I found really good instructions on how to use the top spindle from youtube and finally got the hang of it. Of course I dont look very expert – but the job gets done.
Am currently using twisted.etsy.com ’s rodney colorway roving that I got way back in spring of 2008 and am practicing handspun yarn. Its very “artsy”:)
will post pictures of the unevenly wound first attempts once I crochet it into something.
My mother will be ever so amused when I tell her I can finally use a spindle (she is quite the expert [at least in my eyes] – even now when she can barely see, her fingers are nimble – - spinner of khadi cotton yarn on her ancient charkha used when she and my father moved with Gandhi followers way back when…). 
