The Truth About Spinning Finer

There is a story in the spinning world that the very fine threads are spun by assembling bundles of only 5 fibers.  I know you have heard this story.

In truth, the finest bundle of (wool/goat/camelid) fibers that can be spun at commercial rates is ~20 fibers, and results in the traditional spin count singles.  The finest bundle of fibers that can be hand spun is ~10 fibers.  With any fine wool, a bundle of 10 fibers produces a grist that is far, far beyond the world record.   If someone is not spinning far, far, far beyond the world record, then they are not spinning a bundle of only 5 fibers.

I pointed out that my singles composed of ~20 fibers of Rambouillet were finer than a particular spinner’s threads that she claimed had a cross section of only 5 fibers.  I exposed the fib that was the basis of much of her status in the lace spinning community.  She was very unhappy.

She made a point of seeking out one of my suppliers out, and talking about me.  I expect that there was a lack of truthfulness, and possibly slander.  In any case, their accounts of the conversation differ markedly.

Her lace designs are wonderful.  The yarns she spins are wonderful and fit the styles of lace that she makes much better than they would if the yarns were much thinner. I looked at her stuff because I admire fine textiles, and hers are excellent. Her yarns do not need to be thinner.  So, why is she pretending that they are bundles of only 5 fibers? 

An aspiring lace spinner would read her posts on Ravelry, and simply sit down and try to spin 5 fibers together, and be frustrated.   The aspiring spinner would think that anybody that could spin 5 fibers together, must be a genus spinner.   Thus, the story of 5 fibers keeps others from learning to spin fine.  Thus, her story is restraint of competition by  -  fraud.

I certainly went down that path - worsted spinning best Rambouillet into a bundle of 14 fibers to make yarns in the 100,000 ypp range.  However, it was not real spinning; it was too slow, and the yarns were too weak and too fragile. 

I went back to my knitting.  Later,  I set out to learn to spin at the spin count (a bundle of 20 fibers), and then noticed that my spin count yarns were (often) much finer than the yarns which some were claiming had only 5 fibers in the cross section.  That was physically impossible. Then, rather than posting a rational rebuttal, they got indigent, and told me that I should not bother with spinning because there is no money in it.

If you want to win the “Longest Thread Competition”, you can spend a thousand hours spinning a bundle of 14 fibers of wool as found at your local fiber supplier.  Or, we can get some 11.75 micron Merino from commercial channels that can be spun into a bundle of 20 fibers that will result in 1,500 yards of 2-ply yarn that weighs 10 grams (e.g., singles @ 150,000 ypp).  That would be a world record and  likely a winner.  Your DRS will need to insert 36 tpi.  With a wheel running at 2,000 rpm, it is 50 or 60 hours of spinning.  Fiber available at local fiber stores (Merino 15.5 micron) will get you to singles @ 95,000 ypp, which when all plied up will get you into the honorable mention class.  I have gone far enough down this road to know that it can be done.  In some cases, I used Guanaco from Dana over at Royal fiber rather than wool. Sometimes, I just used the best few grams of the best fleece Anna Harvey could sell me.  It is a matter of craft, not an Olympic challange.  I have no doubt that some Longest Thread competitors do choose the small bundle path.  However, it is clear from the analysis referenced above that that some winners have not been honest about their approach. The grist of their entries proves that the yarn singles have a cross section of more than 5 fibers.  The numbers do not lie.

I stay busy, so these days, I do not bother to spin anything finer than its spin count, and with the fine Rambouillet that I am getting from Anna Harvey, that is sometimes pushing 60,000 ypp.  That is about the grist of the singles from which men's fine tropical wool suits are woven.  (Take you linen tester down to the mens section of the local Needless Markup Department store and tell them you want to look at Super 110 tropical suits.)  The best suits are woven from even finer yarns.  From here, I do not see any reason to go there. So why bother with spinning the 60,000 ypp?  That is just part of my evolution to improve my skill with a twisty stick to grade fine wool.

twisty stick

With some practice (take it to fiber shows), your trusty twisty stick will always give you the spin count of the fiber. For all the virtues of micron analysis, just being able to quickly estimate the spin count of a fiber with a cheap, portable, tool is very nice.  And, a spin count will allow you to estimate micron count.  It is not exact, but it is close enough for hand spinning.

