Craftsman

Craftsmen (male, female, or other) make quality goods. They make better quality goods than folks that are just out to make a buck.  Hobbyists may actually produce higher quality objects, because they are not limited by resources.  That is, a hobbyist can put unlimited time and resources into an object, but craftsmen must keep the cost of objects within the price range of their clients.  Craftsmen produce the best possible product at the most reasonable price, all things considered.


If  someone needs a warm object, then a craftsman knitter will knit an object that is as warm as is required.  If someone needs a durable object, then the craftsman knitter will knit an object that is a durable as it required.  If someone needs a lace christening gown, then the craftsman knitter will knit an object that is elegant enough to uphold the status of the family. Along the way, for each product, the craftsman will make the compromises needed to meet the requirements including cost and schedule. The craftsman can work to a bid/plan/schedule so the cost of the object is as agreed with the client, and the craftsman does not lose money on the project.


Most modern spinners see spinning as a hobby.  They do not care about the cost of the yarn that they produce, or speed of production. And, they are not interested in making better yarn, they only want soft, pretty yarn.  


In contrast, I see spinning as a craft. I want better yarn. I want stronger yarn, I want more flexible yarn, I want more durable yarn and so forth.  And, I want less expensive yarn. I want yarn that has fewer man hours invested in it. I put a lot of effort into working out how to spin faster with less effort. I want yarn that that is just as good but is made from lower cost fibers. That is, I seek to find better fibers at a lower cost. And, I seek yarns that require less fiber, for the same warmth, durability, or strength.  Every spinning project that I do has requirements, schedule, and budget.  When a spinning project does not meet its requirements, schedule, or budget, I pull the plug on it. 


I started spinning because I was a knitter, and I was not happy with the available mill spun yarns. I wanted better.   When I started spinning I was told that it was not possible to hand spin the  worsted spun, 5-ply sport weight yarns, called "gansey yarn".  I was told these yarns had never been hand spun.  It took me 9 months before I was hand spinning such yarns, but the process was so slow as to be impractical.  The yarns I was making were better than mill spun, but they were too expensive.  I had to work out how to make them less expensively.  The obvious solution was to spin faster.  Today, I spin much faster.  That means that my yarn is much less expensive.  I like better yarns that are less expensive.


The first step to spinning faster was to understand differential rotation speed (DRS) as discussed in Alden Amos and the Victorian authors. DRS allows the flyer/bobbin assembly to run at much higher speed, and it changed the nature of the drafting, allowing true worsted yarns to be produced much faster. Part of this step was learning different spinning techniques that allowed me to take advantage of DRS. This really was an effort. This development of other spinning techniques was perhaps the single most important aspect of the spinning faster process. 


The second step was to have Alden Amos make me faster flyers.  I considered having him make me a custom wheel, but the Ashford Traditional drive wheel actually produced more speed than the wheels Alden was making at the time.  That is, an engineering analysis selected the Ashford drive wheel over the Alden product.  It was not a capricious or sentimental decision.  Part of this step was the development of "gang whorls" so that as the effective diameter of the bobbin changed,  I could change whorls rather than stopping to wind off.  I had to design and fabricate the gang whorls. This facilitated the production of longer, continuous singles.


The third step was to make an accelerator for my Alden Amos/DRS/Ashford hybrid.  Again it was an engineering analysis.  It was not a capricious or sentimental decision.  The result was the accelerator/Alden Amos/DRS/Ashford hybrid with advanced drafting technique.


The net result is that my wheel spins woolen singles between 2 and 4 times faster than any  wheel on the market.  My wheel spins worsted singles between 3 and 10 times faster than any wheel on the market.  This was not an accident. It was attention to detail, and doing the engineering correctly.  It was understanding the technique so I could make the required tools.  It was understanding the tools, so I could develop the technique.


Since spinning/twist insertion is the single largest cost in spinning, my yarn is much less expensive than other hand spun. I (the knitter and weaver) is the customer for I (the spinner).  I (the knitter and weaver) like the lower cost of the faster spinning. I (the knitter and weaver) like the shorter delivery times for the faster spinning. All around, I like the faster project development and production cycles. 


This allows me to (inexpensively) dream-up, produce, and test yarns that are not made by mills and which I have never seen before.  I learned to make more flexible yarns.  I learned to make stronger yarns.  I learned to make more durable yarns, and so forth. I would never have had time for this experimentation if I had to spin as slowly as most spinners spin. Without DRS, you will never really understand sock yarn. 


I can plan an object, spin and test samples of a yarn that I have never before spun, and then spin and produce the object, all in a reasonable time frame. I (the knitter and weaver) know in advance what the cost of the yarn will be that I (the spinner) will produce for the project. 


I am a craftsman spinner with just one rather demanding client.  Myself.  If I spin better and faster, then I improve my product and lower my costs.  Then, I am happy.

A Silly Lie

My favorite singles have a grist of about 5,600 ypp which is about 75 wpi. I know that spun worsted, such singles will have a twist of ~9 twists per inch, and woolen spun singles will have about 12 twists per inch.  For more detail, see the formulas and tables in Alden Amos's Big Book of Handspinning, pg  383. AA formulas will get you to within 8% of the correct grist which is close enough for hand spinning and other online formulas will get you to within 2 or 3%.


Standard Ashford Traditional wheels have a ratio either 17. 5 (SD) or  14:1 (DD).  That means with a standard  SD traddy, one spins ~ 2 inches of  5,600 ypp worsted single per treadle stroke. 


Thus, if one is claiming to spin 360 inches per minute of such single, with a standard traddy, then one is claiming to treadle at 180 strokes per minute, or  3 strokes per second. Working on Ashford stock DD wheel one would have to treadle faster. I want video of that!


Back in my bike racing days, we did sometimes pedal at 140 strokes per minute, but we were trained racers and we did not do it for very long.  One does not treadle that fast while spinning fine singles.


Note that in fact,  DD DRS has less drive belt slip, and is thereby much more productive than Single Drive.


DD DRS allow a different and faster drafting technique and is thereby much, much more productive than SD.  IF you adjust whorl diameters, the DD DRS at a ratio of 14:1 will produce yarn much faster than the SD system with a ratio of 17.5:1.


Better flyers will increase the speed of an Ashford Traditional, and allow them to run at ~2,000 rpm or just under 400 yards per hour of 5,600 worsted single. (e.g., a sustained treadle cadence of ~120 strokes per minute with limited drive belt slip.  At that cadence, a couple of hours is a very long day's spinning!)  Anyone that claims more is not telling the truth.


