Another Question to Explore

I've been spinning up the merino/silk and alpaca/silk roving that I purchased at Pennsic this year. I love them both, and I am looking forward to having enough yarn spun to make something beautiful. Which got me thinking.

I am using my "moosie," a modern top whorl, rim-weighted spindle (made of moose antler) to spin this yarn. I fill the shaft with as much yarn as will comfortably fit without reducing the efficiency of my spinning - about 155 meters. I am spinning at 10 wraps/cm, the optimum size for this spindle. I will knit with this yarn.

Here is what I have spun so far. The spindle is full and ready to be plied. While it may look like there is more room on the spindle, at this point the weight is such that it is difficult to keep a consistent thread size (81 g vs 36 g when empty), and if winding the cop is not done carefully, the thread tends to slip while spinning.

If I were spinning with one of my Ribe reproduction spindles (a lighter weight and longer shaft), how many meters would comfortably fit on the spindle? Assuming I will spin to weave, how many spindles-ful will I need to make a useful piece of cloth, say .5 meter x 5 meters with a sett of 10/12 ends/cm? (Two spindles-ful from the moosie would make a piece approximately 10 cm x 20 cm.) And while I am at it, how long will it take me to spin that much?