Make a little bit of string by hand and tie that to the spindle, if there is a disk at the top as in the hard-drive-disk-spindle you tie to the top of the stick just below the disk and go around the disk and wind twice around the hook or tie to the hook with one half hitch, or tie with a half hitch to the bit of stick sticking out above the weight, if the weight is at the bottom of the spindle, tie the start of your string just above the weight and give an other half hitch near the top of the stick.
For beginners I would advice to make a spindle with a hook at the very top.

Now you spin the dropspindle, like you would start a little spinning top. In your one hand you hold the stuf to be spun, with the other hand you alternate spinning the spindle and pulling material to be spun from your hand.
You keep on doing this till your hands are rather high up in the air and your spindle is hitting the ground. Then you stop, untie your halfhitch, roll your new string on the stick as near the weight as posible and tie on again.

With wool you pull some fibers at a time, and before they run out you pull the next few, it happens almost by itself. But if you pull to hard, or the fibers are a little unruly, you may end with just the end of your wool, just pull some new fibers and hold them against the string and they will stick.

With materials like plastic you need to find a way to keep your unspun materials in your hand so they do not knot and when adding a new bit you may need to pinch the old and new bits together till they do hold or you may need to stop the process till you have glued or melted them together or tied a knot.

Willeke

Klarh, if you use a variable speed drill you won't have to worry about things spinning out of control much at all. I used an old single speed drill and plugged  it into to a box containing an outlet and an old light dimmer switch with some salvaged power cords and wire nuts for hookups. This is frankly a terrible way to control motor speed but it's field expedient and it worked well enough. No doubt one of our safety minded readers will school me on this one. 

It's worth a few disasters to learn spinning bags with a drill. You will save a LOT of time.

FYI - If you can figure out how to braid a sling out of cordage you made for yourself out of shopping bags, you can learn knots. Seriously, very few people have done what you did. Don't sell yourself short! There's really only a handfull of knots that you absolutely need to know (IMHO). but when you get those down you'll want to know more. You can do some really cool things with a simple rope and a few good knots.

That was hilarious, Funslinger    We, as a community, could no doubt make that movie and teach the world the evils of Dr. Windknot.

i have, it was made by twisting two 6 inch strips of plastic bag, the tin kind. i didn't use it, but it looked like it would work.