With a better flyer and an accelerator, an Ashford Traditional will spin 5,600 ypp worsted single at a more than 560 yards per hour.  That is the truth.  With the accelerator, I can spin 560 yards of  5,600 worsted single with a treadle cadence of ~90 per minute.  For an old cyclist, that is a reasonable cadence that can be sustained all day. Yes, it needs to be a double treadle wheel or the required force tweaks the wheel out of alignment in a few days. So both legs need to be going 90.  If there is chafing, use lots of powder or get some of the anti-chafe goo that the runners and bikers use.


There are other wheels out there with ratios that should produce bobbin speeds high enough to spin 500 yards of 5,600 ypp single per hour, but the spinners that own such wheels report being disappointed with the productivity of those wheels. (Feynman tells us there is belt slip.)   I have spun on samples of some of those wheels and they certainly did not come close to the productivity of DRS flier/bobbin assemblies driven by a accelerator. 

The Old Ones

Scientists find the oldest-ever hand bone to resemble a modern human’s

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/08/18/scientists-find-the-oldest-ever-hand-bone-to-resemble-a-modern-humans/

In a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications, researchers report the discovery of a bone that they believe to be part of the left little finger of an ancient hominin species, pushing the earliest "modern" hand back by around 400,000 years. In the hominin's habitat -- Tanzania, some 1.84 million years ago -- other hominins like  Paranthropus boisei and H. habilis would have been dwarfed by the modern(ish)-looking man.  Based on his hand, anyway.

[Scientists discover a new human ancestor that roamed with ‘Lucy’]

If the bone is proportional to a modern-human-like body, the man in question would have been around 5 feet 9 inches, compared to H. habilis, who stood just over 3 feet tall.

The anthropology that we learned back then was WRONG.  

Everyone needs to keep learning, and keep thinking. We need to keep questioning everything.

Out of Lyme

I seem to have found a Lyme Literate MD (LLMD), and massive doses of  Doxycycline seem  to be bringing me out of the debilitating fatigue and brain fog of Lyme Disease.  However, the physical therapy to repair the ravages of LD suck the time out of the week, and there are gigantic uncompleted task lists.  My productivity over the last 5 or 6 years has not been as high as it was in other periods of my life.

I expect LD imposed physical limitations on me, starting about 5 or 6 years ago. This was about the time I started spinning, so that I did more planning and analysis, rather than stupidly rushing in and trying to make a great wheel do what only a DD wheel could physically do.  Looking back, with or without Lyme Disease, working out the mechanical details of differential rotation controlled flier/bobbin systems was a nice piece of work.

And, if like Holin, I had wasted 28 years spinning on a GW rather than using a faster, lower effort, technology, I would be furious with myself.  Imagine, spinning for 30 years on a GW and still not being able to produce a hank of worsted spun gansy yarn in one day, and then have a fellow that had been spinning for only 5 years learn to use a DD wheel to easily spin a hank of gansey yarn in one day, even when he is disabled by Lyme Disease.  I mean after 30 years of spinning, one might use a GW for aesthetic reasons, but after 30 years of spinning, and still not understanding that a DD wheel can be much faster than a GW; Oh, my! It would be so humiliating.

Nevertheless, time devoted to physical therapy seems to have peaked, and with brain fog clearing I seem to be able to get more stuff done. I have referred to myself as a "fat old man, with palsy".  Much of that was due to Borrelia.  These days, I feel 15 years younger.

LD produces a brain fog, so one fails to index the knitting journal and thus picks up Mary Thomas, rather than the knitting journal as one sits down to knit Eastern Cross Stitch. In the drawing in MT illustrating ECS, the needles are at an obtuse angle. That approach requires pointy needles and brute force.  If the angle between the needles is acute, ECS is easier. She would defend the drawing saying it depicts continental style knitting. I say, if you want to knit tight using continental knitting, you will ruin your wrists.  And, ECS is about knitting socks and hose that need to be knit tight.
Due consideration of prototypes tells me that ECS is not the traditional Jersey stitch. On the other hand, it is a very good stitch for socks.

In my world, most knitting is intended for destruction and discard.  Initial swatches will be tested to failure, and discarded. Prototypes are tested to failure, and discarded.  Objects are worn, repaired, worn some more, and ultimately discarded.  Objects that show great virtue will have replica swatches knit, which are kept and used in planning future objects.  However, I expect a knit object to last a few years, and in that time I study and learn. I know the effort to knit and test swatches and prototypes will result in better objects in the future, so the effort does not bother me.  I expect every object to be better than the object that it replaces. The socks that I knit today are much, much better than the socks that prompted Bob to offer me $200 for a pair of  hiking socks.  That is the way it should be.

I make and test: new tools, new yarns, and techniques.  None of the needle makers understand my knitting needle needs as well as I do. All of my needles have been adapted to my techniques and yarns.  My knitting sheaths have been adapted to my needles, my knitting techniques, and my yarns.  My yarns are adapted to my needles and my knitting technique.  It is a system and it works.

Needles and  yarns designed to generic standards and common techniques will not work together as well as my integrated system, and they will not produce objects of  similar virtues.

I demand extraordinary virtues from my knit objects.  The virtues that I demand may not be the virtues that you desire, and you may even disdain the virtues that I demand, but people who touch and feel my objects admit that I push knitting much farther than anyone else.  People either love or hate my knitting.  Nobody is indifferent to it.

PS  Everyone should just assume that each and every future post in this blog asks Holin, " How long does it take you to spin a hank of 560 yards of sport weight, worsted spun 5-ply yarn?"  When she is able to say, "less than a day", I will post her response so all of her students can ask for a demo.

Eastern Cross Stitch

Somebody asked about Eastern Cross Stitch, but that sample does not seem to photograph well, so I dug through my swatches for on one of gansey yarn knit on 3.75 needles.

Pix includes pages from Mary Thomas's Knitting Book

At that gauge, the knitting is easy enough.  Knit tight, ECS is much harder.  I did have a very good technique for doing it with blunt needles, but I seem to have forgotten the method and am back to doing ECS by brute force with pointy needles.  I need to re-un-vent the technique, and document it better.

The question to test is: " ECS provides cushion and ventilation which are good for socks. Do the virtues of ECS make it worthwhile for other objects considering the extra effort of production?  Or,  are there much easier ways to produce the fabric? We know that in old times ECS was much favored.  Was it much favored for all objects or just socks?  Why was it much favored?

You can see that I have been going round and round on this for some time.  Picking it up and dropping it in fits and starts.

Nice

There are  people who say I should be "nicer".

Should an elementary school teacher be nicer to students that do not do their homework and lie about it?  No, there are consequences for ignorance and deceit.

Students that do not do their arithmetic homework,  do not become competent in math, and are cheated by merchants.  In society, deceit is punished under the law. The  elementary school teacher  merely tries to instill a respect for the consequences of ignorance and deceit.

