How I got ply-twist on Sheringham & Jersey yarns so wrong

 I use  differential rotation speed (DRS) control of twist insertion as I spin. It is a well known technology - both Henry Clemes and Alden Amos made such systems - and had to take them all back because modern hand spinners could not figure out to use them.  Let just say that as powerful as it is, DRS technology makes demands on the user.

I  started my exploration of knitting fine yarns by prepping about 25 grams of wool and spinning a single at the desired twist (12 to 17 tpi) depending on the desired grist.  Then I would divide that single up on to 3 or 4 bobbins, and ply it into 125 to 150 yards of the desired yarn. I would block the yarn and knit swatches. 

When I found a yarn that I liked, I would spin hanks (560 yd) of singles, with each hank weighing 20 to 25 grams. When I plied these together the finished hank of yarn would weigh between 80 and 100 grams - that was half a spin bobbin  - it did not really look like much. However, it was enough to change the effective diameter of the spin bobbin and reduce the inserted twist in the outer layers of the yarn.  

I would wind it off, and the end that had been at the core of the spinning bobbin would be great, I would knit a swatch, think the hank was fine, and spin a couple more hanks - each of which would turn into a twisted mess after I had knitted about half of it.

The old spinners had a very good solution to this issue - they made and sold finished yarn in balls of  about an ounce - 30 grams.  That is about what a DRS technology can control with a standard sized spinning bobbin of with a length of 4" or a little less.  It is the product that would be produced by a professional hand spinner using traditional DRS technology. 

This tells us that professional hand spinners were using DRS technology to produce fine yarns for  Sheringham and Jersey ganseys.  I have seen 30 gram balls of yarn for sale in Brittany and Scotland. These 30 gram yarn packages are ghosts of a time when there were professional hand spinners making yarn on spinning wheels like mine (and as described in Alden Amos's Big Blue Book) and selling such yarns to hand knitters.

These were yarns called: Saxony Wool, Andalusian Wool, German Fingering, Berlin Wool, Peacock Fingering, Aurora Wool, Scotch Fingering . . . . .  Yes, in Victorian times they were produced in mills, but the packaging was based on the packaging from an earlier time when such yarns were hand spun. 

And, I have bowed to the practicality of the tradition, and I spin a hank (or so) of fine single, divide it on to plying bobbins, and ply 1 ounce balls of finished yarn.  My little yarn balls contain  between 100 and 150 meters of yarn.  

Yes, knitting from  a shoebox of little balls of yarn seems like a bother,  but if I was buying old stock of such fine yarns, they would come in 1 ounce balls.   I might as well make the yarn I want in 1 ounce balls, rather than just taking what is a available.

And, truth be told, if you are knitting on fine needles, every so often you need to get up and move about to restore circulation.  Getting up to get another ball of yarn is a good excuse to have another cup of tea.

Learning to knit, again

 

A swatch of worsted handspun 4-ply (about 2,500 ypp, singles at 17 tpi, plied at 17ptpi) knit on 6" by 1.3 mm needles (in photo). 

Fleece is Rambouillet from https://www.annagotwool.com/ .

Knitting gauge is about 12 spi by 19 rpi = ~250 stitch per square inch. As knit, not blocked. 

Angle of photo makes needles look "pointy", they have flat tips.

After fulling, the swatch has a small bias, that was easily removed by blocking. Result gauge similar to knit gauge, e.g., ~250 stitches per inch squared.

Fabric is weatherproof.

It is translucent- you can get a good sunburn through it, but it will keep your skin dry and warm in a light rain, as you can work, as water vapor from your skin will evaporate and the vapor move through the fabric.

This makes me think the folk in Norfolk, have forgotten the real practical virtues of a Sheringham gansey. They seem to think of them as "art", "a token of affection" or a fashion statement - not as a very practical and useful object. 

Sampling beyond Sheringham

It was a change of perspective to be spinning to 80 wpi (20 warps per 1/4"), rather than 18.7 wpi trying to spin 5,600 ypp (10s).  An obvious progression is 120 wpi (30 wraps per 1/4"). It does not come out to a nice number of hanks per pound, but with the fleece I was using - it came out to singles of just under 15,000 ypp and about 17 tpi.

As 6-ply that is a nice sock yarn of near 2,250 ypp and as 5-ply it is a nice sock yarn of about 2,700 ypp. This was done in a few hours of late afternoon sun after fussing with whorls and combing some Rambouillet.  It was scoured on the reel, dried on the reel in the evening sun but not otherwise blocked.

A couple hundred feed of  yarn from singles with grist of ~15,000 ypp. One end is 5-py, the other end is 6-ply.  White singles are Rambouillet  and the blue is Romney.

