Twist

Twist is inserted when one end of a string is rotated relative to the other end of the string.

The string is tied to a spindle, the spindle goes round, the spinner holds the other end of the string, and twist is inserted.

String is tied to the spindle on a great wheel, the wheel/spindle goes round, the spinner holds other end, and twist is inserted. A bobbin on the spindle makes no difference.  If the string is tied to the bobbin, the bobbin goes round and twist is inserted when the spinner holds the other end.

On a flyer/ bobbin assembly, the string is tied to the bobbin.  When the spinner holds one end of the string, then twist is inserted when the bobbin goes round.  The flyer is not tied to the string. The flyer cannot insert twist unless the bobbin rotates.  The bobbin and flyer may rotate together, but it is the bobbin that is fixed to the end of the string; and therefor,

it is the bobbin that inserts twist.  

If the flyer rotates, but the bobbin does not, then string is wound onto the bobbin, but no net twist is inserted. If the bobbin rotates but the flier does not, then twist will be inserted, at the rate of one twist per effective circumference of the bobbin.  One twist per per effective circumference of the bobbin is not likely enough twist to make a competent yarn.  It may not be enough to even hold a soft roving together.

Confusion comes when the rotation of the flyer causes the bobbin to rotate (via yarn lock.)  In this case, the flyer drives the rotation of the bobbin, but it is the rotation of the end of the string tied to the bobbin that causes the insertion of the twist. The flier is not fixed to either end of the string, and therefore does not rotate either end of the string.  If the flier does not rotate either end of the string, then it does not insert twist!

One end of the string is held by the spinner, and the other end of the string is tied to the bobbin.   Only rotation of the bobbin or rotation of the spinner (or the counter rotation of both) can insert net twist.

Twist is the essence of spinning.  If one does not understand twist, then one does not understand spinning.

Skeins

Spinners produce skeins so the yarn can be easily judged. In the past, skeins allowed the factors and weavers to judge the quality of the yarn that a spinner was producing.  However, what really matters is the appearance and function of  the fabric(s) produced from the yarn.

Judging a skein of yarn in the skein at a show is like judging a hunting dog or a sheep dog in a show ring.  The only way to really judge such dogs is to watch them hunt or work sheep.  Judged in the ring, you are likely to come up with a "champion" sheep dog that is pretty, but can't work sheep.  And, a sheep dog that cannot work sheep is not a sheep dog, it is just a pet.

Yarn must be judged by how it performs in a fabric, and the intended use of the fabric must be known. Yarn for a sweater is different from yarn for gloves.  And, yarn for matching sweater and gloves is another set of compromises depending on how the outfit will be used.  No! that is the mind set of a knitter using commercial yarn.  A hand spinner can make soft sweater yarn, and durable glove yarns that match.

I have been sampling yarn for gloves.  The soft yarn's do not wear well at the finger tips. The yarns that wear well at the fingertips, tend to feel harsh at the cuff. Certainly it is also an issue with socks, but it is more an issue with gloves.  This brings up the idea of spinning different, but matching yarns for cuffs and  areas of high wear.

Mostly transitions from one fiber type to another are visible where the transition is abrupt.  However, the hand spinner can make such transitions gradual and very much less apparent.  That is, suppose it is desired to put more Romney in the fiber blend over the heel and toes of a sock to increase durability. The hand spinner can change the blend over a length of  the yarn that will result in a inch of knitting, so that in the finished object, the transition from one fiber blend to another is not noticeable.  In a skein, that transition from one fiber blend to another would look like crap.   In the finished object it looks like magic. It is a touch of true craftsmanship.

The math of spinning for weaving

One of the things that I have been persistently ridiculed over is my search for ways to spin faster.

However, lets think about hand woven cloth form hand spun yarn.  A garment weight cloth is 10 or 12 ounces per yard, and a traditional English bolt of cloth is 12 yards, or 144 oz or 9 pounds. If the yarn is 10s (5,600 ypp) then a bolt cloth will contain 90 hanks or ~50,000 yards.

With a wheel ratio of 1:12, a treadle rate of 90, you can spin about 150 yards (of 10s) per hour that comes to ~334 hours of spinning.    With a faster wheel a spinning rate of 370 yards per hour is reasonable and it is only 135 hours or 3 hours a day for 7 weeks to spin the yarn for a bolt of cloth.

Spinning fast is better.  This is why I want fast spindles. This is why I am willing to work a little harder to spin much faster.

Skeins? It is faster and easier for me to store yarn as cakes, bobbins, and cones. For knitting, I wash and block the yarn on reels, and put it up as center pull  cakes. For weaving, I wash, block, and put the yarn on little bobbins that each hold an ounce of  yarn. With 50 such bobbins, I can wind 2" of warp at a time.  There is just no way in world to juggle 50 skeins of yarn while winding on to the loom.