I do not know about your freshman professor in your major, but mine were absolutely cruel in their demands.  They set a standard for rigor in thinking and diligence in effort that has served me well.  Not too long ago, a fellow wanted to show me how to prove the formula for the volume of a sphere.  Forty-five years after taking  calculus, off the top of my head, I could show him another 5  equally valid techniques for deriving the formula for the volume of a sphere.  The moral of the story is that there is very rarely a single path to the truth.  Every truth will be supported by several lines of evidence, and contradicted by no good evidence. Having followed one line of good evidence, one can look back and find other lines of evidence.

I like honest searches for the truth.  I like good questions. Good questions are always the most important part of doing one's homework.  Feynman like to teach lower level students, because " They have the good questions."

Folks at advanced levels tend to forget about the unspoken assumptions of the field. The questions of beginners force us to reconsider and justify all assumptions.  Good questions lead to "Pure Wisdom".

However, if people want me to be nice to them, they must do their homework.  My bio professor demanded written questions on every lecture - along with the answer we had found or -- a list of at least 100 journal papers where we had looked for the answer.  I thought he was a nice guy.

GW 2

These days, I do not keep a great wheel.  I do have 2 motor driven spindles and 2 spindles that fit onto my treadle wheel.  None of these are as impressive to look at as a GW, but they are faster. And, they all allow me more use of both hands for drafting true worsted.

The motor driven spindles are easy to pause or stop, but hard to reverse.  Therefore, I had to learn how to wind-on with the spindle going in the same direction as when spinning.  It can be done, the answer is "out there", and I have no interest in teaching driven spindle technique.

If one does not have to reverse the spindle, then one does not have to stop, or pause the spindle, and the spindle can rotate continuously in the same direction.  One CAN spin a entire hank of single on a great wheel without ever reversing the wheel to wind on.  This can be much faster/easier than reversing rotation to wind-on depending on the inertia of the rotating system.

Nevertheless, the spindle must be slowed at various points in the spinning/drafting/wind-on process. Even though the spindle/wheel always rotates in the same direction, the slowdown/speedup cycle wastes energy. And, the wind-on cycle slows production of yarn. 

A spindle on my treadle wheel can insert twist many times faster than the flyer/bobbin assembly,  but the DD flyer bobbin assembly will spin and wind-on much more yarn in a minute or an hour or a day.  One of the motor driven spindles can insert twist many times faster than either spindle on my treadle wheel, but net production of single is not much different. Net production of spun yarn by a spindle is limited by the nature of its cycle, rather than by its peak speed.

A DRS flyer/bobbin assembly is the fastest hand spinning device for most natural fibers. Ring spinning can be faster for silk, but that is a specialized application.  Yes, those old double drive spinning wheels were the fastest way to spin.  They used the two loops of the drive band to synchronize the rotation of the bobbin and flyer to insert just the right amount of twist as the yarn was wound in at just the correct rate for the inserted twist. They did not have the drive band slip that is built into modern double drive wheels.  The result is that a double drive wheel without drive band slip that can produce singles much faster than a great wheel.  This is a truth that you have heard before.  It is just that all  modern DD wheels do have drive band slip and thus, spin more slowly than a GW.   In fact, a DRS flyer/bobbin assembly can produce true worsted spun yarn 5 times faster than a great wheel.  Every sock knitter should think about that.

And, since DRS is faster, sock yarns of more and finer (true worsted spun)  plies are possible.  These are very nice yarns that are simply out of reach of even the best spinners using a GW.  The use of DRS opens up spinning true worsted 5-ply gansey or even 10-ply Aran yarns.  And, it makes spinning true worsted warp for the loom much more feasible.

 On the other hand, a DRS flyer/bobbin assembly requires real skill to setup and maintain. I have seen two old DRS double drive wheels where the original DRS ratios had been "repaired", and the wheel converted to  modern standards.   As a result of the repairs, they could spin lower grist yarns, but could only do so --- slowly. These had been true collector's items and the owners were very proud of how fast they could spin -- if they only know how fast those wheels had been originally designed to spin, they would have been agast!   The difference between these wheels as designed and these wheels as "repaired" was only millimeters, and yet it made a huge difference in their performance. If one can teach the basics of using a GW in a 4-day workshop, then I would say that one could teach the basics of using DRS in a 4-week workshop.

Yes, Holin, my old Ashford can spin/ply a 500 yd hank of sport weight, worsted spun, 5-ply (gansey yarn) in an easy day.  How long does it take your GW?  In less than 14 hours, I can spin/ply a 500 yd hank of  worsted spun, 3x2-ply cabled, 1,600 ypp "sock yarn".  How long does that take your GW?  Shall we set up a demonstration in front of a judge and jury?  I want spinners like Judith MacKenzie and Stephenie Gaustad who know, and appreciate,  worsted spun yarns involved.

I have only been spinning for 6 years. (And, I was sick with Lyme Disease for much of that time!)  How long have you been spinning?  What will I be spinning when I have spun as long as you have been spinning?

Numbers

When  did people start using numbers?

Neanderthal pursued a number of advanced tool making  activities for a very long time, then interbred with modern humans to produce fertile progeny (definition of same species).

see for example :  http://anthrojournal.com/issue/october-2011/article/neanderthal-cognitive-ability-and-technological-development

These kinds of technical activities require planning; and, planning requires numeric competence.  Understanding this connection requires thinking and deduction.

Our ancestors were counting when they were still making stone tools and wearing skins rather than spinning and weaving.  Our ancestors were counting 150,000 years ago, and possibly 250,000 years ago.  The opening paragraphs in many texts on origins of human numeric competence are silly.  

Even if you studied anthropology a long, long time ago, Google is your friend.

Great Wheels

Making yarn is about inserting twist into fiber.  Twist is energy. The essence of making yarn is using energy to organize fiber.  And, energy for twist  has traditionally been the largest single cost for a mill making natural fiber yarns.

With a great wheel, if the spinner wishes to work very efficiently, the  spinner will turn the wheel rather slowly so that most of the energy goes into twisting the yarn, and very little braking is required. However, this produces yarn slowly.  A motivated spinner spins the wheel rapidly so twist is inserted quickly, but then the wheel must be braked and stopped before the yarn over twists.

Braking and stopping the wheel wastes the energy already added to the wheel, and the braking/stopping process requires additional energy from the spinner.

Spinning yarn on a great wheel is energetically very inefficient.

A great wheel is like an old Ferrari - it goes very fast, but it uses a lot gas.

In contrast, a  flyer /bobbin assembly does not have to be stopped and CAN be  energetically  more efficient.  Note, the single drive flier-lead assemblies do require continuous braking, which wastes energy.. With flier-lead there is an adjustable brake band device (Scotch Tension) and with bobbin lead, the braking usually comes from the aerodynamic drag of the flyer (Irish Tension, sometimes with an additional brake band on the flyer).

