Why Cables?

Like a Socratic question or a question used to teach Shaolin monks, this question has many layers.

First, why gansey knit? (i.e., knit with a knitting sheath and long steel needles)  The gansey knitting technology allows knitting tighter than can be achieved without the leverage provided by the knitting sheath.  The tighter, gansey knit fabric is more weatherproof than can be achieved with hand held needles.  The fabric  is remarkably thin for its warmth, which is a real advantage in the cramped quarters onboard a working fishing ship, and it is remarkably warm which in an a real advantage in the cold and windy conditions under which commercial fishing is often conducted.  That is reasonable, but why cables?

Cables provide some additional ventilation between the sweater and the oil skin (water proof layer) to reduce wetness under oil skins as a result of moisture from the sailor's skin condensing on the cold inside of the oil skin.  This is a good reason.  It may abe reason enough.  Cables provide some additional comfort when sleeping in a canvas hammock.  This is a good reason.  Cables provide an artistic outlet for the knitter.  This is a good reason.  Cable patterns help identify the sweater (and I assert, at one time the cable pattern indicated the wearer's job and fleet.)  That is a good reason.  However, none of these are really compelling  reasons.

To really understand cable patterns, you have to go back to the reason for for ganseys; warmth with light weight. The early (13th centrury) fishermen on the North Atlantic lashed barrels to the rails of their small (70 foot) ships.  Then, the fishermen stood in the barrels with straw to help keep them warm , and jigged for cod.    (later they jigged for mackerel, and trawled for herring).  In those days, a single cod could weigh more than 100 pounds.  Bringing up a cod was like hauling a iron manhole cover up through 300 feet of water, and they would do it every 10 minutes. Except this is the North Atlantic, so there are large waves and everything is rocking.  What did they do?  They braced themselves against the edge of the barrel.

Put on a sweater and climb into a barrel, grab hold of a manhole cover and have 2 of your brothers rock the barrel violently as you repeatedly lift the manhole cover for a week. At the end of a week you have a big hole in your sweater where it rubbed against the edge of the barrel.

(Later generations of fishermen worked from dories and braced themselves against the gunnels of the dory.)

After they caught the fish, they cut fish.  With the ship still rocking, you take a fish in one hand and a sharp knife in the other and you brace your self against the cutting table - except by now your gansey has a hole in it, and there is only a thin apron between your belly and the cold slime and wet from the cutting table.   You get back to St Peter Port  and you  go to your knitter, and tell them that you want a sweater that will last more than a week.  So they  knit you one - with cables on the belly where it rubs against the barrel, and the design was so good, that in some way copied by 50 generations of knitters. Thus, fisherman's sweaters have cables or fisherman's welt on their fronts.

The third job of the fisherman was to get where the fish were, and  stay where the fish were.  That meant sailing up wind  in all weather.  The weather blew the ship off the fish, so the fisherman must constantly sail up wind. Sailing up wind is an uncomfortable business.  Moreover, the harder the wind blows, the more uncomfortable it is, but also, for a commercial fisherman who must catch his catch as fast as possible, the more important it is to work to windward, to stay over the fishing grounds.

During a storm on the Grand Banks, the expected wave period is only 20 seconds.  On a ship, anything that is not lashed down is going to get thrown about.  Lead sinkers jump 2 feet in the air, twice a minute.  Sailors get thrown about. The ships were oak and the sailors, mortal flesh. Today under those conditions, we would be wearing layers of  polyester fleece (and life jackets/ float coats/immersion suits) and that would provide some protection.  However, gansey fabric was thinner and provided less padding.  Hence, cables all over the sweater provided some padding in an otherwise thin garment.  Again, likely a concept developed by knitters on the Channel Islands, and copied by others knitting for sailors for 50 generations.

We can look at the differences between the sweaters worn by sailors and fishermen and those worn by life boat men to take another bearing on the concept.  The ganseys worn by life boat men do not seem to have had cables.  Life boat men did wear oil skins, so we can drop the ventilation concept. What they did not do is brace themselves against the railing or gunnels to haul fish to the surface.  The lifeboat's prize was already at the surface.  They rowed out, picked it up, and rowed back.  Nor did the lifeboat men take the beating of sailing to weather for days or weeks on end.  It is not that rowing a lifeboat is easy, just there is less to bang against.  So while lifeboatmen's gamseys without cables do not prove my theory of cables as padding, they  does not disprove my theory either.

Having worn ganseys with and without cables, while sailing in serious weather, I find the concept of cables as padding the most compelling reason for cables.   Anybody that disagrees should have tried sailing in ganseys with and without cable patterns on them in serious weather.  To have any credibility, on this topic you need to have been out fishing when the waves were bigger than the boat.  You need to understand that the key to getting work done while wearing a Type 1 PFD is motivation.  To have any credibility, on this topic you need to have been knitting while lead sinkers were thumping on their racks.

Snow is coming!

Every cell phone needs a gansey!

Also fits my little camera.

