DRS v. single drive

I started spinning because I wanted good “gansey yarn”. Sweater yarn spun from long staple, lustrous wool, with 5 worsted spun plies, with a total grist of 1,000 ypp. I wanted that yarn because, with my favorite knitting needles, it produced my favorite fabric. I had knit hundreds of swatches from scores of yarns, and I knew what I wanted.

The British mills that produced such yarns had old equipment and were either going out of business or producing other kinds of yarn. The writing was on the wall; If I wanted this kind of yarn, I would have to spin it myself.

However, I was told by senior knitters that, “Nobody hand spun Gansey Yarn!  Gansey Yarn was never hand spun!” That would be news to Chaucer as he wrote between the years1387 and 1400. That would be news to Leonardo da Vinci who sketched the tools. It had been hand spun, so I knew it could be hand spun.

The problem was not the spinning – gansey yarn is based on worsted singles of 5,600 ypp. Very easy to hand spin.

The problem is economics. Spinning wheels since the Victorian era are single drive, (or double drive with one drive slipping) and can insert twist at ~ 700 rpm. A gansey sweater requires about 5-hanks of gansey yarn plied up from 25-hanks (14,000 yards) of singles. The singles need about 9-tpi. Thus, the yarn for a real gansey takes almost 200-hours to hand spin on the typical modern spinning wheel. 

Yes, spending 200 hours hand spinning yarn for one sweater is a rare thing!

So, I did my homework, and learned about different spinning technologies.  It was clear that DRS was faster.  With DRS, I could spin the yarn for a gansey in 70-hours. And, I did.

However, the continuous insertion of twist and continuous take-up, changes the nature of the drafting process, and I was sure that with DRS, I could spin much faster. I went back my wheel and experimented until it ran much faster.  Today, it can easily insert twist at over 4,000 rpm, and a lot of my spinning is done at between 3,000 and 3,500 rpm. 

I insert about 9 tpi into my gansey yarn singles. Thus, I can spin a hank of gansey single in 48-minutes, and can have it all wound off, the wheel oiled, a sip of tea, and a trip to the washroom in less than an hour. It is a piece of cake to spin 8 or 10 hanks per day. I can make 5-hanks of gansey yarn in 29-manhours.

It takes me close to 100 hours to knit a gansey, so ~30-hours to spin the yarn is not an unreasonable investment in a better sweater.  The yarn I spin is much more durable than the yarns I can buy today, so by investing 30 hours of spinning, I save myself 100 hours knitting a replacement, and all the aggravation of knitting a sweater from yarn that I do not really like.

Because spinning is for me is fast and easy, I spin a lot.  I get more practice than most. There are many weeks where I have spin 14,000 yards of 5,600 ypp single. This week amongst other things, I have spun ~4,000 yards of 16,000 ypp worsted singles.  In comparison, Rowan Lace Yarn is 3,568 ypp. I can ply the 16,000 ypp singles into a 3,600 ypp, 4-ply, worsted spun. My 4-ply is more elastic and more durable than the Rowan Lace Yarn of about the same grist.  

I like fine plies.  I like worsted. I am coming to  believe that there are two ways to spin wool; worsted and wrong.  Worsted takes less twist, and thus, can be spun faster. Worsted is more durable for the amount of inserted twist. And, truth be told, worsted is warmer for the weight of the wool. 

As an 8-ply, at 1,800 ypp those 16,000 ypp singles make a nice sock yarn. I like DRS for spinning sock yarn.  And, this is part of my practice/evolution to making 12-ply sock yarn from 25,000 ypp singles.

So? What are other sock knitters doing to perfect their sock yarn?

My #1 flier/bobbin assembly has a spinning bobbin barrel diameter of 25.4 mm (1 inch)

My #1 flier/bobbin assembly has a spinning bobbin barrel circumference of 79.8 mm.

My #1 flier/bobbin assembly spinning bobbin has a whorl circumference of 157 mm.

My # flier/bobbin assembly has flyer whorl “A” circumference of ~51.75 mm to insert 9 tpi

My # flier/bobbin assembly has flyer whorl “B” circumference of ~51.325 mm to insert 12 tpi

My # flier/bobbin assembly has flyer whorl “C” circumference of ~50.935 mm to insert 17 tpi

My # flier/bobbin assembly has flyer whorl “D” circumference of ~50.75 mm to insert 20 tpi

My # flier/bobbin assembly has flyer whorl “E” circumference of ~50.5 mm to insert 25 tpi

My #0 (Racing) flier/bobbin assembly is based on a bobbin barrel circumference of 88 mm, whorl circumference of  141.37 mm, with flyer whorls of 46.35 mm, 45.9 mm, 45.76 mm, and 45.63 mm.  This assembly is scheduled for upgrading.

All whorl grooves are assumed to be non-slip.

The tpi for fine yarns can be estimated from info on page 383 of Alden’s Big Blue Book.

Yes, that takes some wood turning, but the whorls are easier to turn than wine cask spigots.