For example, Merino is generally classed as our finest wool.  However, 3 minutes with my trusty twisty stick tells me that the best of the Anna Harvey Rambouillet is finer than any of the Merino in the house.  It also reminds me that the most expensive Merino in the house, has lowest spin count (e.g., highest micron count.)  I admit it.  On the day I bought that pricey Merino, I did not have my trusty twisty stick.  There is a lesson there.

With my trusty twisty stick close at hand, I have a big bin of Anna Harvey Rambouillet on order and none of the pricey Merino on order.

Mean while, back in California

The weather was colder, and the "slot" breezier (gusts to 55).  The Blue Monday sailed like an old Clorox bottle, blown and tossed by the wind across a meadow of sheep. Monday, night as we sat on the hook at Paradise Cove, we were in the mood for too much beer.

The skipper was math major at Columbia, and after he had talked of the beauty of the math related spheres, we moved on to DRS. A math major from Columbia admitted that the math was "interesting".  He suggested that I restate the math.  The mark of a great mathematician is that they can make excellent suggestions, even after several beers.

Core to the idea of DRS, we need a mathamatical model of yarn that allows us to plan our yarn in terms of type of construction, fiber, grist, and twist.  Set any 3 of those and you  have defined the 4th.  And, twist can control grist, and grist can control twist.  The grist:twist relationship can only be changed by changing  construction and/or fiber, or by great effort by the spinner.   This is taking Judith MacKensie's intentional spinner and make it quantitative.  As Ed Deming would tell us, "You get what you measure!"

If you are spinning wool at a particular twist, then the grist will tend to be very uniform. If you are spinning wool at a particular grist, then the twist will tend to be very uniform.  If you want to spin finer, increase the twist.  If you want more twist, then increase the grist.  These are both easy.  If you want a finer yarn at the same twist, then you are going to have to put more work into drafting.   Oh, yes, 95% of my spinning skill is on page 383 of Alden's big blue book.

Let us look at the model in more detail;

Let us begin with a flyer/bobbin spinning wheel with drive wheel diameter of "Wd". The bobbin has a effective diameter for winding up yarn of "Bc".  The Bobbin has a whorl circumference of  "Bwc".  Flyer is driven by a whorl with circumference "Fwc".

Thus, the differential rotation speed;

DRS  = Bwc/Fwc.

This is the ratio that I go on and on about.

The DRS is important because it controls the inserted twist, and inserted twist controls grist (G).  In fact we can calculate/estimate grist from twist (T) and twist from grist.

G=(TPI*TF*FF*CF)^2,; where "TPI" is twist per inch, "TF" is twist factor, "FF" is fiber factor, "CF" is construction factor for woolen or worsted. FF are typically in the  5-10%  range and  can be ignored for hand spinning, and the construction factor is in the range 1,04 to 1.2 and  become large enough to be of interest to hand spinners, but I often lump it in with twist factor leaving me with:

G=(TPI*TF)^2; and TPI= square root (G) / (TF) .

In yards per pound, it is easy, in metric, it is hard.  This set of relationships makes working in yards per pound worthwhile.

Now given a particular bobbin whorl, or bobbin effective diameter or flyer whorl, we can calculate the other two components to produce a particular twist or grist, making spinning a particular grist or twist very easy.

Looking at tpi for 10s; we know that 10 hanks per pound is 5,600 yards per pound, and the square root of 5,600 is ~75. Looking at AA pg 383 we see the TF is 0.11. Using TPI= square root (G) / (TF) we get 75 * 0.11= 9 tpi. If I am going to spin worsted "10s", I need to insert 9 tpi. Any other tpi is more work.