A double drive flyer /bobbin assembly designed to insert twist as required for the desired grist does not require any braking. These are the energetically, the most efficient spinning wheels. 

In a double drive flyer /bobbin assembly not designed to insert twist as required for the desired grist, one loop of the drive band will act as a brake. Because such systems require drive belt slip, their energetic efficiency is noticeably LESS than a single drive  flyer /bobbin assembly. Thus, a few  millimeters difference in a whorl diameter can dramatically change the energetic efficiency of a double drive flyer/bobbin assembly for the production of a particular grist.

That said, if great quantities of thick woolen singles are wanted in continuous lengths, then a great wheel may well be the tool of choice because it offers the leverage to spin those big copps.  If  I want to produce an 1,800 yd cuts  of 3,000 ypp singles on my wheel, I have to splice short ones into long ones.   On the other hand,  if we are spinning 23,000 ypp, then 1,800 yards is only a little over an ounce, and I do not have to splice at all.  On my wheel, spinning fresh rolags, (from the drum carder), 1,800 yd of  woolen 23,000 ypp is about 6 hours work.

Folks with great wheels should let us know how fast they spin  23,000 ypp singles on their great wheel.  I do not seem to have any GW production numbers for that grist.  In theory , it should depend on the motivation and fitness of the spinner, and a spinner willing to put in a lot of  energy should be able to do it very fast indeed.

My Knitting Pins

In the last couple of years I have made myself a full set of blunt ended knitting pins.   At this point, I have decided that I do not need the "pointies" any more and have packed them up and  . . . . .

At this juncture, I knit with steel knitting pins that flex and  curved steel "pricks" that rotate in the knitting sheath.  The pricks are better for small objects such as gloves and socks, while the pins are better for large objects.


This is everything that I think I need to knit anything I want to knit from any yarn I want to knit:

 The whole kit

  18 " long Gansey needles in 2 mm and 2.3 mm

(not shown are 8 more in WIP)

A few favorite knitting sheaths and a crochet hook

B--> T; 1.3 mm pins and pricks, 1 mm pins, 1.5 mm pins and swaving pricks

 B--> T; 2 mm swaving pricks & clew, 2 mm pins, 2.3 mm swaving pricks and notions, 2.3 mm pins

Many of these needles/pricks have been used for 300,000 stitches. Prototypes were used here in the house, and prototype needles got trips to the shop until I had needles that worked the way I wanted them to work.  Mostly the pins cost me between $0.10 and $0.60 each to make.  I have the tools and skills to make them quickly and accurately. So I can afford to have what I think is just the right needles for the project.  My knitting tool selection is not limited to what is available at LYS, Stitches, TNNA or even the internet. Thus,  the problem is deciding what IS the right needle or pin.  

The criteria are:

1. Must work for yarn between 850 and 2,000 ypp.
2. Must allow fast knitting with minimum stress on hands/wrists.
3. Must produce very uniform fabric.
4. Must allow production of dense fabric.
5. Must be very durable.

The needles and knitting sheaths that I use are the best compromise on the above criteria that I have ever seen, heard about, or read about. It took me about 2 years to switch from circular needles to DPN/ knitting sheaths.  It has taken me about 2 years to switch from pointy needles to blunt pins. When I find something better, I will move to something better.

A needle for every yarn

I started with pointed needles because EVERYONE said that is how one knits.  I started with hand hand-held needles because that was how everyone knit.

Then, there was this hint that old knitters used long needles, and I tried that, and it did not work

Except there was this hint in Mary Thomas that in the old days, when everyone did knit, they used knitting sheaths. and it turned out that yes, a knitting sheath did tame the long needles.

Much experimentation resulted in the discovery that long (pointy) steel  needles with diameter of ~2.25 mm really did produce lovely fabrics from soft worsted weight and firm sport weight yarns.  And the spring constant of that size of music wire allowed a spring action that allowed fast knitting.

I experimented with finer needles, right down to 0.5 mm, but never got that nice combination of  wonderful fabric and fast knitting. Thus, I spent several years knitting mostly with pointy US 1 size needles and sport weight to worsted weight yarns ( 1,000 ypp to 850 ypp).  It was not so bad, the combination produced a class of fabrics very well  suited to many of the outdoor activities that I like.

A couple of years ago, I had some splitty sport weight yarn and tried knitting it with blunt size UK 13 needles.  It worked very well. Then, I made blunt ~2 mm needles for knitting softer spun sport weight. The result was better than I expected.  First, it was clear that the knitting motion was smaller, so even the reduced spring constant of the thinner needle could produce more stitches per minute.  So while the stitches were smaller, the actual area of fabric knit per unit time was similar.  I had found a way to knit fabrics that I liked on finer needles at a reasonable rate.

More recently, have been making and experimenting with blunt needles in the sizes of  1.3 mm and 1.5 mm.  These produce nice warm, firm fabrics from 3-ply and 6-strand "sock yarns" in the 1700 ypp range.  And, the knitting motion is so small that it can be performed very fast, resulting in reasonable production rates.  Counter intuitively, I can knit much faster with flat tipped needles than with pointy needles. Adopting flat ended needles seems to be the last technical requirement to knitting Jerseys and Sheringham ganseys.  I had produced samples of the fabric before, but it was always as a tour de force, and it was never as a convenient and practical fabric. The effort of making such fabrics on pointy needles was too high to make such fabrics practical.

Flat tipped, flexible steel needles allows me to knit large objects from the same fine, dense fabric that I had previously only been able to reasonably produce in smaller objects such as gloves and socks by swaving.

Belaying "pin" for sail boats. 

Shear  "pin"

Taper "pin"

Yes, "knitting pins" included blunt rods and wires.  These days I have knitting pins with blunt or flat ends in sizes from 1.3 mm to 2.38 mm and in lengths from 10 to 18 inches.  They are an old school tool for making old school fabrics.  I make them all of spring steel from the local hardware store.  I find that a knitting sheath works better than a Shetland knitting pouch for blunt tipped knitting pins.

Blunt points work well on cable crosses and  bobbles. If it works for nice bobbles, it will work for nupps etc. It is a different technique, but the equipment works.

SWMBO

She, who thinks she is SWMBO, says: "No pix, then it did not happen".

She is critical of all that I do.  It is time to, point to the lack of photographs on her page as evidence that she does not have the technical expertise to judge my work.  Hoist by her own petard!

Photos are important, if one is making objects whose sole purpose is decorative. My sister is a goldsmith, and she has staff whose primary duties include photographing and maintaining the archive of thousands and thousands of photographs that comprise her full portfolio. People buy jewelry on the basis of how it looks.