________________

40 wraps per quarter inch, gets us to 25,600 ypp, and we are getting close to spinning fine. 46 wraps per quarter inch gets us to "fine spinning". I expect 46 wraps per quarter inch (184 wraps per inch) at 60s made that an important grist for hand spinners. (On #0 flyer, the Rambouillet easily spins at 46 wraps per quarter inch, but I do not have pix at this time.) That is a 6-ply of just under 4,000 ypp. I am not going to knit anything like that for anyone that does not have full time lady's maids.  On the other hand, I really do like this evening's yarn.  Time to spend less time knitting and more time weaving.

The "black eye" on the 1/4" yarn gauge is a magnet that holds the gauge handy on the wheel.

 

Weatherproof socks

 Someday, here in Ca it will rain again, and we may need weatherproof socks. (My friends and family  in New England, may have an ongoing interest!)

One can knit knit weatherproof socks in a variety of form factors - mostly when I needed weatherproof socks they were knit from 5-ply gansey yarn,  but some may want weatherproof socks that are thin enough to fit into their town shoes. It can be done- particularly if one is a spinner. It turns out that it is not hard.

A swatch of fabric knit from Heinz 57 (from the Woolery)

spun into singles of just under 7,000 ypp at 12 tpi and plied at 

8 or 10 ptpi resulting in some bias when knit.

Nevertheless, those singles knit on 1.3 mm needles produce a nice sock fabric tight enough to hold a pool of water, and thin enough to fit in my town shoes. 

A thinner fabric based on 10,000 ypp singles in 3-ply:

 Will hold a pool of water briefly, and I consider it "almost weatherproof". 

I spent so long fixated n 5,600 ypp singles - and, I have been missing out - on a world of great things that can be had for a bit of spinning.  You can have it, just think: "spin thin", and spin!

OK! It may take some practice, but practice to spin thin uses less fiber than practice to spin thick, and you will spin a lot of fine yarn along the way.

Wool really is THE miracle fiber. One really can knit all kinds of things from 3-ply, 2,000 ypp yarn.  

Do not bother to tell the folks over at "Spin Tec". They would not believe you.

Spinning fine to replicate traditional yarns

I acquired my copy of  Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys, and Arans by Gladys Thompson  (GT), shortly after I posed the question of : "How did the old seamen stay warm in wooden, square rigged ships?" almost 20 years ago. It is now stained with coffee and red wine. It is more stained than almost any other book in my collection.

Certainly, throughout GT there are a number of problems. I would not think of attacking any of those garments without the wisdom in Knitting in the Old Way, by Gibson-Roberts and  Robson. However, KitOW will not get you to the weatherproof garments in GT unless you use a knitting sheath/knitting stick/knitting shield - which is not addressed in either GT or KitOW

Another problem we have in replicating the objects described in GT is yarn. Many of the objects in GT were knit from yarns produced in mills with traditional equipment. When that equipment wore out the mills closed. Circa 2006, my favorite gansey yarn mill in Yorkshire closed, and I saw the writing on the wall - and started spinning. 

5-ply gansey yarn was my first focus, and I spun miles of it. The singles were 5,600 ypp. I learned to spin it at 9 tpi.  Most of  the objects in GT could knit from yarns plied up from those singles. Such 5-ply yarns also became a favorite for knitting into gear for for hiking, skiing, sailing, camping, and sailing. I plied the same singles into 10-ply yarns and tested them. I did not write about those objects, because they tended to be too warm and heavy.  I compared what I could knit from hand spun gansey yarn to what I could knit from various modern commercial yarns, and how ever nice/functional the objects knit from commercial yarns were, the hand spun was better.

The objects in GT not based yarns derived from 5,600 ypp singles are the Norfolk/ Sheringham patterns starting on page 83. Over the years, I bought various sock yarns and fine(r) needles, hoping to be able to replicate these objects and get some understanding of them. Early last spring, with Covid and everything, I swore to study "sock-like" fabrics until I understood these objects.

GT says, "Dunraven 3-ply". I thought they were 3 plies of 5,600 ypp for a total grist of 1,680 ypp -  a common modern commercial sock yarn - a yarn that I could produce in my sleep.  That was easy, but like many easy answers, it was wrong. Dunraven 3-ply was  3 plies of of  11,200 ypp for a total grist of  3,360 ypp. And then there was BeeHive - that I knew as the modern 2,500 ypp 4-ply yarn. However, in the old days there was also a 3-ply, 3,360 ypp Beehive yarn.  

