my tracker if you'd like one for your very own. It will be in the freebies section of The Flock, Sheepspot's free online community for inquisitive handspinners, along with all of the other freebies I've created for the podcast, and there will be a link to it in the show notes.
My table has 8 columns. The first is for the maker and type of spindle, so, for example "Bosworth Midi" or "Cascade St. Helens," or "Greensleeves Ethan Jakob." In the second column, I list where I bought the spindle and how much I paid for it.
The next column is for the type: top whorl, bottom whorl, Turkish, suspended, etc. Then I list the weight. As an American living in Canada, I'm fluent in both metric and imperial, so I list both, but that's because I'm extra. I tend to sort the table by this column so that spindles of similar weight will be next to each other, for reasons I’ll discuss in a moment.
The next column is for information about the whorl (or, in the case of a Turkish spindle, the arms). I list the material, the shape, diameter, whether the whorl is notched, and, if it is, for the notch position. I think of the spindle as a clock face where the open side of the hook is 12 o’clock, and I describe the notch position relative to that. Most often the notch is at 6 o'clock, directly opposite the hook, but not always.
Then, in the next column, I record whether the spindle has a hook, and if so what shape the hook is: is it a shepherd's crook, a diamond, a pigtail, or a simple j-shape.
In the penultimate column I list information about the length, shape and material of the shaft. For example, the shaft on my Jenkins Turkish Delight spindle is made of bamboo, it's 4 7/8” long, and it's tapered.
The last column is for notes. This is where I would record any quirks about the spindle that I discover when using it, and any notes about damage and repairs.
Creating this list is tedious the first time through, especially if you have a lot of spindles, but I've found it really useful in a few different situations.
as we've already discussed, it prevents duplicate purchases (unless I'm actually trying to buy multiple similar spindles) in cases of spindle disaster--a drop spindle living up to its name and landing right smack on its hook and bending it, for example--I have a record of the correct shape and orientation of the hook.
Because I sort the table by weight, I can easily see which of my spindles I can use together in making a project. For example, looking at my chart, I can see at a glance that I have two top whorl spindles that are about the same weight, so I can spin onto each of them before making my plying ball. Having this list allows me to identify gaps in weights or spindle types, to guide future buying decisions the list will tell you if there are particular woods you're drawn to the list provides a handy place to make a note if you've loaned out a spindle, and to whom
Be sure to download the free PDF if you'd like to start keeping track of your spindles in this way. You can use it as is, or you can use it as reference in creating your own system. You'll find it in the "podcast freebies" section of The Flock, where you'll also find a dedicated discussion thread where you can comment on this episode and discuss it with me and other listeners. The links to that thread, as well as to the freebie, are in the show notes for this episode, which you'll find right inside your podcast app.
Darling Sheepspotter, that's it for me this week. Thank you so much for listening. This is our last episode for January. For February, we're going to hang out in the fiber pillar of the Pillars of Skillful Spinning™ and we'll be focusing on the wonderful world of wool all month long. While you're waiting for February and the new episode to come around, give yourself the gift of spinning something! I know it will do you good.