I knit socks for my friends, and NONE of them care how the socks look.  They care about how the socks function. (And, if the socks function perfectly they will have a very attractive functional aesthetic.)  If you are putting a lot of effort into how your socks look, then you are putting less effort into how your socks function. I finish the socks and hand them over and they wear them for a while. Then, they tell me how well the socks functioned.  I think about it for a while, and try to make better socks.

My materials, patterns, and tools change, not just to be different, but to make better objects. When, I think I am making the most functional objects possible, then I will start trying to make them "prettier".

Handspun is just one approach to better objects.  At this point, it is clear that the best objects from hand spun yarn can be much warmer and more durable than objects from mill spun.

5,600 ypp singles, on hand, that have not been allocated 

to any particular project.

All-in-all there is about 70,000 yards of singles there.

(The purple yarn with knitting in front is 6-strand, 1680 ypp sock yarn 

on 1.65 mm needles for scale. I am testing its functionality as sock yarn. The yarn is nice, 

but is it worth all the effort?)

It took me about 3 years to be able to tell by touch and feel whether a particular fabric was warm, or just looked warm.  Knit wool fools the eye!  I do not think anyone can reliably make that judgement from a photograph - not even from a high resolution picture, and certainly not from an internet resolution pix.  On the other hand, it is easy to make the judgement from a numeric description of the fabric, such as fiber, twist and grist of the singles, ply structure, and gauge for a knit fabric. Numbers can tell us clearly and precisely how warm the fabric is.  If you do not know the numbers, then you do not know how warm the fabric is.  (Numbers were developed in the days when "spinning" was used to make cord to hold stone tools on handles to kill animals so the skins could be used for garments.)

Numbers can name and convey information about textiles that cannot be conveyed by pix.  If you know textiles, you know what a 65 meter/gram worsted thread is, and you do not need a pix. ( e.g., Suffolk fleece spun at its spin count, the traditional single for hosiery yarns.)  If you do not know the difference between a 65 meter/gram worsted thread and a 65 meter/gram woolen thread, then a pix is not going to convey that information. (The woolen yarn will require more twist to hold it together.)

One way or another, the way to convey detailed information about yarns and fabric structure is with numbers.  If one cannot understand the numbers and do the math, then one cannot understand yarns and fabric.

A spinner controls the process.  A spinner sets a budget - how long a piece of yarn will be spun from a given amount of fiber.  The spinner sets the budget on how much twist will be inserted to hold the yarn together. It is the spinner who determines grist and twist.  If the spinner is very good, the twist and grist will be determined very precisely and produced accurately. The only way to name any aspect of these processes very precisely is with numbers.  That is, every competent spinner names their yarns with numbers.   Then, competent weavers and knitters know the precise nature of that yarn. And, competent spinners who understand the numbers for their yarns, understand the yarn produced by other spinners that name their yarns with numbers e.g., meters/gram or yards per pound or hanks per pound.

I do not care if you speak English, Hungarian or Chinese, you can not discuss yarn and fabric in precise detail without using numbers. Numbers describe yarns and fabrics more precisely than pictures.  It may also be necessary to have a picture, but for the essential character of the yarn, a picture will not be as precise.  And, better spinners need more precision.

By-the-bye, naming yarns by number also allows budgeting time. I know how fast my wheel runs, and I know how much twist is in 5,600 ypp worsted singles so I know that it takes me a little under 175 hours to spin 100,000 yards of 5,600 ypp worsted, and that I will use ~18 pounds of fiber. Allowing time to block hanks rather than simply winding onto bobbins or pirns, it is an easy month of spinning.  And, it is enough yarn for 2.5 months of knitting or 2 weeks of weaving.

Jealousy and Delusion

"Wow! You make an awful lot of assumptions about me, Aaron. You clearly have a very active, if completely inaccurate, imagination. I don't need a wheel like yours. I outgrew my Ashford Traditional years ago and moved onto different wheels with features that allowed me to spin faster and more consistent yarns. I do have an accelerated wheel - it's a Great Wheel - but I wouldn't build a wheel like yours for love nor money. It would be superfluous.

If the finished product is nothing, as you say, then you're going to be very, very cold in your non-existent gansey because there will be no finished product to wear. I hope you can stitch your numerous samples into a blanket, because it seems that you will have nothing else to wear unless you take a trip to Neimann Marcus."

The above is a comment from a reader. Let us see what we can deduce from it.

There are no measurements, numbers, or objective criteria anywhere in the comment.  Thus, this is a person that does not do objective quality control, engineering, science, or math. She says she spins faster.  I can spin and ply 560 yards of worsted spun, 5-ply sport weight in less than 7 hours. That is more than 3,000 yards of  5,600 ypp worsted singles and 560 yards of plying in less than 7 hours. I can do it anywhere, any time. I can do it in front of a judge and jury if you want. Knit on 2 mm long needles with a knitting sheath it makes a lovely, light, warm garment.  It is remarkably durable, and can be worn around the campfire without any fear of sparks burning a hole in it.

Now, how long does it take my reader to spin a good hank of "gansey yarn", and has she posted any pix of it? She has one standard for me, and a very different standard for herself. Do we see rulers on her blog/web pages? My educated guess is that she can spin woolen @3,000 ypp at a rate of under 300 yards per hour on her great wheel, and spin worsted at @3,000 ypp at a rate of under 100 yards per hour.

And she says she spins more consistent. The last pound of 10s (worsted spun hanks of 560 yards at  5,600 ypp ) that I spun were all within 5% of the desired weight of  45.4 grams. Can my reader spin skeins of singles that are consistently within 5% of the desired grist?  I think not.

So not only do I spin much faster, I likely spin more consistently.  This is because I do understand objective quality control, engineering, science, and math.  I report testable results.  She claims vague fantasies.

I have half a dozen very good ganseys that I have knit from various yarns over the years.  Some of these are from hand spun.  I have knit hundreds of socks over the years.  Socks, that I knit were worn on over 300 man days of  downhill skiing this year, and it was low snow year. (e.g., my socks are worn by several, dedicated skiers, some of whom would have to be classed as "powder hounds".)  If I put my friends off, and stop knitting for them, I can knit a good gansey in less than 10 days. I have enough 5-ply on hand for several sweaters and I have plenty of singles (5,600 ypp) spun for the loom that can be re-tasked, and plied for knitting yarn.  Knitting a gansey to a conventional design is trivial.