A Skeiner

I should have done this sooner.  Way sooner.

The royal profile of 

Casimir the Great

The back side of 

Casimir the Great.

 It is a skeining wheel bolted to the back of the the squirrel cage swift.  It took a most of  a day to make and the next morning to test and fix, but now it works.  This wheel is for 1 meter skeins Now that I know how to do it, I can make other wheels for larger skeins rather quickly.

The really neat thing is skeining off of the little Shaker Rockets.  Set them on the floor and the Skeiner on a table.  I use the spring loaded tensioning device from my large cake winder to put a little tension into the yarn. That is the ticket!

Knitters have their lists of essential tools.  Spinners have their lists of essential tools.  Vertical swifts never seem to make either list.  However, vertical swifts and skeiners form an interface between spinning and knitting.  So, while vertical swifts and skeiners are not essential to either spinners or knitters, they are highly desirable for folks that do both.

At this point, I have something like 24 hours of effort and $20 of materials and supplies into Casimir the Great.  Amos could have made me a better one, but if I ordered it last week I would not have had it in hand this morning for winding skeins, and it would have cost me more. Mostly, this fits what I want to do, at least this month.  And, I will never be afraid to take it apart and make it better.  This is one time where courage comes cheap.

Any tool that can be made, can be made better.

Shaker Rockets

There is the age old problem of winding off.

The Shakers had a neat kind of bobbin.  See for example "silk reel" at http://pweb.jps.net/~gaustad/winding.html .  Amos makes nice ones.

However, the hobby shop sells little circles of plywood and our fencing contractor gave me some scrap, so --

This comes pretty close to "fun with plywood and Elmer's glue.  Use a waterproof glue and you can wash the yarn on the reel.  And, steam block it.  Then, when it is dry you set the reel on its end and it is easy to wind off as end delivery. 

Um, paste wax the edges of the reel before use:  

The Glory of Skeins

As a knitter, I put up with skeins as one puts up with cold rain on a camping trip.  They were something that had to be endured while one stayed cheerful and pleasant to one's companions.  I bought an economical swift:

and a large ball winder.  When I bought skeins of yarn, I went ahead and wound it into cakes to be ready for knitting.  I did try knitting off of my swift, but it was not practical.  It has been a very good work horse, and I do not regret buying it.  I might very well recommend the system to a casual knitter.  It has worked very well.

This carried over to my spinning.  I tended to avoid skeins. I kept singles on bobbins.  I would spin, ply, block with steam, and wind my yarn into a cake for knitting without ever scouring it - because skeins were a pain.  I looked for a way to scour an block yarn while it was on a bobbin because I did not like skeins.  I did not get/make a reel for making skeins because I thought skeins were a pain.

However, the squirrel cage swift as it evolves is different.

This one has evolved to the point where it really works, and it just needs a little sanding and finish.  Let me just say that fancy and expensive does not make a good squirrel cage swift, and there are good reasons that Alden Amos gets $600 for his swifts.  He has refined his designs until they are exceptionally functional.

Any good squirrel cage makes handling skeins easy.  I can put a skein on the swift and knit directly from the skein. It is sort of like a yarn butler standing there behind my knitting chair feeding me yarn. All of a sudden, I understand skeins!

The next squirrel cage swift that I make (yes, I need another) will be a real yarn butler for my knitting. It will have a articulated arm to hold patterns as my pattern holder does:

And it will have a little thingy to hold extra knitting tools and it will have a nice light on it that points right at my knitting.  It might even have a place to set my tea cup.

However, first I need to make a skeining reel because if one has the right swift, skeins are very handy.  I think it is too bad the great virtues of squirrel cage swifts and skeins are not taught as part of modern knitting.  These days people have to get into spinning and weaving before they learn how very useful a squirrel cage swift can be.

Skeins of very fine, energetic singles are still a pain. : (

80s from 80s

This summer's project is to spin a pound of combed fiber into 80 hanks of 560 yards each. In total, it means spinning about 26 miles of rather fine singles.

I use a competition flier from Alden Amos with a bobbin designed to insert ~24 tpi, thus there is no need for yarn lock to accumulate twist, and there is no slippage.  If I am not feeding drafted fiber into the maw of my beast, I break off.  On the other hand, since there is no slippage, it is fast. The uniform high twist also gives the yarn a nice "tooth".

However, as the effective diameter of the bobbin increases, the rate of takeup increases and the tpi goes down.  Thus, I have to wind off frequently. And wind off eats a spinner's time.

My approach is to wind off onto a niddy-noddy made of pvc.

I am doing this because the singles are fine, and a bit fragile for normal yarn reels. And I do not mind putting these niddys into the wash tubs.  these singles are so energetic that they must be blocked before they will make a usable skein.

With the yarn on the niddy-noddy, it can be washed and rinsed to remove the spinning oil, blocked with steam, and dried in the sun.

Once it is dry, the yarn can be taken off made up into a tiny skein.

