The Shriveled Whorl Turns

  the sticky details

Temporary whorls of potatoes or dried fruit for lightweight spindles are mentioned from time to time. Usually they show up associated with really light spindle sticks.

When you begin to spin with a really lightweight spindle stick, it doesn't revolve very long with a flick; you work really really hard to make enough twist. A simple, fast, removable fix is to put something heavy at the bottom that will add temporary weight that you pull off as the yarn you make gets heavy enough to add more weight to the stick.

Potatoes

Raw potatoes are better than cooked potatoes, especially in mashed potato form, though deep-fried crispy spheres might work. A raw round potato works best; weight  30 grams (one ounce) or less.  Over-weight potatoes can be down-sized with a knife and offer opportunities to try out different whorl profiles as well.
Details on weights below:
Potato: Red, fresh: 30.2 grams, 1 3/4" diameter; 1 3/4" height
Andean Spindle stick shaft: 5.8 grams
Andean wooden whorl: 6.4 grams
Total weight, stick+wood whorl+red potato=  42.4 grams

Inserting whorl on the spindle stick was a bit, well, juicy.  I started with a thin skewer puncture and followed by jamming the potato whorl on the bottom of the spindle.  It spun pretty well; just a bit unbalanced, but not as bad as the 40.9 grams ovoid potato, which felt like it was limping as it revolved.  Also too heavy for my taste.

How long can you use a potato whorl?  

Growth and Shriveledge is a problem.

Potatoes shrivel at room temperature, when punctured.  The 30.2 gram potato weighed 23 grams after whorled for 3 weeks or so.













The main problem was that both potatoes began growing sprouts, which gave strange rotational quirks as they increased in size and interfered with whorl location on the stick.

Other dried root vegetables would probably work.

Dried Fruit Whorls

The type of dried fruit selected has to have a round profile either spherical or discoid.  The two I selected were Dried Figs and Dried Apricots. Dried fruits definitely leave a sticky residue on the bottom of the spindle stick.  Doesn't bode well for the future cleanliness of the spindle stick.

Dried Fig was squeezed into round shape; it weighed 26.8 grams - nice weight but a bit bumpy in rotation; the stem didn't help.

Dried Sulfured Apricots were discoid shaped.

 I squeezed them more ovoid and stacked two together.  I ate part of the third one, which made it half-moon shaped so I couldn't use it.  The two dried apricots weighed 8.4 grams and 10.0 grams for a total of 18.4 grams.  I shouldn't have eaten the third apricot.

Spun quite well, but was the stickiest of all the temporary whorls.

Should you eat a temporary whorl?

They get a fibery coating and pick up dirt and dust.  Not sanitary at all.  I heartily recommend not eating them after they convert to whorls. They can only be compost after time spent as whorls. For a totally compostable spindle and whorl, perhaps experiments with celery sticks and apricots.  I haven't gotten that far yet.

Is this a joke, or can you learn something from doing this?

The truth is, especially with something you can carve into different shapes and weights, a lot can be learned about what weight works best as you fill up a spindle to capacity with yarn.  When to remove the whorl; what shapes/weights revolve best for the fiber length and spin you are working with; when you have enough yarn weight to remove a whorl entirely and continue spinning with a 'yarn whorl'.  Messing about changing the whorls' weights also gave me insight into the Goodness of a very light spindle.  It means more yarn can be piled on before it becomes way too heavy.  For me that usually is 3 ounces suspended. If I 'cheat' at the end and start using it supported, then at least another ounce can be added if I have a spindle stick long enough to absorb it.