Ya, that kind of yarn is out there - for a price, but I have bins of "Heinz-57" that I got as a "Spinzillia Special" from the Woolery, sitting under the combing bench. It has a spin count of 52- with some focus I can spin it into 20s (11,200 ypp).

My spinning throne, on the patio, under the umbrella - forecast high - 100F

Starting to spin 20s of Heinz-57

White singles on tension box for ply

Fiber on my distaff and in a bin

(I have a heavy duty distaff, before a car wreck, it was a 

fancy photo tripod. It makes a great distaff!)

Spinning a natural dark fiber into 20s to use as marker and twist indicator

Singles in tension box

Starting to ply

A bobbin of plied yarn

After its bath! 

It is real close to 3,360 ypp! 

Variation in yarn diameter is variation

in twist that disappears as the yarn is snugged up in knitting.

On UK16 needles (actually 1.3 mm) it  knits up at ~12 spi and ~20 rpi. With UK17 needles, this 3-ply handspun yarn knits at ~14 spi and ~24 rpi.

The weather has cooled off, and my focus has improved.  I was just sitting on the patio spinning the Heinz-57 at 14,000 ypp (25s).  No problem, just a more relaxed fiber prep.

It took 6 months of work, and a pile of self directed evolutions, but now I think I have a reasonable handle on sock fabrics. The hard part was jumping from singles of 5,600 ypp to singles of 11,200 ypp. It only took a few seconds but it was the hard part of the year.

4-ply sock yarn knit on 1.3 mm needles

 more on handspun  4-ply sock yarn, again the plies are ~11,200 ypp but this time they are only 12 tpi and 12 ply twist per inch 

an unfinished, unblocked swatch, knit with1.3 mm needles - this yarn is remarkably softer, and easier/faster to knit

gauge is ~ 10 spi & 16 rpi - might change with blocking

The Historical president of 4-ply/2,500 ypp yarn being knit at 12 spi by 20 rpi

 In making my 4-ply / 2,500 ypp yarn, I was thinking in terms of the classical 11,200 ypp sock yarns that were spin at 17 tpi. They must have been an effort to knit - durable, but an effort to knit.

It turns out that spinning the 11,200 ypp singles at 12 tpi (and plying 4 together at  12 tpi) makes a much softer yarn that is easier and faster to knit. On UK 16 needles (1.25 mm) such yarns easily and quickly knit at 12 spi by 20 rpi. This is likely to be ok for worsted spun long wools, but woolen spun short wools, are likely to be fragile at this, lower twist. I guess that Paton's BeeHive had twist closer to 12 than 17 tpi. The lower twist also makes it much easier and lower cost to spin.

That said, there was a piece of worsted 4-ply/ spun/plied at 17 tpi on the table when I sat down for lunch, and I started playing with it. It really is amazing stuff. You do not find such strong, all wool sock yarns in retail markets that are that strong. No, it is not Kevlar, but it is really strong and, durable. 

Then next mess on the combing bench is, How do really fine, high crimp fleece behave in 10s at 17 tpi? 

Old school sock fabric

 

It is not dry yet, so it still wants to curl. It is

under the needles used to knit it.

The inspiration is knitting done circa 1900 including Sheringham ganseys and patterns in Weldon's.

Yarn is 4-ply worsted with ~11,200 ypp singles spun at ~ 17 tpi. Ply twist is ~17 tpi.

 Grist of final yarn is ~2,500 ypp.

Swatch knit on 12" by 1.5 mm blunt needles using knitting sheath while sitting next to my wife watching an old black and white Clark Gable movie in a rather dark room - (so yes the knitting is crap.) Knitting gauge came out to ~11 spi by 15 rpi.

Dark streaks are from black fiber from previous singles spun for previous tests to help count twist - my combing bench is a mess right now. It will be cleaned before I start a real spinning project. 

Weight of swatch is 8 grams, area is ~ 83 cm^2, so a gram of yarn knits out to ~10 cm^2 of fabric. 

Open Your Big Blue Book to Page 385!

Yarn gauge.  It works!! It works best with worsted spun firm. Oh, Yes! And you MUST pack to refusal. 

This is not some promotional craft council standard for selling yarn, this is a practical way to estimate grist while the yarn is still on the spinning bobbin. This is the nitty-gritty of converting fiber to useful yarn.

Alden's table just goes up to about 10,000 ypp, but if you count carefully, have a good yarn gauge, and pack to refusal, the technique works right on up to 60s (34,000 ypp). For finer grist, metal gauges work better than wooden.) 

The day we talked about this, Alden said, "pack to refusal", perhaps 20 times in 4 hours. Pack to refusal is important, and it is different from the "yarn wraps" of the organizations, that just want to sell yarn to retail consumers.

