Handspinners can use a drop spindle or a spinning wheel to create yarn from unspun fibers such as wool fleece, hair from goats/dogs/llamas/alpacas, cotton bolls, or flax stems. Though these tools look very different from each other, they both perform the same function: they twist fibers around each other into a yarn. The yarn might be very fine, like sewing thread, or it might be very thick. It can be a single-ply yarn, called singles, or it can incorporate multiple plies. But no matter what kind of yarn a handspinner makes, twist holds the individual fibers together.
Once humans discovered how to twist animal and plant fibers into yarn, they began making cloth from that yarn. It's much easier to weave, knit, or crochet with yarn as opposed to a handful of untwisted fibers. And the resulting fabric will hold up better under daily use.
Drop Spindles
People started using drop spindles in prehistoric times, because a spindle is really easy to make and use. A long thin shaft goes through a round weighted part, called the whorl. The spinner feeds unspun fiber from one hand and spins the spindle with the other.
To begin making yarn, the spinner drafts some fiber—that is, pulls out a little fiber from the fiber supply. When the spinner sets the spindle rotating, twist builds up in the drafted fiber. When the yarn has enough twist, the spinner wraps it around the shaft and drafts again. When the spinner has made enough yarn and wrapped it into a cone-shaped mass around the shaft (in what's called a cop), the yarn can be removed.




- Spindles are much less expensive, much more portable, and much smaller in size, but they generally make yarn more slowly. You can spin yarn of any diameter, though it may be a challenge to spin highly textured or art yarns.
- Spinning wheels are available in a variety of materials, at a variety of price points and sizes. You can spin yarn of any diameter, and you can probably make it faster on a wheel. Wheels with flyers and bobbins excel at textured yarns and art yarns, especially if the wheel uses Scotch or Irish (bobbin lead) tension.
Resources
Beginning Spinning on a Wheel, online course taught by Stephanie Flynn.
Beyond Your Default Spin-along, free online course taught by Stephanie Flynn.
A Beginner's Guide to Spinning on a Drop Spindle