Winding an Instagram-Worthy Turkish Cop

Welcome to another installment of “posts I wish I had when I was learning how to do stuff.”

These are the current top posts on Instagram when I searched #turkishspindle this morning (click on it for the updated feed!). What the in-progress projects here all have in common is that gorgeous God’s Eye cop (for those of you who aren’t spinners yet, a cop is the yarn stored on the spindle). What’s better is these turtles (specifically what we call these cops from Turkish spindles, more often when they are no longer on the spindle, because of their shape!) form a center-pull ball. It’s possible to ply straight from these!

Pictures like these are the reason why I wanted to get into Turkish spindles in the first place. So I dove a lot of places and was able to piece together the technique I use today:

Not too bad, huh? Without further ado, here are my tips on how to get a beautiful God’s Eye cop:

• The basic pattern is over two legs, under one leg.
• Start from the inside, closest to the shaft, and line up each following wrap to be just outside the previous wrap.
• Continue in this manner until it becomes tricky to bring the yarn up from underneath the spindle (there’s a bit of a pull).
• Start again from the shaft and continue to cover the rounds now beneath your wraps.
• This time, continue until you’ve completely covered the previous round and then some. The goal is a wide turtle, not a tall turtle.

If you’re saying “Well Emma, that’s all well and good, but it’s hard for me to imagine this. I have to see it.” Well, I got you covered! I created another technique video as well:

Happy Spinning! Be sure to post your beautiful cops and tag them with #fiberadventures!