You need a yarn gauge - just wrapping yarn around a pencil, knitting needle or ruler, will not allow you to pack to refusal. I make my yarn gauges out of rosewood.  The form factor changes depending on what grist I am spinning.  I made another one this morning - it has a 0.25" gap, and a bit of a handle so I can hold it firmly as I wrap the 27 or 28 wraps of yarn, while packing the yarn with my thumb and forefinger. (I want a grist of ~11,500 ypp on average.)

With care and practice a yarn gauge will give a better estimate of the grist of a fine single than a "yarn balance". The only thing better is an accurate scale /accurate length. However, the yarn gauge is not as affected spinning oil or fiber moisture as an accurate scale weight/length. 

A hank of 4-ply fingering

 I do not mark spinners by their entry into contests, such as The Longest Thread, but by what they can sit down and spin, today.

I think a competent spinner can spin a hank of worsted 4-ply fingering in a day.

There was nothing in the process that I had not done before, but doing it all on one day, required: a new drive band, new accelerator bearings, fresh spinning oil, some new wool combing protocols, fitness from combing and spinning for hours every day, and cooler weather (without strong breezes) all of which took weeks.   A good chunk of that is stuff a competent spinner would do as a matter of routine, but I had been thinking about other things

And it can be done with crap fiber. I thought it was a practice/exercise day, so I used some old worthless fiber. About all I have done with it is knit "nippers", as I learned about at Maritime Museum of the Atlantic | (novascotia.ca), and on that day, with those exhibits, I started to wonder, "How did those old seamen stay warm?"

Actually, a few days later, we went to MacAusland Woolen Mills (https://www.macauslandswoollenmills.com/  ). I started knitting socks, and within few weeks, it was apparent that nippers were not knit, rather they knit socks,  wore them until felted and they had holes, then they cut the worn socks into nippers.  Nevertheless, such a shape makes a good swatch.)

Fresh Wool

 I have said several times that I like freshly prepped wool. Spinning 12,000 ypp singles outside on the patio, has pushed this to an extreme. In the morning, I set up my spinning on the patio, and prepare enough wool for one hank.  Each hank weighs about 24 grams, and takes a little over an hour to spin. I spin a hank and walk the 30 yards to my combing bench, and prep another 24 grams.  In the course of an hour, the consistency of the wool on the distaff changes, so the first 10 grams is easier to spin than the last 10 grams.

I think it is a matter that my combing/spinning oil mix (per Alden's Big Blue Book) has water in it that evaporites as the wool sits on the distaff. I think if I kept the prepped wool at high humidity, it might be OK, or it might compress a bit.

On the other hand, I like breaks every hour or so for a few minutes of combing.

I think when I was spinning singles at twice the weight, they had more moisture with less surface area and did not dry as fast.  I know these dry a lot faster after steam blocking.

Sheringham

 I have known this day was coming since I bought Gladys Thompson's book on Patterns. (and I spilled red wine on page 82.)

I have cleaned the white fluff off the combing bench, and moved a kilo of that Romney that I dyed navy blue years ago to the bench. It has been languishing in the stash.

I am going to knit a Sheringham - from handspun 4-ply fingering. Not the "tight one" knit on 1mm needles, but the fluffy one knit on 1.3 mm needles. (I like the motion of the stiffer needles. I intend to knit it on 5- 12" needles using a knitting sheath that hangs below my belt.)  All needles except 1.3 mm have been banished to the needle chest. 

Here in sunny California, I like to spin on the patio in the cool of the morning. I figure 2 or 3 weeks to get the spinning done. (Actual spinning/ply time under 55 hours.) (There is a real chance that with a new drive band, actual spin time will be closer to 30 hours.  I come from a world where we plan increment, baseline, and decrement budgets. )  

Then, 10 or 12 weeks of knitting - not all the time but 4 to 6 hours per day.  (Actual knitting time, 200 to 300 hours.)

Fresh Fiber

 I am sure, that by now, you are sick unto death, of my saying "Fresh fiber is good".

Here in California, we have been having some "fine dry weather" that produced some natural experiments on why fresh fiber is good.

1) I use Alden's recipe for spinning oil. It is great for spinning very fine, but it is mostly water. Put it on fiber and let it day and it does not work when dry. 

2) Wool can absorb moisture, and wool holding some moisture is easier to spin fine.  

3) If combed wool dries so much that it is hard to spin fine, it is better to spray it with water and recomb and diz, rather than just spritzing with water. Just spritzing does not evenly moisten all fibers. Combing spreads the moisture through the wool mass and along the fibers. In our fine weather, if I just spritzed the mass, it would dry, before the moisture diffused to all parts of all fibers.

