Setting the Twist

After yarn has been spun you need to distribute and balance the twist in the yarn. The simplest way to set the twist is to soak the yarn in warm water. Here are the notes that I've collected on setting the twist:

Wash
--Fill a sink or bucket with warm to hot water and add ph neutral dish detergent (Dawn or baby shampoo).
--Immerse skein and soak for 15 to 20 minutes.
--Press the soapy water out of the skein gently but don't twist or agitate.
--Fill sink again with warm to hot water, adding distilled white vinegar (about a "glug") and soak again.
--Fill sink again and rinse again.
--Gently squeeze out excess water by wrapping the skein in an old towel.
--Snap the skein between your hands to even out the twist and straighten the strands.

Dry
--Singles will still be kinky and curly. Hang skein up to dry and put a weight on it (spray bottle filled with enough water, not too much weight, works well)
--Plied should hang nicely (be balanced) after snapping -- hang without weight.

Admire!
I don't know if these first spinning attempts will be useful for anything other than samples (not not mention, there isn't a lot of it!) but I hope I can conjure up a cute little something to make.

Niddy Noddy

A niddy noddy is a tool used to make skeins from yarn. Skeining is required for both singles and plied yarns in order to set the twist and efficiently manage the yarn if dying it. You can skein yarn around a chair or your arm but using a niddy noddy is one of the handiest tools a spinner and dyer can own.

Here are my notes on how to wind skeins on a Niddy-noddy:
1) Wrap the yarn around each arm of the niddy-noddy without crisscrossing the strands
2) Tie a length of scrap yarn to bridge the gap between the ends
3) Make 4 ties -- one on each side -- and cross the scrap yarn through the skein in the shape of a figure 8. Knot to secure (but not so tight as to create a resist)

My brother-in-law Ray made this very special niddy noddy for me. By listening to my description of what it needs to do and looking at pictures of commercial niddy noddy's, he came up with this ingenious design which incorporates every feature you want in a niddy noddy!

It's made of wood and there are two different sized central bars that can be used. The large central bar measures 77" for one wrap and the small central bar measures 43" for one wrap AND when you pull out one of the end pins out the cross bar drops 1/2" and allows you to easily remove your skein!!!


♥ Thank you Ray! ♥ -- This is something special.

First Spinning Attempts

After the spindle and I decided to take a break from each other, I took a spinning wheel class at Iron Horse Farms. Ahhhh, this is more like it! The spinning wheel and I are kindred spirits.

Here are my first attempts before setting the twist. They are all single ply except for #4 which is a small sample from the plying lesson done during the spinning class.

The details:
#1 Is the yarn I spun using a top-whorl spindle. The roving was given to me by the seller of the spindle and I don't know what kind of wool it is. My first spindle spinning was so bad that I also have a mangled ball of fiber and semi-spun yarn. Maybe I can comb it out and try again? I'll have to research that.

#2 Oh my! This is my very first batch fresh off the bobbin. Seriously, seriously, seriously over spun! The roving was supplied from the spinning class and I don't remember what kind it is. My problem is that I can't draft the fiber as fast as I'm spinning the wheel. It's what to work on.

#3 My second batch of spinning. Looking better! but still over spun. This is 100% Shetland.

#4 The plied sample from class. Since this is the work of my very first wheel spinning and plying .... I LOVE IT! My very own "Designer" yarn. While over spun and under spun, both in the plies and in the plying, it's my first and that's always special.

#5 My third batch of spinning. This was also some sample fiber provided from the spinning class and is a mix of llama and some other wool. While still over spun, this yarn is my most consistent yet. I also found it easier to spin but I don't know if that's about the fiber or experience!

Sally

The spinning wheel that I am learning on is an "Ashford Traveller" and it is on loan from Framingham State College. Sally (I have no idea if she has another given name but Sally is the one she'll be going by this summer!) was a little run down from long periods of inactivity and years of teaching many different students so I took her in to Debbie at Iron Horse Farm for a check-up. Her joints are beginning to separate due to dry wood (she needs to be polished regularly) and the threads on the drive band tension knob had been stripped and needed to be rescored but that was the worst of it. Oiling, tightening nuts and bolts, replacing the whorl tension spring and placing a tack between the drive band knob and wood table took care of the rest of it. Sally is a sturdy and functioning spinning wheel.

