How Do You Spin When Your Hands are Dry?

I cherish each and every one of my spinning tools, from my smallest spindle to my biggest wheel. But I often overlook my most valuable tools—my hands!

As we trudge through the depths of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, many of us complain of dry hands that snag on silk when we try to spin. Or worse, hands that are too sore to craft. No matter the weather, caring for our hands keeps them healthy and makes the spinning experience more enjoyable.

Scrub and Condition to Prevent Snags

Silk often gets a bad rap as one of the most difficult fibers to spin when your hands are dry. It’s a fine and slippery fiber, yet it catches on everything imaginable, like a spiderweb. Celia Quinn has some excellent tips for caring for your hands while spinning silk on the Treenway Silks website.

There are plenty of scrub recipes out there, but why not make yourself a handspun spa cloth? In addition to being beautiful, it’s washable and reuseable. Follow with your favorite lotion or a bit of olive oil to moisturize your skin.

Spin some bast fibers for a custom exfoliating spa cloth. Photo by Matt Graves

Don’t Forget to Warm Up

Several years ago, I found that my day job was so stressful on my hands that I couldn’t spin or knit at all. Ideally, none of us would ever get to that point, but it does happen!

We all know that good posture is important, but do we think about our posture while spinning? Athletes do warmups, and so should we! Stretching before and after spinning, and keeping good posture throughout will help us keep spinning comfortably. When I first found myself unable to spin due to a repetitive stress injury from work, I wish I’d known about Andrea Lui of the Knitting PT—her posts about stretches just for crafters are especially helpful!

Luckily, I did find these strengthening exercises from Mary Egbert. Combined with the next tip, I was able to get back to spinning again.

Holding a staple length of top over my finger made spinning compacted top a breeze. Photo by Anne Merrow

Take it Easy

We let our bobbins rest, so why not rest our hands? Even when we are spinning, it’s a good idea to relax our hands. If you find yourself gripping your fiber tightly, or feel like you’re fighting your wheel, you’re likely to find that your hands start to hurt after spinning.

Sometimes this means changing how you spin, as Long Thread Media co-founder Anne Merrow discovered. By switching to spinning over the fold during a Tour de Fleece competition, she found that she could spin comfortably for longer, despite feeling out of practice. Try a few new drafts to see what’s most comfortable for your body!

More Resources

• Demers, Carson. “Fiber Blending and Hand Comfort.” Spin Off Winter 2022, 36–40.
  
• Lui, Andrea. “Makers Space: Andrea Lui.” Spin Off Winter 2025, 62-63.
  
• Find Andrea Lui at ptandrea.com.
  
• Taking care of your hands is just the beginning! Learn Sara Lamb’s tips for spinning silk.
  

Pamela K. Schultz is the content editor for Spin Off. She knits, spins, weaves, and gardens in coastal North Carolina.