Nov
29
In our previous episodes of this step-by-step guide to drop spindle spinning, Rosee Woodland went through the different types of yarn you can choose to spin with and through the steps of actually beginning to spin. This time we will look at how to deal with potential problems with your spinning.
Potential problems
Is your yarn too fine? It is actually easier to spin an even fine yarn than an even thick yarn, so many spinners find their first yarns are very fine, even laceweight.
The downside is that if you are still drafting fairly unevenly, you may end up with yarn that is the thickness of a hair, which will then break.
To reconnect the yarn and continue spinning, first draft out a small amount of fibre, and pinch it at its very end, with the broken yarn. Add twist, moving your finger and thumb up the new fibre to smooth out the join.
If your yarn breaks constantly, you may simply be underspinning. If this isn’t the case, consider using a lighter spindle, or a fibre with a longer staple, until you are more experienced.
Is your yarn too thick? Do you feel like you aren’t in control of the process, and the twist is running up the fibre faster than you can draft? If so, you either need to spin slower or, more likely, pre-draft your fibre a little thinner.
As you get more experienced at drafting you will be able to use thicker pieces of fibre, but for now, use fairly thin pieces. Drafting on the go will get easier with practice.
Winding off your yarn
You will eventually reach a point where the spindle is too full of yarn. Use a pencil to punch a hole into both long sides of a shoebox and feed the spindle between them. You will find that you can now pull yarn off quite easily and wind it into a skein, using either a niddy noddy, the back of a chair, or someone with two free hands! Tie the skein at four points with contrasting yarn before removing it.
If keeping it as singles, to set the twist, soak the skein in warm water for 15 minutes, roll it gently in a towel to remove moisture and then leave it to hang to dry. Weighting one end with a tin can while it dries will give a more even twist.
Plying
To ply your singles, put your leader yarn onto your spindle and then either spin in, or tie on, two singles. You will not need to draft the singles, but you should try to feed them both at a moderate speed through your finger and thumb as you spin your spindle counter-clockwise (S twist). You can then wind off your plied yarn and set the twist by soaking and weighting, in the same way you did with your singles.
Practice makes perfect
The best way to improve is to spin daily. Contact the Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers for your nearest spinning group via www.wsd.org.uk and get practising!
About our expert
Rosee Woodland is deputy editor of The Knitter and a craft tutor and knitwear designer. She was a founder member of SpinDyeWeavers in 2009, a collective of Bristol knitters who work together to explore textile crafts.
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