The hard part, the interesting part, is finding better textile designs, and better technologies to produce the designs.  Spinning is easy.  Spinning fine is harder.  Finding a better way to consistently spin fine and fast is very hard.  Knitting is easy. Finding a way to knit better is hard.  My reader is clearly not interested in finding a better ways of producing textiles by hand.  This blog was started to record my search for finding ways to hand knit warmer fabrics.  After I had advanced knitting, I needed warmer yarns, so I added the search for how to hand spin warmer yarns to the blog.  More recently, I realized that I had erred in my interpretation of knitting sheath technology and blunt or flat tips on needles used with knitting sheaths result in faster and better knitting.

Lots of people write about pretty knitting and pretty spinning.  There is no need for me to write about pretty.  I write about warm and durable. These days, many write vague fantasies about warm and durable hand spun and hand knit objects, but very, very few have done objective quality control on the objects/fabrics that they write about.

We cannot say that my reader is "stuck in the past", because the professional hand spinners and hand knitters of  the past (e.g, 16th century)  were very, very good.  And, since I do not own anything that was ever purchased at Neimann-Marcus, she is not very well informed and does not read carefully.

I really do not care how anyone knits or spins or how fast they do it.  I merely point out that there are options. I point out that one can ALWAYS seek to spin and knit faster and better.

ECS 3

A swatch/prototype in progress.  The stitch is eastern crossed stitch.  The yarn is Paton's Classic Wool.  The gauge is 8 stitches per inch or 32 stitches per 4".  The object is the torso for a knit in the round Jersey.

This object is out of my bin of ECS WIP.  Today, I knit the same stitch at the same gauge - I just knit it at a practical rate. The fabric is lovely.  Now, I know how to finish it off in a reasonable time.  The scale is marked in inches. 

ECS 2

After some additional swatching, and reflection, I expect that eastern cross stitch was the stitch used in the classic "Jersey" shirts produced in the Channel Islands for seamen and fishermen.  Perhaps ECS was also used in the heavier Guernsey shirts, but it makes a glorious fabric for general outdoor wear.

Eighty years ago we could buy knit wool sport shirts! Today, they have been replaced by knit cotton and polyester.  And while I love my knit cotton rugby shirts, when cotton (and linen) are wet, the are not nearly as warm as a knit wool.  And, knit synthetics are not safe around open flames.  No, knit wool is the right fabric for working and playing away from central heat.  And, ECS is the best stitch that I know for finely knit shirt fabrics.

And eastern cross stitch produces a warmer and more weatherproof (keeps out wind and wet) fabric than modern Weldon's stockinette.  (Knit with hand held, pointy needles)  At the very least, there are many little stitches in a finely knit shirt, and Weldon's methods are a lot of effort for a few stitches.

I do not expect anyone to accept anything that I say.  I expect everyone to THINK and test everything.  Swatch, and test heat flow though the fabrics. Swatch, and stitch the swatches into garments and test how they perform.  I expect my students to be adventurous and creative.  I expect my students to never accept the current technology as the end point.  If you are EVER satisfied with the current technology (spinning, knitting, weaving) then you do not belong here.

Our current hand made textiles are not as fine or produced as quickly as the hand made textiles of times past. That proves that we do not need power equipment to work faster.  That proves that we do not need computers to work better.  We can do better than we are doing by improving our skills and refining our tools.  It is not easy, but my students are not lazy.  If you think it is too much work, you do not belong here.

Eastern Cross stitch

My attention was originally drawn to Eastern Cross Stitch when I read in Mary Thomas's  Knitting Book, that in previous times, it had been a very popular stitch. This raised the question, "What was  Eastern Cross Stitch's particular virtue to make it popular?"

Yes it produces a nice firm fabric, but so does stockinette when knit with fine needles and a knitting sheath.

However, with flat tipped needles (and a knitting sheath), Eastern Cross Stitch turns out to be the fastest stitch to knit. (Or at least the fastest I have found so far.)   The hand movements are few and tiny. They can be done quickly and with minimal effort.   In hand knitting, fast is cheap.  Fabrics knit with Eastern Cross Stitch had the lowest cost to knit.  And, it produces a warmer fabric using larger needles (fewer stitches per inch^2).

I played with ECS on pointy needles a while back, and knitting it was more effort than knitting stockinette so I have bins full of ECS WIP.    Now, I know how to finish them quickly and easily. Knitting ECS with pointy hand held needles is also more effort than stockinette.  I actually expect that at one time ECS knit in the round would have been considered "stockinette".  Consider for example the stitch structure of the Coptic socks.

Eastern Cross Stitch has rather abruptly become my default stitch for firm fabrics. (Pending  full testing of the prototypes.)   It was just a matter of finding the right tools to make the stitch faster and easier.

This of course raises the question as to whether the Channel Island knitters used the ECS as a competitive advantage in knitting seaman's clothing.  In any case, it is easy to see why the stitch was popular.  And, it lends credence to the old stories of very fast knitting. (e.g., even faster than :

Am I an "Elite" knitter?

When I knit the stuff that everyone else was knitting, I never considered myself an elite knitter.

Now, I knit stuff that some (or even many of my readers) do not believe can be knit.
I use tools that almost no other knitters use.  These allow me to hand knit fast.

I have knit a dozen pair of good ski boot socks so far this year. The socks from commercial 5-ply sport weight gansey yarn were knit at 8.5 spi, and socks from 6-strand 2x3 cabled 850 ypp  worsted were knit at 7 spi.   We like these yarns for cold weather boot socks. A pair of these socks is some where between 20,000 and 30,000 stitches - about the same as an adult sweater knit at 4 spi.  However, because the fabric is much tighter, the effort to knit is much greater.  On the other hand, 3 or 4 pairs of those snow socks is about the same number of stitches and the same effort as a good gansey from commercial 5-ply.   This spring, I also did some knitting of my own 5-ply, 1,000 ypp yarns, on 2 mm needles@ 10 spi,  but that is a different post.

Socks that are felted down to size tend to keep shrinking under the heat and friction of back country skiing.  Worsted yarns, knit tightly to fit, do not shrink.  These socks can be washed, and put on wet, and in a very few minutes they will feel dry and warm. (Or, they can be machine washed and tossed in a cool dryer. Start with swatches!!)   This does not occur with more loosely knit socks, which must be fully (and very gently) dried prior to being comfortable to wear.  For years, I hiked with a pair of socks dangling and drying on the back of my pack. (Sometimes commercial, and sometimes my hand knit.)   Now that I have learned to knit tighter,  I can wash my socks and put them on wet. That means I only need to take one pair of socks.

It is not necessary for you to believe for the technology to work.  In fact, if you do not believe it, then I am the ultimate Elite Knitter.  The more that you do not believe, the more astonishing my knitting. The more astonishing my knitting, the more I must be  the ultimate Elite Knitter.  To demote me, you must show that everyone can knit a couple pairs of good, tight snow socks per month.