Spinning with a spindle

There is a story going around that I cannot spin with a spindle. It is libel.

I have even taught spinning with a spindle at some of the local spinning guilds "learn to spin" booths, including a couple of years at Stitches West.  Later, a friend who is a very fine spinner wanted a travel wheel for a trip to Southern Europe. Together, we shopped for a wheel, but decided that a set of spindles designed for the kinds of fine yarns that she wanted to spin would actually allow her to spin faster than any of the commercially available travel wheels.  So, I undertook to design suitable spindles for her.  I spent a few hundred hours getting good at spinning with a drop spindle. I used a drop spindle to spin miles of "fines".  I learned to spin fine and fast.   And, I started making spindles for spinning fine and fast. There were at least 4 distinct generations of design as my increasing skill informed my spindle design, and better spindle design allowed better spinning. The last couple of  generations of these spindles are so fast that they require the use of a distaff to permit drafting fast enough to keep up with the spindles.

A set of the Third Generation spindles was stolen and passed around fiber groups in Ohio. I expect that those spinners tried to spin 2,000 ypp singles rather than the 22,000 - 30,000  ypp singles that the spindles were designed to spin. Thus, the spindles did not work well, and the spinners did not like those spindles.  They, decided that anyone that made such spindles must not know how to spin.  And they posted such nonsense.

(I allowed the spindles to be stolen because I already had G4 spindles that were better, and I wanted to see if those spinners were honest.)

The Fall collection

We happened to be in Needless Markup as some of the fall designer collections came in.

It looks like this year there are going to be some very nice, fine wool pants.  We have not seen such fabrics in ages.  A real inspiration for the weavers. Here we can see why in the old days, spinners learned to spin fine.  It was to make the yarn for such fabrics


Ladies and Gentlemen,   Wax Your Fly Shuttles!

Back to the basics of plying

Soft and lofty woolen spun yarns present their own difficulties for plying, but the nature of the yarn hides the art of the plying.  If you want to show off your skill at plying, spin worsted.  Sure 4-ply woolen yarn takes skill, but 4-ply worsted  takes more skill.

If you want to know how good someone is at plying, look at one of their yarns plied up from fine, high twist singles.  In particular, 5-ply gansey yarn is a structure that is hard to get uniform, and the worsted singles make any and all faults in the plying clearly visible.  Because of its more stable structure, I feel that 7-ply is easier to ply into a uniform and consistent structure than 5-ply.

Making 5-ply gansey yarn is a evolution that every aspiring spinner should perform.  It is a good place to master Alden Amos's 4 principles of plying. (Tension, Distance, Re-wound bobbins, Constant Motion) With simpler yarns, one can get way with violating one or more of those principles.  However, a kilo of 5-ply will turn the Principles into habits, and thereby improve all of your yarns.  The lesson is worth the price of the fiber.  Sure it is a week of spinning, but we like to spin, right?

A kilo of 5-ply will also force you to acquire the tools (bobbins, lazy Kate, yarn guides or tension box)  for better plying.  These will stand you in good stead, when you want to make very high quality 2-ply woolen spun.

A kilo of 5-ply is enough for you to start thinking about blocking singles prior to plying. (If you go into one of mills producing high-end luxury yarns, you will note that they block the singles prior to plying.)  Alden talks about plying in Chapter 11.  In Chapter 10, he talks about ways to make yarn better.   I think one of the few glosses in the book is that on page 263,  he should have points 5 & 6 about washing and blocking the yarn.

Sometimes the extra effort to wash and block the singles will save a great deal of  time. I use spinning oil, so washing the single after it is spun means that I can store that yarn, and am no longer under pressure to use that yarn.  Thus, washing yarn immediately after spinning reduces my stress levels. Over all, it saves me time because the spinning oil lets me spin much faster. It produces a better yarn because the spinning oil lets me spin more uniform yarn.  Some singles are just much easier to ply after they have been blocked. One example is fine hosiery singles ( 23,000 ypp, 17 tpi).  And, yarns plied up from those singles will be much better when you do take the time to wash and block the singles.

This post was prompted when a spinner on Ravelry, who has never made any gansey yarn, tried to tell me that it is not important to rewind bobbins prior to plying.  It is this group that makes fun of me because I am only a beginner, but I have the "one right way to spin". They have this up-side-down.  I believe in different yarns for different purposes.  I believe in different tools and techniques for different yarns.   And, I believe that any set of  tools and techniques that has been invented, can be improved.  I always look for Better, Faster, Cheaper!  There is no one right way to spin!  Today's best way to spin is not good enough for tomorrow.  When I see a better way to spin, I adopt it. 

Plying

With all due respect to core spun yarns, plying is critical to the appearance, strength, warmth, and durability of yarn.  Why then, in modern spinning culture is plying considered a second rate procedure?  Spinners that have many beautiful, expensive spindles, use toilet paper rolls as storage/plying bobbins and a shoe box with knitting needles as a lazy Kate.