Since it has been well blocked, that little skein can be stored away.  In the future, It can be mounted onto a squirrel cage swift and quickly wound onto it's plying bobbins.

This is how I avoid turning the task of washing spinning oil out of spun singles into a full time job. 

Edited on 8/2 to add that I prefer the Shaker Rockets (silk reels) for washing the singles.  They are much faster and easier to work with despite the fact that if wind off is not done properly, loops of single can slide off the end of reel resulting in a tangled mess. This niddy-noddy wash technology is much safer, if slower.

This project was originally planned as practice to learn to spin finer.  The fibers above are actually more than 24 micron, thus there was some effort to spin them into 45,000 ypp thread.  With the appropriate wash technologies, finer fiber, better fiber prep, and the right bobbin, it turns out to be easy. 

The Bobbin for the 80s from 80 count project inserts 24 tpi.

It turns out to just be a matter of  going out in the morning and carefully combing 24 grams of  fine wool, loading it onto 4 distaffs, and spending 10 hours spinning 4 hanks.  It is more work, and less technical challenge than I expected.  I only took this project on to practice for another project, a project with a real deadline.  I need to get the other project done, I will do this 80 from 80 in November.

The flyer/bobbin setup for the next project inserts 36 tpi, and the sample on the bobbin does have 36 tpi and is not particularly over twisted. (Lets see, um that would yield a yarn over 360 wpi or a grist more than 130,000 ypp (200 m/g) with a deadline?   :  )  

A Fast Squirrel Cage Swift

Fine (lace) yarns in a skein want a squirrel cage swift because there is less rotational momentum, and the yarns are less likely to be stressed to the breaking point.

Yesterday, I knocked up this swift using Ashford Lace bobbins instead of making squirrel cages and it seems to work.  Since the bobbins are easily removable, they do not have to be dedicated to the swift - they can do double duty. 

The bobbin axles are grade 2, 1/4" hex bolts.  The axle for the movable bobbin goes through 2  wooden "T" s that together to  form a slider that holds the axle.  A second hole drilled though the slider contains a threaded insert in the front T, and  a bolt epoxied into a bit of dowel for a handle allows tightening the Ts together to hold the slider in position.

This swift takes skeins up 2 ft in diameter.  It was made from scrape wood and took a couple of hours.  Cost for bolts and inserts was less than $5.  This one is handy and compact, but I am going to need a bigger one real soon now.


The next day:


It is not a bad swift, but it is not a real squirrel cage swift. Real squirrel cages give more leverage and allow the yarn to be pulled around easier.  As in:

A hank (560 yard) of squirrelly 2-ply lace weight.  The skein was poorly prepared and is a mess.    The squirrel cages fit on the same 1/4 inch bolts as the Ashford bobbins.  As fa as aesthetics go, they are on the practical side.

A few minutes later there is a 2 oz cake of lace yarn.

It took all morning to make my first  3 squirrel cages.  They cost me about  $8 in wood, dowels & supplies. As I said, I need a bigger squirrel cage swift, real soon now.

Edited to add that a week later, I can see a multitude of  ways that I could make that swift better.  And, over time I will make it better.  And I need a second swift and it will be simpler to make.  However, I do not regret  making this swift in its crude way because I have had the use of it, and it is that use that allows me to refine the concept.  Buy spinning tools from folks that spin, not guys that make tools for people that spin.  One does not understand a tool unless one uses it at a very high level of proficiency.  Only by understanding a can one design a better tool.  This is why Alden Amos's tools are better than the tools made by wood workers who are not expert spinners. 

New Knitting Sheath Adapter System

I have been looking for a better system for connecting the needle adapters to the knitting sheaths.  I now have the solution.  To be frank, I stole it from Alden Amos.

I now use a "hanging bolt" and a "threaded insert". It is strong, secure, light weight, and compact.

Here are pix of a generation of prototypes that I made for myself. (This is about the 5th generation of knitting sheaths with this technology that I made.)  This set of adapters is sized US 0 to US 6 with the size indicated by the number of black rings on the adapter. Sizes 3&4 are combined in a single adapter. I still like very hard woods for US 1 and smaller, but am using cherry for adapters for needles larger than US 1.  Cherry is hard enough for the bodies of the knitting sheaths.  With these adapters, it should last forever.

Henceforth, all of my knitting sheaths will be made with this technology.  It is better.  It is a pain in the neck to make, but once one is up the experience curve, it is better.  I an not thrilled bout the aesthetics of the technology, but I love its practical functionality and utility.

No! I have not given up knitting for spinning. I spin so that I can knit better.  And, when I can, I improve my knitting sheaths.

Winding off of a precise DRS bobbin assembly

For high grist singles, I use a precise DRS bobbin to flier ratio without slippage.  This means that the twist inserted in to the yarn changes as the effective diameter of the bobbin changes as yarn winds onto the bobbin. Thus, consistent twist requires frequent windoffs.