Pure Wisdom

He, that I call "Pure Wisdom" is a member of my most extended family.  He was one of the brightest stars at one of the world's most technical companies, and now is one of its most senior managers. He is no longer concerned with technical issues because he says, "Old must be BOLD!"

We are, after all, are writing our Epitaph. We are writing our grave stone.  Writing in stone takes great force.  Yes, we need to be very bold.

There are many manuals for writing resumes, but there are few guides to writing good Epitaphs.

One was laid out by Ina Corina Brown in the course she taught as a Peabody Scholar.  Sometimes it was offered as a set of things to do on a regular basis, and sometimes it was offered as a personal performance test.  Here is one of the test versions.

1.     Do I seek to to achieve personal growth and development by means of some plan whereby I can enlarge my horizons as well as fill gaps in my knowledge an experience?

2.     Do I subscribe to or regularly access:

2.1.  Some reliable news media? 

2.2.  Some quality magazines dealing with current thought?

2.3.  Some magazines devoted at least in part to book reviews and literary criticism?

2.4.   First rate professional journals?

3.     Do I read at least 2 dozen serious books in the field of biography, history, current affairs, and literature (including classics read and reread)?

4.     Do I make some serious effort in increase my understanding and appreciation of art, literature, and music through the use of pictures, lectures, concerts, records, plays, books and the selective use of radio, TV, and Utube ?

5.     Do I follow some consistent plan for building a library, including dictionaries, atlases, encyclopedias, religious texts, and reference books such as Bartlett's Quotations, Fowler's English Usage, and more modern texts on the topic?

6.     Do I have some consistent plan for professional reading, and for professional growth and development?

7.     Do I have an interest in, and an awareness of, the world of nature so that I can identify and enjoy birds, flowers, trees, stars, and landscapes?

8.     Do I have some enriching and relaxing hobby or interest such as weaving, wood or leather working, cabinet making, book binding or gardening?

9.     Do I belong to and actively participate in at least 3 of the following:

9.1.  A religious body?

9.2.  A civic group?

9.3.  A political group?

9.4.  A literary, art or music group?

9.5.  A scientific group?

9.6.  A social action group?

9.7.  A professional society?

10.  Do I have some consistent and orderly plan for budgeting and handling my income so that:

10.1.  I am able to meet my obligations promptly?

10.2.   Get the greatest possible benefit form my income?

10.3.     Make reasonable provision for the future?

11.   Do I have some consistent can orderly plan for budgeting my time so that I can:

11.1.   Meet my personal and professional obligations?

11.2.    Render service to my fellowmen?

11.3.     Have time for enriching leisure?

12.  Do I take care of my health through habits of eating and sleeping, judicious use of exercise and rest, and regular physical examinations including eyes and teeth?

13.  Am I particular in habits of personal cleanliness and grooming, and in selection, care and repair of clothing?

14.  Do I fulfill my obligation as a citizen by:

14.1.   Voting regularly and as intelligently as possible?

14.2.    Civic participation (serving on boards and committees, aiding in Red Cross and other drives and etc.?

14.3.  Some regular volunteer service to an organization engaged in community betterment?

15.  Am I careful in my oral and written speech habits including enunciation, pronunciation, vocabulary and sentence structure, and do I attempt to correct known deficiencies?

16.  Do I practice the kind of good manners that come of a thoughtful awareness and  consideration of others?

17.  Have I honestly attempted to achieve those qualities of character that I most genuinely admire such as integrity, fortitude, compassion, tolerance?

18.  Do I make a persistent effort to rub off the rough edges of my personality and to become a friendly,  likable person who brings out the best in others?

19.  Am I continuously enlarging the horizons of my knowledge, interest and concern so as to become in the best sense of the word, a citizen of the world?

20.  Am I honestly trying to develop what Overstreet calls “The Mature Mind”, so that I may grow up before I grow old?

See for example http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-41198-154456/unrestricted/chap6.pdf

I transcribed the above from a hard copy, and I know there are some typos in it, but in accordance with "make it work, then make it pretty"  I offer it up in its current state.

The other thing that I would add is that there is a lot of sloppy thinking out there.  Sometimes details matter. And, when details matter, generalities fail. When someone tells you that woolen spun is warmer than worsted because woolen is looser and holds more air, ask yourself if they have the details correct. 

Spinning, knitting, and waving are all technologies where details matter - a lot.  And, yet I find that many modern hobby spinners, knitters, and weavers tend to gloss technical details.  They pretend to want to spin or knit or weave fast, but avoid the tools that would allow them to work faster.

Thus, the  4 additional questions that I would add to ICB's exam are:

21. Am I honest with myself about my goals?

22. Do I test statements asserted by others as facts?

23. Do I keep my math sharp?

24. Do expand and deepen my knowledge of physical science? 

Testing statements is not looking them up at some citation. It is either calculations from first principles, or going into the lab or studio, making the test equipment or preparing the test material and testing it. If you want to know whether I am telling the truth about what kind of fabrics are warmer, knit up some fabric swatches and test their insulation values.  If you want to know if I am correct about knitting sheaths, make one and try it.  Try it with pointy needles, then try it with blunt needles.  I did.   

By reading the classics, we learn, "Trust, but verify!"

Speculation from Ignorance

Recently, I have been seeing a lot of Speculation from Ignorance about my knitting. It is derogatory. What drives them to slander and libel me?

Do they really think that when somebody spends 15 years working out how to make knit objects that are just the way he likes them, that he is going to come up with crap?  No, in 15 years one can learn how to make the best possible objects.

Are the sexist? Who cares? This is likely a deeper emotion. They are lazy, and they want fast gratification.

They do not want folks talking about fine needles producing fine knitting.

If they want to produce knitting as good as mine, they need to use needles as fine as mine. They do not want to put in the effort required by fine needles. They want to be elite knitters, but they do not want to put in the effort required for fine knitting. Thus, they want to shut me up as fast as possible.

 
I was in the LYS today, and a lady was talking (with awe) about the fine hand knitting produced on 3 mm needles during the 1920s. As she was speaking, I was knitting 2,000 ypp, 3x2 cabled yarn on 1.75 mm (flat ended) needles at 14 spi. It is a nice fabric.  In is a finer fabric than can be produced on most of the needles that most modern knitters use.  I am not saying anything against those fabrics knit quickly on fat needles, I am saying that the fabrics that I produce on finer needles have particular virtues. Once you get into the rhythm of the process, it goes pretty fast.  After 15 years, I can say that I am approaching fine knitting.

Look at the old Izod polo shirts.  They were finely knit wool.  I can remember when there were finely knit wool rugby shirts.  The term "shirt" traditionally included finely knit wool.

Knit wear supporting a pool of water

Here is a 5 year old pix of some knit wear including a sweater supporting a pool of water.