Last spring, I put some effort into making a bobbin with a 3" effective diameter (Bc) and a whorl of 1.986" (Bwc).  My wheel diameter is 22".

In making 10s with 27 twists in every wrap of the bobbin, the bobbin must rotate 27 times while 3" of yarn are wound on.  As the bobbin rotates to insert twist, the flyer must rotate with the bobbin plus or minus 1/27th of a rotation relative to the bobbin. This tiny difference in the relative rotation speeds of the bobbin and the flyer allows twist accumulation; and take-up to occur continuously, and uniformly.

Thus, if (DRS) is = Bwc/Fwc=1.03 the flyer will wind one wrap around the bobbin as the bobbin inserts 27 twists into the yarn.  If the effective diameter of the bobbin is 3" then twist will be 9 tpi, and effort by the spinner in drafting will be small. In this case, Bwc is 1.986" and Fwc is 1.912" and the difference is 0.07" (a little more than 1/16").  With DRS, very small differences between the diameter of the flyer whorl and the diameter of the bobbin whorl make very large differences in the grist that the wheel wants to spin.  A hank per hour is a reasonable pace to spin this grist.  Spinning any other grist with these whorls takes significant effort from the spinner.

However, once the wheel is set to spin a particular grist, spinning that grist is very easy, and much of what I would call spinning effort just goes away.  In particular, most single drive wheels have much more slippage than is recognized.  Rules of thumb for slippage in the published spinning cannon are for low speed, and  drive band slippage increases dramatically as faster spinning is attempted. With double drive/DRS there is much less slippage, and hence much less spinning effort.

If DRS is  = Bwc/Fwc=1.02; now the flyer will wind one one wrap of yarn in 50 rotations, so that twist is ~17 tpi, which is just right for 22,000 ypp which is 40 hanks per pound or 150 wpi.  With a DRS of 1.02,  one can easily spin Romney or Cotswold at its spin count. All of that magic ritual and hocus-pocus of spinning fine goes away, and one can just sit down and spin at the spin count.  (That said, I freely admit that a whorl groove that should be producing 40s wants to do 56s. (It is 1/32" too small!) It is not the end of the world, it is ~ +3 tpi. That whorl will get relabeled, put away, and taken out for use for when I want to spin 32,000 ypp. ) At twice the twist, these 40s get spun at half the pace as 10s.

If DRS is  = Bwc/Fwc=1.016. Now I can sit down and spin combed 56 count wool at its spin count of 32,000 ypp by using 20 tpi resulting in a spinning pace ~240 yards per hour.  I oil the fiber and divide it into slivers of pencil thickness, but that is all very quick, the wool very cheap, and the result is singles that are much thinner than most of the Orenburg lace singles we see today.  These singles ares about 60 meter/gram making them finer than any of the wool/Alpaca/goat singles yarns that Lacis sells.  (Of course, my fine worsted singles do not have the soft halo that gives Orenburg its lovely softness. My singles do not have enough visual bulk for the Orenburg patterns.)

If DRS is  = Bwc/Fwc=1.014, then I am up into 25 tpi, and able to spin Rambouillet and other very fine wools into 80s (45,000 ypp or 91 m/g). I know they are 80s because the staples are finer than 19 microns and there are between 18 and 22 fibers in the cross section of the single.  The actual spinning is slow at a couple of hundred yards per hour -- even when working with freshly oiled and combed fiber.  Fiber combed with English (5-pitch) combs works very well.  The little lice combs work, but are not necessary, and are so slow as to be considered an academic exercise at best.  Lice combs are not suited to spinning a useful amount of yarn in a reasonable time frame. I spoil about a third of the flyer whorls in this range that I try to make. If I made more of them, I would get better at making these whorls.