In the past, I simply knotted the the new single to the end of the single already on my windoff bobbin. Then, when I plied, I would take the knots out, and overlap to form a continuous yarn.   However, I never liked having singles with a knot in them every couple of hundred yards.

However, by putting a hook  in the end of the dowel that holds my windoff bobbin, I can now make "spun" joins as I wind my singles off, even if it takes a hundred turns to make a secure joint in the yarn.

I taper both ends of the singles to be joined, overlap the ends, and insert enough twist to hold the joint together.  Inserting that twist with the drill is fast and easy.  Sure, I could have done it manually, but that was very slow for fine, high twist yarns.  And, it did not really matter for 5 or 6 ply gansey yarns.  For a lace yarn, it matters.

Thus, this bobbin now holds some 400 yards of  27,000 ypp single spin on a precise DRS bobbin assembly without a knot in it.

The fiber is Rambouillet.  It has more luster than the other fine wools.  I like that luster a lot.  This stuff gleams and sparkles.  The stuff on the bobbin above does not sparkle because it has spinning "goo" on it.

The new spinning workstation

A few months ago, Stephenie Gaustad told me that if I really wanted to spin fast, I should go to an e-spinner or motor spinner.  I had a bunch of reasons why I did not want to start motor spinning.

However, last month I helped my sister move her gold smith shop.  At the end of the day there was a 1/4 hp, 18,000 rpm industrial motor left, over and my sister suggested that I take it home with me ( Across country.)

It sat in the corner of the shop for a few days, then a rebuild kit arrived from Grizzly, and in a couple of hours,  it was a good as new.

Then, it wanted a purpose in life.  It wanted to spin.  There were a dozen prototypes, including one with a Ashford Jumbo ST flier that actually did several hundred yards of ~9,000 ypp single before being disassembled.

However,  one cannot keep nice little motor like that in a drawer.  It wants to spin.

The new spinning workstation.  

Much, much faster for high twist singles.  This is a prototype but as a workstation, it works so well that I am not in a hurry to build the Mark II version.

Speed is controlled by a "router speed controller" with a foot pedal (like a sewing machine) for a soft start. (This approach works on "universal wound" motors with brushes.) The flier is a #1 double drive by Alden Amos.  I turned the bobbins to have correct DRS and core diameters to insert the correct twist for the singles that I spin.  The MOA is standard Ashford.

I would not have bothered if I was spinning low twist (less than 5,600 ypp) yarns, and I think that yarns thinner than  ~ 30,000 ypp are too fragile for this machine, but for garment weight singles, it is wonderful.

Understand the Spindle! Part IV

I seem to have made a mistake in my calculations.

A rim weighted whorl does tend to slow the copp/ spindle system after the copp has gotten large enough to act as a good whorl.  This was my basis of analysis for suggesting that whorls be removable so that they do not slow the spindle as the copp is finished.

Center weighted whorls on the other hand, can be fixed because they do not tend to slow the spindle as much.

A drop spindle for travel

Rim weighted whorls do have their uses.  This compact spindle was make for producing 6,000 ypp singles while out and about.

 The shaft is rosewood, the hook is steel, and the whorl is a steel machine nut threaded on a piece of rose wood.  The shaft weight is 3 g, and the whorl weight is 15 g for a total weight of 18 grams

 An evening's spinning, just over a hundred yards -  not much because I had managed to get some epoxy under the skin of a finger and it hurt.

In contrast, here is my current production spindle for 9,000 ypp singles:

 The whorl weight is 15 g, and the shaft weight is 5 g for a total weight of 20 g.

 Yes, the production spindle is faster. The rim weighting of the compact spindle slows it down.  Despite being heavier, the center weighted spindle spins faster, and transfers twist to the yarn faster.

These spindles do not push the limits.  They could be used upside down as bottom whorl spindles.  9,000 ypp singles are plenty strong enough to withstand a half-hitch.  Problems with the strength of half-hitches do not show up until higher grists.

Where were such tools when I was learning to spin?  Nobody was talking about them and nobody was selling them.

High Whorl vs. Low Whorl Spindles

The choice between high whorl and low whorl drop spindles in usually presented as purely personal choice.  However, there are rational factors that should enter into the selection of a spindle for a particular project. Both styles of spindle have their virtues, and things that they do less well.  Between them is a middle ground where either will serve.

Bottom whorl spindles are inherently more stable.  They are suited for robust designs which tend to be heavier, and less fragile.  These designs have substantial mass (more than 30 grams) and are suited for plying and making singles with grist of less than 6,000 ypp.

Top whorl spindles can be made lighter, so that less effort is required to accelerate them to very high speed.  The high speed makes them suited to spinning high grist singles.

This is not to say that it is not possible to make a heavy top whorl spindle. However, if you want a heavy spindle, you might as well go for the stability of a bottom whorl spindle.