It was 12 oz cup about 2/3 full, so that is about 8 oz of water pooled on that sweater.

And yes, the cement was dry when I picked the sweaters up.

Try it with your sweaters!.  Then, make a knitting sheath; get, or make some gansey needles, and  knit a good tight swatch.  Wash it, oil it with lanolin, block it/ dry it.  Then, try pouring water on your swatch.  The water will pool on it.  Another test is to face a bright window, and hold the fabric about an inch from your eye.  If you cannot distinguish the edge of the window, then (if oiled) water will pool on the fabric and the fabric will keep you warm.

Left to right the yarns were Winghams gansey, MacAusland, and the old LB Fisherman's Wool.  The socks and balaclava were knit from MacAusland.  All of those fabrics will hold a pool of water.  The  6-strand sock yarn that I use these days produces a fabric that feels softer, but is even more weatherproof.

A competent knitter can make a functional knitting sheath in half an hour. (Functional, not pretty!)  A competent knitter can make a set of needles from music wire from the local hardware store.  Use a firmly spun yarn, and in a long afternoon, you can prove to yourself that knitting with a knitting sheath will produce fabrics that cannot be reasonably knit with hand held needles.  Yes, such fabrics can be knit with only hand held needles, but it is very slow and hard on the wrists. Been there, done that, which is why I went looking for a better way. With a knitting sheath, knitting such fabrics is fast and easy.

Anybody with an interest will try the technique.  It works.  Anybody that does not try, is not really interested. I do not have time for people that are not interested.

For the folks that are interested, I have time to give pointers and tips on how to make better knitting sheaths, better needles, and develop better technique.

Boot socks knit n 2015, each supporting a nice pool of water.  In some places water has run off sideways, but each sock is holding a pool of water- e.g., the water is not draining down through the fabric.  Nevertheless, these socks all allow water vapor to pass though them, allowing the feet to dry.

Flat tipped needles 2

These days, I make knitting needles by cutting steel music wire to length, grinding the ends flat or slightly domed, and polishing the burrs off the edge. Pix of the needles I have been using (in the Redwoods).

Needles in the range of  2 - 2.4 mm. The cross section of the ends is round.

The 2 knitting sheaths that went with me to the Redwoods.

 A worn and machine washed (in hot water) "swatch".  (This yarn is NOT labeled as washable!!) The yarn is a  3x2 cabled yarn that I am using for all my hiking socks this year.  RIW got 12" high socks of this design/yarn and used them for a dozen days of skiing last winter.  He tells me that they work as well as the Shetland yarns I had been using for his ski socks.

A swatch as it comes off the needles - these anklets I wear on the Nordic track.  I like the pointed toe to cushion my toes.

The belt I wore over my swimming trunks to hold my knitting sheath.  (It came with some cheap shorts from Costco.)  It does not work very well for pointed needles with a knitting sheath - (they need more support, e.g., a leather belt), but it works well enough with flat ended needles.  Flat tipped needles really do simplify the whole knitting sheath concept.   

I do not suggest that flat tipped needles work very well for hand hand knitting.  Ball tipped needles work OK hand knitting soft woolen fabrics, but pointy really is better for hand held knitting.

short sleeved Shetland

A nice beam reach home,  made more interesting by fracturing the main sheet fitting.  It was cool and breezy.

The gansey was short sleeved to allow reaching into the water to set lines on trolling weights, but it works for all kinds of play on the water. It is not pretty, but it does what it does very well.

I knit things that I think will be useful and comfortable.  And,I test them.  I make sure that the techniques I use produce objects that are useful and comfortable

Flat tipped needles work with leather knitting pouches

I was wrong.  Flat tipped needles work very well with Shetland knitting pouches for ordinary knitting, purling, and decreases.

Since the motions are smaller, the knitting is faster and less effort.  As I get more comfortable knitting with flat tipped needles, the process gets faster.  My original estimates of 10%- 15% likely understate the speed advantage of flat tipped needles.

Also the knitting sheath needle adapters are much easier to make for cylindrical needles, and they work much better. As a system, flat tipped needles with knitting sheaths is simpler and works better.

Using a Journeyman knitting pouch with US#1 flat tipped needles did not seem to cause any delay in inserting the needle into the pouch. This was very much a surprise as I had expected that the point of the needle was essential to quickly inserting the needle into the knitting pouch.

At this point, I see pointy knitting needles as only for hand held knitting techniques.

At this point, I guess that with a Shetland knitting pouch and flat tipped needles, all of the stitches used in traditional Shetland lace of the Victorian period can be produced with flat tipped needles.  I have not tested this, and will have to get out my old lace patterns and see if it is true.

The silver spoon

You go into history, and find times and places where a the number of professional spinners can be associated in some way with a definite quantity of wool being spun; or cloth being produced. From that one can calculate ( See AA for the math) the productivity of the spinners.   From that one can estimate what technology the spinners were using. There are many times and places were we have such data (of varying quality). The problem is not finding the data, the problem is understanding that the data can be used to calculate spinner productivity.

Then, plot spinner productivity against geographic location and time. Varying data quality ensures that these are noisy curves.

Transitions that might be visible in such curves would include drop spindle => driven spindle, adoption of single drive flyer/bobbin assemblies for plying, and adoption of  "DRS" double drive technology. Given the quality of the data, I do not see clear evidence of the first 2 anywhere, anytime. However there seems to be an abrupt increase in spinner productivity on the European continent in the 14th century.

Then, wool and textiles were a more profitable industry, and over the 15th century England moved forward with enclosure and the 1489 Act.  England saw that textiles could be more profitable and England wanted more of the business.

To get there, one needs to understand that "DRS" double drive technology increases the productivity of a spinner producing worsted spun warp by a factor of 4.  Some readers have not kept up with the material and  have not yet internalized this point. (Or, being voracious readers, they would have already done the calculations and noticed the trends.)  I am reminded of  organic chemistry, when keeping up with the material required 40 or 50 hours of hands on chemistry in the lab every week.  DRS also requires hands on studio work every week.

Today very few hand spinners use DRS double drive technology, and thus modern hand spinners miss just how powerful a technology it is.  When spinning woolen, DRS is only about 50% faster than a single drive system, but when spinning worsted it is 400% faster. DRS allows a completely different drafting technique, that is not taught in spinning classes because nobody has DRS wheels that allow the use of such technique.  It allows me to spin in one day, what other modern spinners will spend the whole week spinning.

I like worsted spun knitting yarns and I like to spin my own warm.  The effort required to become proficient with DRS is one of the best investments I have ever made.  It did not come in a silver spoon or a workshop at Black Sheep. It came by diligently thinking and working.

And, until I can find somebody to make the spinning wheels, it is not something I can teach in a workshop.