These factors may not be so prominent for commercially produced combed top. I will accept that argument if you can take that commercially produced combed top and spin it at its "spin count" as it comes out of the package. I an spin wool at its spin count as it comes off  the combs. When I have commercially produced combed top I prepare it just like I prepare raw fleece.

I once complained about the warm weather in California one spring, and my boss said, "I will do something about that right now!" And, he handed me a one way ticket to Saudi Arabia and I spent a long warm summer fighting oil well fires and disposing to the resulting hazardous waste. Since 1991, I have not complained about the weather in California. At worst, our weather is an opportunity to learn and improve one's moral fiber. The truth is: Wool grease melts at 120F, so it is easier to scour wool in our fine climate.

Old dog learns new tricks

I have been sampling/swatching/ playing with old yarns like Paton’s Beehive, Froehlich Wolle Blauband yarns, and Jamieson’s of Shetland 4-ply yarns with a grist of  ~2,500 ypp. I have knit them on 1.5 mm and 1.3 mm needles, and like the 1.3 mm needles.

(Some of these yarn labels recommend US2 needles. I first swatched these yarns on the recommended needles. I did not like the fabric, which is I have these nice old yarns in the stash - for an older and wiser knitter to revisit.)

I like the 4-ply construction much better than the 6-ply cable construction that I have been using. The cables are cooler and more durable, but do not have as nice skin feel.  

The Paton’s Beehive, Froehlich Wolle Blauband yarns, and Jamieson’s of Shetland 4-ply yarns with a grist of  ~2,500 ypp seem to be disapearing. There are small lots on Esty, and EBay, but it is hard to find yarn for a sweater. 

These yarns are based on worsted spun singles of 11,200 ypp (20s). Almost any long wool fleece can be spun to that grist.  It takes me a day (after fiber prep)  to spin 4 hanks of singles and ply them together into 500 yards/ 90 grams of good sock yarn. On 1.3 mm needles, 90 grams is a wicked lot of knitting. These 4-ply yarns are easier to produce (fewer steps) than the 6-ply cabled that I have been playing with and knitting on 1.5 mm needles.

Today, this is the kind of yarn I like to knit, but it is very hard to buy such yarns these days. I will tell you about it, but I am not going to spin it for you.

(Yes, with a slower wheel, it will take you longer to spin this kind of yarn. That is not my fault! It is something you should take up with people like Henry Clemes or Robert Ashford.)

Lifelines

 I certainly used them when I started knitting ganseys. 

Now, I knit finer, more intricate objects, always from wool yarns, and I do not use lifelines. I do use a knitting sheath, and blunt spring steel needles. I have been seriously knitting for 20 years. The first 4 years with hand held needles (circular, and DPN). Then there was 11 years of learning how to use a knitting sheath with pointy needles. The last 7 years have been a gradual transition to knitting sheaths with blunt needles. There was a period of learning that with knitting sheaths, blunt needles are better, and then development of better techniques for blunt needles, and learning  to make better blunt needles. The transition to blunt needles has allowed productive use of finer needles on finer wool yarns to produce finer fabrics. 

I assert: Lifelines can be replaced with 3 skills;

• Learn to feel the stitches as they are made, and use that feel to be sure the correct stitch was properly formed as you knit. The best solution to a knitting error is be able to fix the last stitch.
• Learn to feel/read the stitches you are knitting into, and use fine pointy needles and a crochet hook to fix any errors before making the error more onerous by knitting over the error and pushing it deep into what should be good knitting.
• If you have missed the error and pushed it deep into your knitting, you can use a fabric steamer to block the row that you have to frog back to; and make that row more stable and easier to pickup.

If you are knitting loosely, you can go back, deep into the fabric to repair errors without frogging. If you are knitting weatherproof, or very fine fabrics, or lace, then frogging and reknitting is likely the better fix.

A good knitter, can feel all the stitches in the fabric around the working stitch, and know when the working needle is near a stitch that is "wrong".  As soon as you feel the "wrong", fix it!  With practice, this can be even done with fine dark blue thread by by the light of a candle or the gloom in a movie theater.

There was a time, when English knitting cooperatives, worked in their gardens in the mornings and knit in the afternoon and evening producing objects to sale for cash . Candles were expensive, so there was very limited light, and yet they produced professional quality knit products.   We know it can be done!  It is just a matter of learning the skills and doing it ourselves. We develop the skills by - practice. We visualize what we want to do, and plan evolutions to become better.