A heavy spindle will not spin high grist singles as fast as a (center weighted) light weight spindle. Thus, the bottom line is that a well designed top whorl spindle can spin fine singles (greater than 9,000 ypp) several times faster than a bottom whorl spindle. This is an advantage that no amount of skill or experience can overcome.

A heavy (rim weighted) spindle delivers torque to overcome the higher resistance of  low grist singles and plying. For these duties the heavier spindle is better, and gets the job done faster.  There is nothing as frustrating as trying to spin a low grist single with a spindle that does not carry enough momentum.   (Yes, Virginia, you need to ask Santa Clause for 2 spindles;  a light one and a heavier one.)

So the next time a spindle vendor tells you that their spindle is "fast", ask,  "Fast for what?"  A spindle that is fast for plying and low grist yarns will be slow when spinning lace singles.  A spindle that quickly spins lace singles will have problems spinning low grist singles (or plying).  If they say for spinning lace, ask them what they mean by "lace".  These days, lace can mean anything from 4,000 ypp to 30,000 ypp and that is a huge range.

No drop spindle is as fast as a properly selected, and tuned, DD flyer/bobbin assembly.  However, the correct spindle for the job is a whole lot faster than the wrong spindle for the project. 

The sum of what I know about spindles

I have often said that I do not really understand spindles.  It turns out that part of  the problem was that I did not like modern spindle designs for the kind of singles that I was trying to spin.  The conventional wisdom of modern spindle design did not apply to what I was trying to do.

Here are spindle designs that work for me.  They are designed to spin 9,000 to 12,000 ypp singles at a good rate of speed.  The removable whorl allows continued high speed spinning even after the the copp gains enough mass to affect the rotation speed of the spindle - just take the whorl off and use the copp for rotational momentum.  The materials are rosewood  or ash shafts and ebony or cocobolo whorls.  The  whorls are in the shape of perforated truncated cones. These are more effort to fabricate than cylinders or disks, but are traditional, and do seem to work better. I use steel hooks and brass brads on the bottom.

For a short time, someone using a Peruvian folk spindle

From: http://abbysyarns.com/2011/02/peruvian-spindles-my-spindles 

might be able to keep up while spinning 10,000 ypp singles, but not for long - the physics are against it. For a spinner to try and spin 10,000 ypp singles on such a large whorl spindle means that they do not really understand the spindle. Certainly, it can be done, but it is a lot of effort.  With the correct spindle, it is much less effort. On the other, hand spinning the low grist yarns in the photo above using one of my spindles designed for fine spinning would be a huge effort.  It could be done, but it would be a huge effort.  A spinner that understands spindles, chooses the right spindle for the task.


Teachers that say, "A good spinner can spin anything on any spindle" either do not understand the physics of spindles or they do not care if their students waste time and effort by working with the wrong tools.

As the copp grows, the rotational speed of the spindle declines, and with a large copp, the additional weight of the fixed whorl limits the maximum rotational speed of the spindle. This is the reason for a removable whorl.  It makes spinning that last third of the copp much faster.

Let us consider a recreational spinner drafting 100 inches per minute. If spinning singles to make 2-ply worsted weight yarn, then the spinner needs ~400 or 500 rpm, (average) and 3 inch whorls work very well. If the spinner is spinning 6,000 ypp lace singles then they need ~ 900 rpm to get the twist to hold the yarn together, and for the same weight whorl, it should be ~1.5" in diameter. (However, likely it will be lighter.)  My whorls have an average diameter of ~1".  A  10,000 ypp single requires 3 times as much twist per inch as  a 1,600 ypp single.  Thus, for me to spin 100 inches per minute, I need to average more than 1,200 rpm to insert the twist to hold that fine single together.

Spindles store energy! Twist is energy! Twist energy is inserted into the yarn from rotational energy stored in the spindle. If a spindle keeps spinning for a long time then it is slowly transferring energy to the yarn, that is: it is spinning slowly!  A belief that a spindle can transfer energy to the yarn and keep rotating is a belief in perpetual motion.  A spindle that slows down and stops, is a spindle that is doing its job.

The spindle with the smaller diameter whorl is going to spin faster. It is going to transfer its energy faster. Then, it is going to slow down and stop - it has done its job.  It is a fast worker.

Tools matter!  Any tool that can be made, can be made better.

ETA 4/23 Lignum is better than ebony for whorls.

Understand the Spindle! Part III

The next set of questions has to do with how the spindle is spun-up, and how much energy is in the "flick".

There are several "finger flick" motions that can be used to spin up a spindle.  These can give a spindle with a 2 inch whorl some 400 rpm.  That means they can give a spindle with a 1 inch whorl as much as 3,000 rpm depending on how the flick is delivered.  However, a smaller whorl diameter is likely to have a smaller diameter blade (the chopstick like stick in a spindle system).  A smaller diameter blade has a smaller circumfrance, which must rotate more times during the flick, so that a smaller diameter blade can produce much higher spindle speeds.  On the other hand, large whorls will need larger blade diameters to provide the torque to get  larger whorl rotating.  Thus, if you want to spin fine yarns fast, smaller whorls allow smaller diameter blades, which allow spinning the spindle faster during the flick.

