Winding A Turkish Turtle

Day 186: While I've never had much success at spinning on a bottom-whorl drop spindle, for some reason, using a Turkish-style model has come easily. It has a distinct advantage over the round-whorled types, in that when you are done, you have a ready-made center-pull ball which is easily removed from the spindle by removing the shaft and pulling out the crossarms. As you can see by using the pencil for comparison, I am spinning a fine single here, and winding it on in the "god's-eye" manner known as a turtle. Forming a well-made Turkish turtle is a skill all of its very own! The spun yarn passes under one arm, over two, laying closely beside itself on both top and bottom. For me at least, effecting this takes almost as much time (or perhaps more) than spinning the length of yarn, and while my technique still leaves something to be desired, it's much better than it was on my first attempts. Two such turtles will eventually be used to form a double-ply strand. It should be noted that the turtle can also be called a cop, and you should be relieved that I have spared you all the possible "good cop, bad cop" humour, at least for now.