They sang knitting songs to remember the pattern and count rows and stitches as they knit. I use a piece of wood that has grooves and slots that define the size of the objects I am knitting. For socks, it is the exact length of the foot I am knitting for.  I find such a measure gives a more accurate length of the sole of the sock. I can compare my knitting to the slots and grooves on the wood "story board" (by feel) and know when to move on to the next part of the pattern.  This allows me to knit socks for different purposes from different yarns at different gauges, and still have the socks fit. The slots and grooves for socks to fit me are also on a favorite knitting sheath that works with either 9" or  6 " needles, when used with a belt in my jeans. This allows me to knit socks for myself using my knitting sheath as a measure.  The knitting sheath, needles and yarn for 3 days of knitting fit into a knitting bag only 7" x 10" x 2".  My firmly spun yarns take less space than a similar weight of commercial sock yarn, and make socks that are just as comfortable, but more durable.  The 12" needles and their sheath remain by my knitting chair.

My epiphany came when I was knitting hard spun 6-ply / 1680 ypp yarn on 10" long blunt steel 1.5 mm steel needles. I knit a couple of pair of  these socks. It is not my favorite fabric with this yarn, but is is where I learned to feel the fabric. The light was good, and I had magnifying glasses handy.   I think the firm yarn and long needles conducted and amplified (?) vibration. Once I knew there was a sensation, it was a matter of detecting fainter vibrations in other (stiffer) knitting needles and (softer) yarns, and learning what the vibrations meant.  

I am knitting a few pairs of  fine socks to practice this skill.  This detection of  errors is best learned when knitting fine, firm fabrics -  e.g., garters, socks, mittens, gloves.  I find detection of errors by feel harder when knitting soft fabrics and soft [commercial] yarns. Also, I find it much harder to feel knitting errors when using pointy needles. This may just be me, but it may also be that the  angle from the shaft of the needle to the point makes it harder to feel small variations in spacing and tension. Also, I find that grippy needles are less sensitive. I like POLISHED steel. 

In a time of Covid, we learned how to binge watch movies and TV series. Leverage that, and learn how to knit in the gloom of watching Heartland or Madame Secretary or Gunsmoke!  I cheated and knit a few pair of white ski socks during Heartland . During the current binge of Madame Secretary, I expect to knit 3 pair of socks from purple, firm spun1,680 ypp sock yarn.  In part, this is a test of which gauge/needles/knitting sheath I like best for this yarn. The yarn is cabled up from commercial 2-ply wool weaving yarn. 

I also often knit objects that are intended to be functional rather than fashion statements. I fix errors that diminish the functionality of an object, but I may leave other kinds errors in the object -  to remind the close observer that it is HANDMADE.  I do not care if the socks in a pair differ by 0.07".  It is a gift, and I tell him that the bigger sock is for his his right foot, because we both know that his right foot is bigger. 

It has taken me 20 years, but I think I am starting to understand why master knitters expected apprentices to do knit stitches for years, before allowing them to knit other kinds of stitches.  Working intently with one kind of stitch allows a better understanding of the fabric.  Knitting fine socks is very different from knitting weatherproof ganseys -- each fabric has its own "Zen".  I consider it took me 12 years to understand gansey fabric, and after a few more years, I am just starting to understand sock fabric.

lace yarn

With all the news about Russia these days I got to thinking again about Orenburg Lace.
Prices seem to be way down, which tells me things are rough for the knitters over there. $60 for a lace shawl makes spinning/knitting one seem like a waste of time - it is a little like the Merino jumpers I buy at Costco for $50.  I cannot knit one for that price, but the Costco jumpers are not like the jumpers I knit. You cannot knit a shawl for the price you can buy one from Orenburg.  On the other hand, today the right yarns are hard to find, so you may not be able to knit such shawls at any price. Unless you learn to spin good lace yarn!

Learning to spin good yarn is some effort but it is not impossible.

I have not bought one of those Orenburg, shawls, but I do not think the descriptions are quite accurate. First they claim that the 14 micron goat down is the finest animal product for spinning - not quite - the Guanco I get from Royal Fibers, is also 14 micron. And, 14 micron Merino is available, as is 14 micron cashmere. There are other very fine fibers available.

But, it is not how fine the fiber is, but what one does with it. I buy Rambouillet fleeces from Anna Harvey, (https://www.annagotwool.com/) and after sorting and grading, I get a pound or 2 of  80 count wool fiber out of each fleece. (Plus several pounds of lower spin count wool that can be spun as fine as 35 or 40 thousand yards per pound!) The better graded wool can be spun into singles at ~45,000 yards per pound.  It can be spun finer, but spinning finer is much slower and the thread is not as competent.  Thus, 2-ply lace yarn can be spun finer than 20,000 yards per pound at a "commercial rate".  (And, Anna's wool is spun into tons of such yarn in Italy for fine men's suits.)  My hand spinning is very ordinary by Italian commercial standards.

