These days, I block singles spun at the fiber's spin count on the skeiner.
I wind off from the spinning bobbin, on to a storage bobbin, and when I have a full hank (560 yd), I wind from the storage bobbin on to the skeiner. The I steam it in place, on the skeiner. I tie the leases, and store it away. The whole thing takes maybe 10 or 12 minutes, so one gets ~54 golden spinning minutes per hour if one is spinning 280 yards per hour.
Steaming 40s on the skeiner does not seem to generate enough tension to damage the skeiner.
On the other hand, singles of 40s and finer need to be blocked before they can be handled, and a hank of fines cannot be reasonably blocked by hanging a weight on the wet hank. I have had experienced, know it all spinners, tell me it could, but we go back to them and ask, "Have you ever blocked 560 yards of 22,000 ypp single by hanging a weight from it?" The answer is invariably "No." They are reciting the modern conventional wisdom for things they have NOT done. And, they are reciting without thinking. AF still thinks she can spin "fines" on her drop spindle using a hitch. Maybe she can, maybe she can't, but she has never just sat there and spun a hank of fines (30,000 ypp and finer singles) in her life. That is a particular skill set, and when she talks about it, she is not speaking from experience. If she had to produce a quarter million yards of 22,000 ypp singles for a bolt of shirting, she would find a better way. And yes, the folks in Flanders were producing boat loads of shirting long before they had flyer/bobbin assembly spinning wheels.
I wind off from the spinning bobbin, on to a storage bobbin, and when I have a full hank (560 yd), I wind from the storage bobbin on to the skeiner. The I steam it in place, on the skeiner. I tie the leases, and store it away. The whole thing takes maybe 10 or 12 minutes, so one gets ~54 golden spinning minutes per hour if one is spinning 280 yards per hour.
Steaming 40s on the skeiner does not seem to generate enough tension to damage the skeiner.
On the other hand, singles of 40s and finer need to be blocked before they can be handled, and a hank of fines cannot be reasonably blocked by hanging a weight on the wet hank. I have had experienced, know it all spinners, tell me it could, but we go back to them and ask, "Have you ever blocked 560 yards of 22,000 ypp single by hanging a weight from it?" The answer is invariably "No." They are reciting the modern conventional wisdom for things they have NOT done. And, they are reciting without thinking. AF still thinks she can spin "fines" on her drop spindle using a hitch. Maybe she can, maybe she can't, but she has never just sat there and spun a hank of fines (30,000 ypp and finer singles) in her life. That is a particular skill set, and when she talks about it, she is not speaking from experience. If she had to produce a quarter million yards of 22,000 ypp singles for a bolt of shirting, she would find a better way. And yes, the folks in Flanders were producing boat loads of shirting long before they had flyer/bobbin assembly spinning wheels.
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