Note well, that small changes in DRS can result in very large changes in grist. Between DRS of 1.016 and 1.014 grist changes by 15,000 ypp.  With my current bobbin whorls, 0.1 mm makes a large difference in grist. This process takes a craftsman's attention to detail,  but it works.

This is very different from single drive systems or DD with slip, where there is either twist accumulation (during yarn lock) or take-up.  For one thing, with less slip, it is faster.  For a second, twist, and hence grist is predictable. For 3d, fine yarns can be spun without a tendency for them to drift apart before they accumulate enough twist.  For a 4th, the fiber can retain its orientation, so there is no need for inch-worm drafting to produce true worsted  lace weight singles. Without the need for inch-worm drafting, worsted can be produced as fast as long draw. (Since worsted requires a lower twist factor, production of worsted can actually be faster than long draw producing the same grist.)

The decline and fall of the knitting empire

After 1812, there was a movement to teach the poor (in work houses/ poor houses) to knit. As a result, there was a flood of hand knitting and knitters wages collapsed.  

By 1840, to be a professional knitter was to be poor. At this point, the tools and knitting methods of the professional knitter went out of fashion.  Knitters started pit knitting so as not to be seen with a knitting sheath.  And the knitting skills associated with using a knitting sheath were lost. Knitters stopped buying knitting sheaths, and the skills of making knitting sheaths were lost. Words for various specific tools and techniques were lost.

There were several contributing factors. Steam replaced sail reducing the need high quality seaman's sweaters. On the deck of a steam boat, a cheap felted pea coat is better than an expensive knit sweater.  Frame knitting became much better, and "machine-made" become fashionable. Homes, businesses, churches, and transportation were better heated, requiring less clothing to stay warm. All in all, there was less need for fine hand knitting.

The entire culture of professional knitting was lost in 3 generations. Talented young knitters did not go into knitting (if they could avoid it) because because knitting as a profession did not promise respect in the community or good wages.  Young people with elan went into other professions. Knitting as a craft form did not expand, and move forward.

Certainly, good Shetland lace was knit.  This was supported by developments in wool breeding and mechanical spinning. However, all of that lace knitting kept those Shetland knitters in poverty.  In 1885, a lady might buy a Shetland lace christening gown for her niece, but she bought it at Harrods, and would never actually talk to the knitter.  The best that can be said is that those lace knitters were being exploited.  Yes, they produced great quantities of fine lace, but that was despite their lack of tools and working conditions, not because of their poor working conditions. With better tools, better light, better shop conditions, and better yarns, they could have turned out better lace.  The best yarn they had available was in the 12,000 ypp range, with some silk blends going a bit finer.  It does take the finest tools and supplies to turnout the finest lace. If one is going to work at a professional pace with the finest needles, then one needs a knitting sheath to stabilize the needles. However, the skills of making such knitting sheaths were lost. One does not attempt the finest lace, if one is going to be blocking it outside.  One only does the finest lace when one has a protected attic to dry/block the final object.  One needs a dedicated work space for the finest knitting. Child care and a hearth (soot & sparks) are the enemies of the finest lace.  In contrast, a hundred years earlier the lady wanting lace would have gone into the lace make's shop and talked to the knitter.  In 1785, the knitter was more respected and better paid.  In 1785, the better paid knitter had a better work-space, better light, better tools, and was able to do better work.

In Brugge, we looked at a good, private collection of lace. Of course there was a lot of Victorian stuff that looked nice - until you put it side by side with lace that was 100 years older.

Finally, any competent hand spinner can spin Rambouillet at 47,000 ypp producing 2-ply at 22,000 ypp, which is finer than Gossamer Cashmere. And worsted spinning produces a thin yarn with good tooth that displays well when knit with fine needles.  These days, I do a fair amount of knitting on needles in the range of 1.0 mm - 1.5 mm. I found that I like those needles by working with finer needles.  I am starting to have some ideas about lace.