In short, it is a system, and by changing the diameter of the whorl and the blade, we can make spinning one kind of yarn easier (and spinning another kind of yarn more difficult.)

The amount of energy that can be delievered to the spindle in one flick is limited.  As the weight of the copp grows, that weight and the weight of the spindle must be both be spun up.  Since some of the energy goes into accelerating the copp, there is less energy to accelerate the spindle.   Thus, as the size of the copp grows the spindle speed is reduced.  This effect can be reduced by using a removalbe  whorl.  Then the whorl is removed when the copp reaches a critical size and spinning continues using the copp as the "whorl".  This allow faster spinning and bigger copps to be built.

The total weight of the system is limited by the tensile strength of the yarn being spun. Fine, soft yarns can not suport as heavy a spindle system as a hard spun cord.  Wool cannot support as heavy a spindle system as linen, cotton, or hemp, and so forth.

On the other hand, spinning hard spun cords require heaver spindles and whorls with longer lever arms to insert twist into yarns with more spin rigidity.Thicker yarns require heavier spindles to hold the fibers in alignment as twist is inserted. (Even with woolen yarns, some parts of some fibers have to be held in alignment so that they can be wrapped around each othe to generate the friction to hold the yarn together.)

Thus, we can design or select a spindle to facilitate the kind of spinning that we want to do.

For strong/ heavy cords/heavy plying : A heavy spindle with a large diameter whorl such as a Navajo or dare I say it?  (I dare!) the old Ashford spindles.

For singles for 2-ply worsted yarn:  This is where the common modern designs excel with ~3" whorls and total spindle running weights ~2 oz.  Cupped or weghted whorl rims allow slow, carefull drafting for spinning very pretty yarns.

Lace singles (6,000 - 12,000 ypp) :  Here modern spindle designs get schizophrenic, with light weight but long lever arms.  I like a removeable whorl bead (sometimes a metal nut) with a total spindle weight near 0.7 oz. Whorl diameter varies from 0.5 to 1" depending on the desired yarn texture. As the copp grows, I take the whorl off and allow the copp to act as the whorl, so that the final weight of blade and copp of 560 yards is only a few grams heavier than the original blade and whorl weight.

Fine Singles (grist greater than 12,000 ypp): Supported spindles (Russian & Tahkli ) work very well, but drop spindles can be much faster.  The trick is to use thin blades and small whorl beads.  In particular, top spindles spun up with thigh rolls can allow rapid production of fine singles.

Understand the Spindle! part 2

In Part I, I mentioned mass that is farther from the center of rotation slows the rotation of the spindle.  This is a dramatic effect.  Suppose you have a spindle with a 12 gram whorl in the shape of a flat disk. If that whorl is 1 inch in diameter, then the speed will be X for one "flick" that gives the spindle rotation.  If the spindle is made with a thinner whorl, then a 2 inch diameter whorl, still weighted at 12 grams, have a speed of X/8.  If the spindle is made still thinner so that it has to be 3 inches across to weight 12 grams, then the speed will be X/27.  That is, a spindle with a 1 inch whorl will spin 27 times faster than a spindle with a 3 inch whorl when they both carry the same rotation energy.  When spinning yarns of the same grist, the spindle with the 3" whorl will deliver its energy to the yarn much more slowly and be much more suited to spinning thicker yarns that require much less twist per inch.  The 3" whorl also has a longer lever arm and thus can deliver more torque.  Thicker yarn requires more torque to insert  twist into the yarn.  Thus, large whorls are better suited to spinning thicker yarns and small diameter wholes are better suited to spinning finner singles.

Cupped and rim weighted whorls, where even more of the weight of the whorl is farther from the axis of rotation result in even slower spindle rotation. This is not bad if you are learing to draft, but it is no good if you want to spin a lot of fine yarn, fast. The classic example is the CD spindle  (http://danielson.laurentian.ca/qualityoflife/Fulltext/Textiles/Making_a_cd_drop_spindle.htm ).  These are spindle with wide, thin whorls that spin slowly for a long time.  The classic Russian supported spindle (http://askthebellwether.blogspot.com/2007/08/how-do-you-spin-on-russian-spindle.html) has its whorl very thick and close to the axis of rotation.  As I look around, the Russian support spindle and the Tahkli are the most comon fast spindles around.  However, it was not always so. 

We find large numbers of small "whorl beads" at sites around the world. see http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/139611.html , http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/140002024 , http://antiquegreeks.info/?s=Bead+Spindle&c=37906 , http://www.stringpage.com/viking/spindles.html , and  http://www.woolery.com/store/pc/Medieval-Spindles-c281.htm .  Were these really used for spinning or were they just decorative beads?  Using metal machine nuts of size and weight similar to those described on the Viking page, I have made spindles that spin fine threads fast. To modern spinners that are accustomed to spinning with modern spindles that spin slowly, these spindles with small whorl beads spin disconcertingly fast.  Unlike the supported Russian and Tahkli spindles that are spun up with a flick, these top and bottom whorl spindles that I have been making can be spun up with thigh rolls and 2-handed tosses to truely high speeds.  Speeds that spindles with mass on a longer leverarm cannot match.

