All the other questions are personal preferences. You use whatever fiber you want to use and buy a spindle accordingly. I do not recommend merino if you decide to start with wool, but that is my suggestion.
Learn the spinning first then focus on plying and the other stuff. You’ll see the info on the resource post. There’s a lot to learn.
Jenelle, here’s some advice I gave someone else recently about spindles:
If you think you’ll be spindling for a while, I would recommend starting with a good spindle vs. a kit spindle – after a few weeks on the kit one you’ll more than likely want to graduate to a different one! There are several that are good but still very affordable – the Schacht Hi-Lo spindles are $16 and come in three weights; Cascade has a great little spindle that’s $20 (the Little Si) and Greensleeves has a “bare bones” spindle that’s supposed to be really nice, only $15.
I really, really think it’s worth the extra $5 to get a decent spindle vs. a kit.
I got my spindle and 6oz of merino today. :cheering:
Thank you for all the links Lily! Those really did help.
Julie- I bought a spindle today that was hand crafted for a yarn shop about 20 minutes away. One of the workers told me that I could either choose for it to be a top or bottom whirl, which I tried both and I’m thinking that I like top-whirls better than bottom. I’m not really liking this merino either. That’s all they had besides silk and some other funky type of fiber.
But, after all the frustration and aggravation with it, I have two little 10 yard skeins sitting next to me. Very unique and cute. :teehee: I’ll try and get pictures sometime soon. I might try dyeing some of it and spinning again sometime soon.