One can spin a single of Rambouillet and ply it with commercial silk, and have a lace yarn that is significantly finer than what is being used these days to produce commercial Orenburg lace.  And, I will cheerfully match the luster and softness of high grade Rambouillet against Orenburg down.  The Orenburg down yarns are very nice, but they are making marketing claims that are just puff and bluff.

A little research tells us that in the days when there was a lot of royalty around, (and more demand for fine lace) much of the fine Orenburg yarn was spun on "spinning wheels". Art tells us that many of those wheels were likely some kind of vertical charka. That is important because a spinning wheel or charka can put a lot more twist into a yarn, much faster than a supported spindle. I think that these days, Orenburg lace makers use supported spindles due to a combination of lack of capital, lack of work space, and a lack of training.  Now, there is no international community of hand spinners to keep a variety of fine spinning traditions and technologies alive. In the past, much hand spinning was devoted to spinning at the wool's spin count, and many people made the required tools These days, nobody is making spinning wheels designed to hand spin wool at its spin count. (The Russian spindles require less craftsmanship.) If my spinning wheel is damaged, there is nobody around that can repair or replace it. That community is gone.

If I did not have my super high speed spinning wheel, and wanted fine lace yarn, I would get a chakra, and mount it vertically to spin woolen singles. Then, I would use a standard flyer and bobbin wheel to ply the final yarn.  However, my flyer/bobbin wheel is fast enough to reasonably spin very high twist yarns quickly.

I estimate that the Orenburg down singles are  spun at ~ 25,000 ypp, are spun medium firm, and thereby require about 18 or 20 twists per inch. (That is what I put in my 11,200 ypp weaving warp.) While my 44,000 ypp knitting singles require ~ 24 tp.i., or about 30% more twist - that is a huge effort/cost for a craftsman using a supported spindle. A good rule of thumb is that for any spinning operation, the largest cost is energy to insert twist.  On the other hand, using a charkha or other high speed spinning wheel, such high twist yarns are much more feasible. If I were asked to produce that style of yarn, I would spin sorted/graded Rambouillet at its spin count (44,000 ypp), then I would ply the single with commercial silk to produce a lace yarn with a grist in the range of 30,000 ypp. I would  spin the wool at its spin count because there are real technical advantages to spinning wool at its spin count. There are useful reasons for why wool was graded by its spin count.  I do not know if goat down has a measurable spin count.

I do think we should have more spinners that can sit down and spin wool  at its spin count.  I also think we need better sorted and graded wool. Then people would not be so astonished by the Orenburg lace yarn, and its claims would be more closely examined for truthfulness. There would also be more good yarn around.

The flip side to all of this is that I think the super fine Merino is produced by abusing the sheep, and the finest wool from well treated sheep has a spin count of about 80, meaning it can be reasonably spun into 44,000 ypp singles (20,000 ypp 2-ply, 1,248 yd/oz. or 44.1 yards per gram of 2-ply).  Long ago, I put some effort into spinning higher grist yarns, and decided that they had no practical advantages, and many functional disadvantages.  I decided that the best display of spinning skill was spinning wool perfectly, at its spin count.

The old hand spinners of Shetland did spin wool at its spin count. Shetland wool has a spin count of 56 to 60, so it was spun at about 33,000 ypp  meaning 2-ply Shetland lace yarn at ~14,000 ypp or better, and 3-ply Shetland lace yarn at ~ 9,000 ypp or better.  Shetland lace yarn was strong and lustrous. Shetland lace was one of the glories of the Victorian age. Sure it was spun and knit by Shetlanders, but Victorian ladies paid good money  to make it possible.  We do not see commercial lace yarn of that quality around much these days.   I have a bin of wool very much like Shetland next to the wheel that I have been using to spin weaving warp.  I can change whorls on my wheel, and be spinning 30,000 ypp singles in minutes.   Of course, spinning a useful amount of such singles in a reasonable length of time would involve a change in the fiber prep, but without changing the yarn prep, I could spin a 150 yards of 30,000 ypp singles in a hour. Shetland can be spun at its spin count either worsted or woolen.

These days, I spin fine wools (60 count and higher) woolen, and I spin fiber with a spin count of less than 40 as worsted. This is a real conversion from the rule: "Worsted is the best way to spin".  In part, it is a recognition that woolen spinning bends fibers sharply, and finer fibers can tolerate sharper bends better.  And, worsted spinning does not bend fibers as sharply, and thicker fibers do not tolerate being bent sharply.  In part, it recognition that most "fine" wool has short staples, and is hard to comb, and I do not believe that "carded" wool produces real worsted thread. This is not an iron clad rule as I have a couple of 40 gallon bins of combing "waste" that I am about to card and spin semi-worsted. It is the "shorts" that I combed out of some Romney fleece that produced many miles of worsted spun, 5-ply gansey yarn at 1,000 yards per pound..