I'm ready to learn to spin!

This is the best video I found for wheel spinning:
Spin Worsted-style - The Short Draw

Spindle Spinning

All the books and websites I read recommend that you start learning how to spin by using a drop spindle. Drop spindles have a number of advantages-- they are: 1) Low tech. You don't need a manual to learn how to operate them. 2) Low cost. Spindles can be bought or handmade cheaply. 3) Easily portable. You can toss a spindle and some fiber in your work bag along with your knitting and crocheting.


These are the videos I found most useful for spindle spinning:
Introduction to spinning, Part 1 (Abby Yarns)
Introduction to spinning, Part 2(Abby Yarns)
How To Spin Yarn With a Drop Spindle

So I took the advice and started learning how to use a drop spindle. I tried both the low whorl spindle and the high whorl spindle but I never got out of "park and draft". I spun some yarn but most of it was useless. The drop spindle and I are not friends but we have not given up entirely that a relationship can be developed. Currently we have an agreement that I "go have an extended visit with the spinning wheel and then come back to see if we're compatible".

There are a few reasons why the relationship didn't get off on a good foot. One reason is that I didn't care for the manipulation of a low whorl spindle and my high whorl spindle may be too light for a beginner. Also, I could have given the spindle a little more practice and patience. However, I think the real reason the spindle and I didn't get off to a good start is that I'm a gadget/machine person and I just really, really, really wanted to start playing with the spinning wheel!

Getting Started

I am a huge believer in reading everything I can get my hands on whenever I start a new project. Along with the how-to's, I enjoy reading about the practices and opinions of people doing the craft. I like reading what experts have to say and the tricks that years of experience have taught them. I also like reading what crafter's just starting to learn have done to achieve their "aha--now I get it" moment. Here's a list of the books and websites I used to get started with spinning and dyeing yarn.

Books:

Spinning and Dyeing the Natural Way By Ruth Castino

Spinning Designer Yarns By Diane Varney

Start Spinning: Everything You Need to Know to Make Great Yarn by Maggie Casey

Spinning in the Old Way: How (and Why) To Make Your Own Yarn With A High-Whorl Handspindle by Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts

Spin to Knit: The Knitter's Guide to Making Yarn by Shannon Okey

Yarns to Dye For: Creating Self-patterning Knitting Yarns by Kathleen Taylor

The Yarn Lover's Guide to Hand Dyeing: Beautiful Color and Simple Knits by Linda LaBelle

Creating Knitwear Designs (Guild of Master Craftsman) by Pat Ashforth and Steve Plummer

Websites:

Fiber Arts Video

ICanSpin.com

Abby's Yarns

The Joy of Handspinning

Social Networking

Ravelry

Ravelry is about the only social networking I use for fiber/needle arts and I found several useful groups for spinning:
Spinner Central
Beginning Spinners
Spindlers

Capstone Experience

The Liberal Studies Program at Framingham State College requires an interdisciplinary research paper or project known as a Capstone Experience. This paper or project is chosen from one or both of the two areas of academic concentration required for a Liberal Studies degree.

Here is the written proposal for my directed study:

Objective of course:
The student intends to explore how yarns were spun and dyed in historical, pre-industrial settings. At present, a number of crafters and hobbyists use non-mechanized, labor-intensive techniques to produce such yarns. Starting with pre-carded fiber, the student intends to carry out the various steps required to produce yarn, and then to use the resulting yarn in the original design and construction of a garment

Description of proposed study:
Spinning:

The student plans to learn how to use drop spindles and spinning wheels to convert fiber roving into both simple yarn and plied yarn that would be suitable for knitting or crocheting by hand. Yarn will be produced in quantities sufficient for both the dyeing experiments and the garment design project.

Dyeing:

Space-dyeing is the name of a technique for producing multicolored yarns, wherein the pattern of color that results is adjusted by varying the lengths of the segments of yarn that are dyed in each of the chosen colors. The student plans to research how the method of dyeing affects the resulting pattern. Space-dyed yarn will be produced in quantities sufficient for the garment design project.

Design and Construction

A garment will be designed and constructed that highlights the characteristics of hand-produced spun and dyed yarns.

So that's what I'll be working on for the rest of this year. I thought I'd throw in a computer element by blogging about my adventures and experiences ..... Yarn-on!