Nobody using a modern Peruvian spindle such as (http://abbysyarns.com/2011/02/peruvian-spindles-my-spindles) can spin that fast, because their spindles are have evolved by tradition to spin slower, with more torque to spin the coarse singles being produced for local utilitarian consumption.  In fact, there are modern Peruvian spinners that use metal machine nuts as spindle whorls. These spinners do spin fine threads fast, they just have not gotten as much publicity.

I do not want a spindle that spins for a long time.  When spinning fine threads (e.g., 100 wpi and much finer) , I want a spindle that transfers its energy to the thread  -- very rapidly.  That means, the spindle is spinning fast.  When my spinlde is inserting twist rapidly, it is putting energy into the thread and that loss of that energy will slow the spindle down rapidly. Thinking that a spindle can insert twist and keep on spinning is like believing in perpetual motion machines. Spindles store energy, they do not create energy.  A spindle that spins for a long time means that it is not transfering its energy to the thread.  A spindle that spins for a long time means that it is spinning slowly, transfering its energy to the thread slowly, and it is inserting twist slowly.  I am not saying that this is bad. It is necessary for thick yarns and for spinners that are slow drafters.  I am saying that traditional spinners used spindles that made spinning the kind of yarn that they wanted to spin easier and faster.  However, today we have a lot of spindles for spinning all kinds of yarns thrown on to the market, and they are not labeled as to what kind of yarn they were designed to spin.  Moreover, modern spinning teachers do not explain in any kind of  detail WHY such and such a spindle is better for a particular project.

Understand the Spindle!

What could there be to understanding a simple spindle??? What could I say, that other spinning teachers have not already said?  This post is not about basic spinning with a spindle, it is about becoming a very good spindle spinner, quickly!

Spinning is about inserting twist into a fibers.  Twist is energy.  Inserting twist is physics. A full understanding of spinning includes understanding the physics of the situation well enough to understand why different kinds spindles are better for different kinds of projects.  Understaning the physics of spindles will help you choose more functional spindles and help you match the project to the spindle.  The right spindle for the project will help you spin faster.  The right spindle for the project will help you spin finer.  The right spindle for the project will help you avoid overspin!  (I am not kidding!)  The right spindle will help you spin thicker. 

Physics gives us a model so that we can understand what kind of spindles will work better for different kinds of yarns.  This means that we do not have to experience every kind of spindle before we can pick the right spindle to spin the knid of yarn that we wish to produce as the next project.  This makes learning to spin easier, faster, and cheaper.  That is, we do not have to have spun with (own) all kinds spindles to know what spindle is right for the yarn that we want to produce.  It takes much of the trial and error out of becoming a very good spindle spinner.

There are a lot different ways to "spin-up" your spindle.  Supported spindles want to be "spun-up" one way and top whorl drop spindles want to be spun-up in other ways.  Read "Amos" and  talk to your spinning teachers.  Learn all the ways that your spindles can be spun up.

For a particular spinner at a particular time, a specific spin-up technique will impart a certain amount of energy into the spindle. For now, I am going to call this a "flick", however the energy is delivered to the spindle. That energy will be expressed as rotation, or angular velocity. The speed of rotation will depend on the energy the spinner is able to deliever, the total mass of the spindle, and the distribution of the mass with respect to the axis of rotation.

If the spindle is light in weight (low mass) the spindle will spin faster.  If the spindle is heavier, the spindle will spin slower. A flick will cause a supported Russian spindle made from the the local (Russian) pine to spin faster than the replica turned from maple, because the pine spindle is lighter than the maple spindle of the same dimentions. On the otherhand, each spindle contains one flick of energy and will insert the same total number of  twists into a thread of the same fiber and grist.  However the pine spindle is rotating faster and thus will deliver its twist faster, so that the spinner will need to draft faster when using the lighter pine spindle.  The  maple spindle will spin slower so the spinner has more time to draft.  The faster drafter will have to wait for the slower maple spindle to deliver the twist required to hold the thread together.  Where the form factor is the same, the lighter spindle will spin faster (given the same flick).  However, the recreational spinner may (very likely) prefer the slower pace of the slightly heavier spindle.  Or, a "Russian" spindle turned from basswood, will spin faster than one made from Russian pine because the basswood spindle will be ligher than the pine spindle.