Most of those miles of  gansey yarn from this fleece were spun before I accelerated the wheel. In those days my wheel ran at a little over 1,000 rpm. These days, it runs more than 3 times faster. Now, the wheel runs fast enough that I can reasonably make 10-ply (5x2) 1,000 ypp gansey yarn. The extra twist in the extra plies gives the yarn more strength, to compensate for the lower quality of the fiber.  Some might consider 2-ply 5,600 ypp yarn to be lace weight. No, it is just the basis of some rather coarse sailing gear.today

While sick, I usually spun inside with artificial light. For various reasons, they produced a flat light.  Today, I am back, spinning in the sunshine. The fiber is Anna Harvey's Rambouillet. It is a mixed bag of fleece left over from sorting for very fine fiber, so its spin count is only  in the low 70s, but it is brilliantly white. It sparkles! Spun woolen near its spin count it, dazzles.  As 2-ply lace yarn at ~ 18,000 yyp, it is brilliant. As 3-ply at ~ 12,000 ypp, it is brilliant, durable, and unbelievably soft.

Such yarns can be spun on supported spindles, but it is very tedious.  Each inch of the produced yarn requires between 70 and 110 twists (singles + ply twist).  High speed twist makes it much easier to draft these yarns.  Fine woolen yarns are better produced on a chakra, or a very high speed DRS controlled bobbin/flyer assembly.

Deconstructing commercial multi-ply yarn into singles

Alden shows how do do this with spinning wheel, yarn reel, and custom tools.

It can also be done with a spinning wheel, raddle (or tension box),  and the sectional beam on your loom.   Some of us do not have space for an extra yarn reel.  I did have that space, but now there is a loom there.  And, some extra yarn.  And, maybe a few fleece. Textiles is about making huge piles of fiber into tiny piles of fabric.  Or, vice-a-versa.

You can change your mind about how that yarn was plied.

Lou Grantham at SF Fiber in Oakland, Ca got me some new toys for the loom. They let me move forward. Texsolv heddles on the tension box work much better with hand spun wool than the original 6" aluminium heddles.  This is reasonable, as 250 years ago, they were tying heddles from waxed linen thread.  Hooper gives instructions on how to tie heddles.

Current warp is 40 epi of handspun wool singles.  That means 80 bobbins of handspun on the bobbin rack for my 2" sectional beam. I have developed a true love/hate relationship with yarn yardage counter.   The warp is 10s (5,600 ypp, 75 wpi).  It is not the fabric I dream of, but I move forward. Singles bed differently, so it is not the fabric that somebody familiar with commercial 2-ply weaving yarns would expect either. There is a box with another 80 bobbins in the workshop for warping at 80 epi, and chips and sawdust everywhere. I know I can buy bobbins, but I need to practice my wood turing to stay sharp.  It is like spinning,  I need to practice.

Current reed on the loom is 20 dpi, which also seems to work at 80 epi weaving with 40s (22,000 ypp, 45 m/g,  150 wpi).  At one time 40s were the top end of "course spinning".  Mediums were 41s to 60s. and fine spinning was 61s to ~ 90s.  By late Victorian times power spinning produced much finer singles.  From here, my goal is good cloth based on 40s at 80 epi.  I expect it to weight about 4 oz per yard. Note I use the Bradford system with hanks of 560 yd, which is different from the cotton system, where hanks are 840 yd.

Warping fine handspun wool is more interesting than easy-peasy plying 10-ply Aran knitting yarn. For anybody familiar with weaving bolts of wool cloth, making 5-ply or 10-ply knitting yarns would have been trivial.  It is a set of skills that we have mostly lost.  A yard of wool cloth woven from 40s takes about 6, 000 yards, which at 17 tpi, is more than a couple of days of spinning.

I do think loom waste would have been plied up into knitting yarns.  Yes, those weavers were very frugal with their yarn, but they were also careful not to start with a single that that had knots in it. Better to ply that little piece of single into knitting yarns than tie it onto a warp and start with a knot.   On the other hand, I have read that weavers cursed their spinners for the poor quality of their spinning, so I suspect that there were some knots in the warp by the end of the day.  LIke I said, I need to stay in practice.

Broken or cut wool singles have a disturbance in the twist, which for weaving, is worse than a disturbance in the "Force".