Take a seat. Find a comfy spot, make sure your feet touch the ground, and be sure that you have room between your legs to drop your spindle and spin your yarn.

Tied to the shaft, just below the whorl of your spindle is a 12-18 inch length of handspun yarn. This is your leader, the length of yarn that starts it all. Wind this yarn around the shaft a few times, take it up over the whorl, and wind it around the hook twice. Now your spindle should dangle from 4 to 6 inches of yarn. Hold the shaft of your spindle between your knees and pull off a 3 to 4 inch piece of roving. Pre-draft this fiber by gently stretching it out a little and making one end come to a point. Overlap this point with about two inches of your leader yarn and pinch the top with your "pinching hand." Let go with your knees, let your spindle dangle down, and give it a clockwise spin. Watch your fuzz get twisted into your leader yarn. Now, stop the spinning and hold the shaft between your knees. Stretch out some more fiber, slide your pinching hand up a little, pinch, draft out some fiber, slide, and pinch. Keep pinching with your left hand, let go with your knees, let your spindle dangle down, and give it another clockwise turn with your right hand. You can pinch, stretch, and slide while it is spinning, or you could just store up some twist, park it between your knees again, and pinch, stretch and slide with it there. You've made some yarn!!!

When your yarn is so long that your spindle touches the ground or it is hard to reach it and spin, wind it around the shaft while keeping some tension on it so that it doesn't twist back on itself and get tangled. Then take it up over the whorl and wind it around the hook again. Keeping your spindle spinning clockwise, pinch, stretch, and slide some more. When your piece of roving gets too small, grab some more, stretch it into a point, overlap it with what you have on your spindle, and keep on going.

That's it! You're a spinner!!

Now you can try standing up so that you can spin a longer piece at one time. When you need to take a break, wind your yarn around the shaft, then around the hook several times, set your spindle down in a safe place, and walk away. It will be ready when you come back.

When you run out of fluff, or your spindle is too full, it's time to ply your yarn!