Sorry, but singles do not feed smoothly and evenly off of  a toilet paper roll on a knitting needle stuck through a shoe box. The result is less even plying.  A smooth, even flow of each single is required for good plying.  This is not a noticeable issue working with a few skeins of low twist woolen singles for 2-ply worsted weight yarns or even 4-ply DK yarns.  However, if one is making fine sock yarns or warp for a large weaving project it quickly becomes an issue.

Alden Amos is craftsman that knows how to ply, and is honest enough to tell his students and readers the truth.  Alden's Four Great Principles of Plying work.  However, Alden does not want to scare spinners off by telling them that they need a lot of expensive tools for plying.  That is my job.  (On the other hand, he has never been bashful about selling a lot of expensive tools for plying.)

Good plying tools are as essential as good spinning tools.  Instead of buying that third spinning wheel, use the money to get yourself some really good plying tools.  Get or make a good lazy Kate, with bobbins that fit, so that they turn smoothly.  (Along the way, you are likely to discover that you need a good bobbin winder.)

If you are working with fine or high twist singles, then they are much better behaved if they are blocked before plying.  Blocking singles prior to plying can result in much less over all effort, and much better yarns. With high energy singles, Alden's principle of rewound bobbins is an understatement.

Blocking can be accomplished by running the single through a steamer under tension.  Such a device can be made from a "T" of  PVC pipe attached to an inexpensive clothes steamer.  Less energetic singles can simply be wound onto reels, then washed and dried on the reel or the "Shaker Rocket Ship". This will take the combing/spinning oil out of the yarn and allow extended storage.  Here are some currently in use at the Tulip Patch:

The pointy thing, holds reels for winding off.

After washing and drying, singles can be wound into skeins for storage or put on plying bobbins.  I have also started using pirns as cores for winding cones.  More docile singles can simply be wound into center pull cakes for storage.

Now, comes the point of this post. Very fine singles are still a challenge to ply, particularly if you are doing 6 or 10  or more plies.  When working with large numbers of fine plies, consistent and uniform tension can be achieved with a tension box of the type used by weavers for warping sectional beams.  

I  use one made by AVl.  The one above by Leclerc is simpler.  For a spinner to buy, there is some sticker shock, but they are easy to make, once you have the idea - dowels between 2 reeds or raddles.

I have mine about 6' from the spinning orifice, and use DRS controlled twist insertion.  I allow twist to occur  as the singles exit the tension box. The result is fast uniform plying even when working with fine, high energy singles. 

The End

QA/QC on a large order of steel gansey needles presented me with something of an existential crisis.

As I checked them, they were blunt, and as everyone knows, my needles are pointy, and I make the needles that I like to knit with.  So how were these so blunt?

In the beginning, I made steel needles in the shape of all the commercial needles, and I polished them like jewelry. I felt that made the tips slippery, so I then left annular striations around the tip.  That was better, the striation helped the working needle "grab" the yarn.  In the last couple years, the striations have grated on my nerves and I have polished the tips more and more.  As I did that, I made the needles less pointy, so the yarn would be less likely to fall off the taper.

Along the way I changed from poking the working needle into the next stitch to sliding the working needle along the other needle and into the next stitch. A by product of this is that the working needle was not pushed as far into the working stitch.  These days I only push/slide the working needle about 4 mm into the working stitch.

A 2.5 mm Inox DPN has a 9 mm long taper.  If you only push it in 4 mm into the working stitch, then the tip of the needle where one wraps the yarn is less than a millimeter in diameter.  If you want to wrap the yarn around a full 2.5 mm needle then one must insert the Inox needle a full 14 mm into the stitch. These days, that is more needle motion that I want.

That means that I want the full diameter of the needle only a millimeter or two from the end of the needle.  That means a very short taper.  That means rather blunt needles.  That is the end of the pointy needle.

The 2 needles at left in the knitting are my latest gansey needles. The 2 needles at center left are commercial 16" & 14" DPN.  The single needle at center right is a striated pointy needle from the set that I used to make the Filey gansey 4 years ago.  The 4 needles at right are a set of old English needles given to me by a student.  They suggest that others knew that blunt needles do work if you have a knitting sheath and the right technique.  The paper is 1/4" grid.

On the other hand, blunt needles are crap for picking up stitches.  If you want to pick up stitches, you need pointy needles. Pointy needles are better for decreases and  most lace stitches.  Those ball tipped needles above are actually a bit too blunt for easy purling.  If you are using a knitting technique (such as those derived from Weldon) where the needle is poked into the stitch, then pointy needles are better.

And, these observations only apply to metal needles of less than 2.5 mm.

Edited to add, the above suggests that I am selling those ball tipped needles.  No, those are for my knitting garter stitch.  These days the needle tips that I sell are more like: