I promised last week that I’d show you the secret to winding all fancy-like on a turkish spindle. We used to make God’s Eyes in this pattern when I was a kid at camp. It was impressive even with coarse acryllic yarn wound around crossed popsicle sticks, and taking it to my big girl craftland with handspun wool around the beautiful wood arms of a turkish is nothing less than Crafty Enlightenment and Trancendence. Since much of the joy of spindling comes from the tactile and visual sensations you create with the colors and textures of fiber becoming yarn, this is the height of happy happy spinning joy. You get to spin it, then lovingly arrange it and admire it along the way.
Using this method you can put the maximum amount of fiber on your turkish and it stays nice and stable with a perfectly balanced cop.
Here’s the amazingly easy process:
Step One: Wrap your singles under one arm, over two arms, as shown. Note that you’re starting as close to the shaft as possible, always wrapping as far as possible to the right of the space between the two arms you’re wrapping into.
Step Two: Remembering the standard turkish wind on is always under one, over two, repeat as shown.
Steps 3 and 4: Repeat the above wraps two more times to complete the pattern as shown:
Final Step: continue building your cop by repeating the above steps, laying each subsequent wrap just to the left of the one before it, building out from the center shaft.
When you complete a layer by filling up the space between the arms with wraps, you’ll start again at the shaft as in step one – putting on layer after layer of singles on top of one another.
Building layer after layer,
One on top of the other…
Until your cop begins to resemble a little turtle shell:
When you’ve filled the spindle to your satisfaction, you can slip the shaft out, then the arms, (skinny arm first) to get a cute little center pull ball. Ingenious!
Crafty Goodness for grown up campers!
Would you consider doing a spinning tutorial on a Turkish spindle? I was gifted one in a swap and I have yet to figure it out properly.
Hi Amy! Check out the previous post, Whirling Dervishes, which talks about what’s different about Turkish spindles compared to a regular drop spindle. It covers how to start the fiber and how to secure it. Otherwise, using a Turkish is the same as other drop spindles. Have fun playing with it! 🙂
Try the “park and draft” method. There are videos on youtube.
Oh, I want to try this! I am just learning to spin and it is a real challenge.
It’s challenging at first, but so fun and rewarding to see your own improvement! Keep practicing, Dianne!
I’m not able to keep count of the wraps, I can’t get it to work
Sorry to hear it’s giving you trouble, Paul. I think it’s something that comes with practice…
I’ve got it now. The numbers in the picture was confusing me. It was the same thing I was doing, you just lay each strand next to one another.
Thank you for the tutorial and annotated pictures. My cops are now lovely too!
Forgot to ask what fiber you were using, it looks lovely. I have also become a big fan of the Jenkins spindles.
You’re so welcome, Cathy. Aren’t pretty cops fun? 🙂 The fiber I was using was merino yumminess from Wonderland Dyeworks
This is lovely! I however have just your old standard homemade spindle, not turkish. Could you make a post on how to wrap on a regular spindle? I’ve seen some fancy looking wraps on them, but have not clue how to! I’ve attempted to imitate but clearly don’t know what i’m doing lol 🙂 Thanks! Just recently discovered your blog and now it’s bookmarked 🙂
Hi Shena! I don’t do any fancy wraps on my regular drop spindles. I normally just randomly wrap! I’ll be on the lookout for fancy ones now. Thanks for the idea! ?
Thank you!! I am a beginner at the spindle. Are you spinning “Z” here or “S” and does it matter? Would the wind direction always be the same way. I always get confused when I need to wind on as to which direction to turn the spindle. Thanks…..
Hi Karen, I was spinning those singles “Z”. Hope that helps! 🙂