For two spindles of the same mass, the spindle with more of its mass farther from the axis of rotation will spin slower when given one flick of energy.  Again the total energy available to insert twist is the same in both spindles.  However, the spindle with its mass closer the its axis of rotation (e.g., Russian spindle) will spin faster than a spindle with (some of) its mass farther from its axis of rotation (e.g., a "CD spindle").  Thus, the Russian spindle is more suited to fine grists that require 30 tpi to hold together and the CD spindle is more suited to grists that will hold together with only 4 tpi.  Because the Russian spindle is spinning fast, it will deliver its energy and slow down rapidly.  Spinning at ~500 rpm the Russian spindle will deliver the twist for 16 inches of thread  (at 30 tpi) in about one minute and come to a rest.  In contrast, the CD spindle may only be spinning at 50 rpm so that it takes 10 minutes to deliver its energy.  Thus, it takes the CD spindle a very long time to twist a fine thread, so people do not use CD spindles for fine spinning, they use them for thicker yarns that require less twist to hold together.  These thicker yarns develop more twist rigidity and take more energy to twist, so that for the yarns that CD spindles are used to spin, CD spindles slow down and stop in much less than 10 minutes.   However, given the same kind of "flick" a CD spindle and a Russian spindle of the same total mass carry the same energy, but they rotate at different speeds.

Spinning Stash

Spinners brag about how big their fiber stash is.  Sometimes, they will even say that their fiber stash is so big that they have raw fleece that has been in their stash for months without being washed.

That is proof that they have not bothered to learn the basics of their craft.  It does not matter how they talk and brag, if a spinner stores dirty fleece for more than a couple of weeks, they do not know their craft.

If you are going to store wool for more than a couple of weeks, it should be clean.  Do not buy fleece that has sat dirty. Fleece that has soap or scouring compound residues on it is dirty.  Soap or what ever must be rinsed out of the fleece. Once the fiber is clean, it is easy to store for years. Yes, it will settle and pack and may need to be re-carded or re-combed, but it will keep well.

Wool that is being combed, carded or spun should be oiled (actually a gell of oil and soap).

After being combed, carded, or spun, the fiber prep should be scoured before extended storage

Good professional spinning practice for a thousand years has been to work with clean fleece.  Spinning in the grease does not produce as consistent or as good a yarn as can be spun from clean fiber.

More on how I spin

Fiber gets combed, and then I diz off using a diz with a 3/32" or 1/16" hole.  

The sliver goes into a bin, and I wind it tail first on to my distaff. The sliver takes on 1 twist per wrap of the distaff, which holds it together.

I take the fiber off the distaff over its end, so it loses its twist and is ready to draft.

The sliver going into my drafting hand is much thicker than the tip of the sliver being drafted.  Tension on the sliver between my drafting hand and the distaff holds the fibers in alignment.

With the fiber approaching the drafting zone in close alignment, no "inch worm" drafting is required.  Fibers simply draft in what is very like a continuous attenuated long draw.  I use a very long drafting zone. Where there is a problem with the fiber prep, I may need to "back draft" a bit to maintain consistent grist. However, with good fiber prep, neither hand needs to move much, and the process is as fast as twist can be inserted, and the yarn wound on.  Since the maximum speed of  fliers on a treadled wheel is about 3,600 rpm, the limit for spinning 6,000 ypp  is ~ 12.5 yards per minute, and the limit for 12,000 ypp is just over 6 y/hr.  That means a good days spinning (on a flier) is about 5,000 yards per day for 6,000 ypp and 2,500 yards per day for 12,000 ypp worsted single. ( Actually, my rule of thumb is a hank (560 yards) every 2 hours regardless of grist.) If I want to go faster, I will get a motor spinner or a driven spindle.

All of this depends on having a bobbin flier assembly with the correct effective bobbin core diameter and differential rotation speed to insert the correct twist per inch of take up.

The flier/bobbin assemblies as they came from Amos had a differential rotation speed (DRS) of ~ 1.15 for spinning long draw woolen.  I made new bobbins with DRS in the range of 1.07 to 1.01 for spinning fine worsted singles.

This approach results in a very high quality worsted yarn, and it is very fast.  With well prepped fiber, 2,000 yards per day of 12,000 ypp worsted singles is easy.

The technique is easy, but you need to plan your tools to make it work.  

Oh, and I have moved to using grease rather than oil on my flier/bobbin assemblies. Grease stands up to the speeds I am spinning at better than oil.   I still use oil on the drive wheel and crank.

A finer flyer

Last night Stephene Gaustad delivered a new #0 flier from Alden Amos.

The bobbin has this morning's play on it.  Note where the single crosses the dime.  I think not bad for ordinary fiber with an ordinary prep.

This is a flier that takes Romney fleece and turns it into frog hair.  I swore that I would never use that term, but there it is.  I guess I have "cobweb" on the brain today.

Will this flier spin finer than the Alden Amos  #1 production flier?  Stephenie tests both by spinning 40,000 ypp singles on them before they get packed for shipment, so Alden will not promise that either flier will spin finer than 40,000 ypp, but yes, this flier will spin finer.

However, for  spinning a lot of 11,000 ypp singles in a day, the #1 production flier is the tool of choice.  For situations where I need to spin very fine, this is the tool of choice.