Raging Ignorance

The great thing about wraps per inch is that the square of WPI (when done well) is grist in yards per pound (ypp). With small corrections, it will also work for cotton, hemp, and silk.


Then the square root of grist (in ypp) is the diameter of the yarn in inches.


This relationship is useful in knitting and weaving because if I know the grist, I know how thick the yarn is.  It is useful in spinning, because if I know how thick the yarn is then I know the grist.  It is an easy calculation.


However, it requires that in measuring WPI, the yarn must be packed to refusal.  Learning to do WPI correctly takes real practice.  It is a "SKILL"!  One starts with yarns of known grist and practices measuring WPI until the WPI is the square root of grist.


Now there are a bunch of knitters that claim wpi should be measured more loosely, then they have a little chart to show them the class thickness of the yarn.  Well, if they measure WPI loosely, then they have lost the relationship with grist. All they have is their silly little chart, and their silly little chart does not help spinners and weavers.  It does not even help serious knitters.


Many, many knitters have put their loosey-goosey approach on their blogs until the first few pages of a search for WPI only brings up that silliness.  Now, the authoritative information is buried. 


Here is a good example where hobby knitters have managed to lose and bury useful, traditional knowledge about textile production.  Isaac Asimov told us at the Institute of Man and Science, "Americans think their ignorance is as good and anyone else's facts!".  Today day I would rephrase that to "Knitters think their ignorance is as good as traditional knowledge"!


My favorite single is 5,600 ypp (10s) or 75 wpi.   I have a little brass gauge that I can set to a gap of 0.25 inches.  I can be spinning, and if when I pack the gauge to refusal, and there are ~19 wraps, then the grist is very close to 5,600 ypp.  It works.  I have done this hundreds of times.  I check grist as I spin, and wind hanks of 560 yards, and the hanks are within 5% of the desired weight. It is faster, easier, and more accurate than a McMorran Yarn Balance!  Sometimes I spin 40s (22,400 ypp), then I know that when packed to refusal and there are ~38 wraps in the 1/4" gauge, and the hank of 560 yards will weigh very close to the desired 11 grams.


I ply the 10s up into 5-ply, and sure enough I get ~30 wraps per inch and I know the grist is very close to 1,000 ypp. It works for  sock yarns, gansey yarns, and Aran years.  However, it only works with a wpi gauge and "PACK TO REFUSAL".  It does not work when you wrap the yarn around a ruler or a dowel.


It is less suitable for "art" yarns, but that is no reason to throw the whole concept away.  Some day, we will want to go back to practical knitting and we will have forgotten the traditional knowledge that make it possible.

Twist and grist

I said, that for a hand spinner, inserted twist defines grist. A test is reported below showing that hand spinners can control grist to plus or minus 5%.  Can you control grist better?

This summer I have been spinning "10s" - worsted 5,600 ypp singles.

I wound a dozen hanks of 560 yards and weighed them.  Each should weigh ~45.4 grams.

I used a particular set of flyer bobbin whorls, spun 7 or 8 grams of single, then wound it off onto a storage bobbin. Then, I wound the storage bobbin on to a skeiner, blocked the hank with steam, and weighed it.

Mostly the hanks weighed right in the range of 43 to 48 grams.  Thus, by using DRS to control twist, it is possible for hand spinners to control grist to within plus or minus 5% over samples of 560 yards and maintain a specific grist over projects of many hanks.

Smaller samples tell me that this can be done with 20s or 40s.  I did samples of finer singles in the middle of the above test.  It is possible to spin 10s, then spin much finer 20s and 40s, and then go to back to spinning 10s at the same grist as before.

The 8 lb of  5s loom warp that I did last year with the smaller and less precise whorls, runs about plus or minus 12%.  (At the time, I thought the yarn was reasonably consistent for hand spun, and was very happy to have hanks anywhere in the range of 80 to 100 grams.)

By planning twist, one can control grist.  This is deep inside the world of  "the intentional spinner." The only path here, that I know, is DRS.  Without DRS I do not think you are going to be able to control grist to within 5%.  Without DRS, it is going to take you much, much longer to spin 7,000 yard of 5,600 ypp,  2,240 yd of 11,400 ypp and 1,120 yd of 22,400 ypp singles. Really, how many tries would it take you to spin a 560 yd hank of single that weighs between 10.5 and 12.5 grams? With DRS, I can be reasonably confident of spinning such a 40s on the first try.

It was not always like that.  Better tools brought better skills.  Better skills let me design and make better tools, and so forth.

Today, I find the omission of DRS by Judith Mackenzie to be grievous.  When my variation on grist  with DRS was 12%, and SG told me she could maintain grist within 10%,  I could give a pass to intuitive spinners who did not discuss DRS.  However, now that I know more of the control that DRS can provide, then failure to discuss DRS is a serious error and omission.  Alden Amos at least brings the topic up and discusses the math, even if he does not get into the details of hand movements and mechanics.

Twist and Grist

I have been accused of getting my twist numbers wrong.

That is unlikely.  I may have made a typo here or there, but over all, I am the one hand spinner that always knows his twist.   I use differential rotation speed (DRS) without slip to control twist insertion.  Once I install the whorls on the wheel, I know how much twist will be inserted.  If I want a thicker yarn, I do a more woolen preparation.  If I want a thinner yarn, I do a more worsted preparation, and thus I can get a range of yarns from particular whorl combination that inserts a specific twist.  However, I can always look at the whorls on my wheel and know how much twist is being inserted.

Thus, I have to know the twist for every yarn that I plan to make.  Once the whorls are (made and) installed -- the twist is set.  How fast I treadle does not affect inserted twist.  How fast I draft does not affect inserted twist.  Yarn build up on the bobbin does affect the effective diameter of the bobbins and hence rate of take up and hence twist.  However, this is a known factor that is predictable.

I know that when the whorls that produce 9 tpi are on the wheel, and I am spinning worsted I get 10s (5,600 ypp).  I have measured, and validated this hundreds of times.  I know that when the whorls that produce 17 tpi are on the wheel, I get 40s.  I have measured and validated this many times. I also have whorl combinations for 5s, 20s, 30s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s that have been have measured and validated. Each allows me to produce a specific grist of worsted and a different, specific grist of woolen and intermediate grists of semi-woolen and semi-worsted.

If I want to sit down and just play with a fiber, then I am likely to set the wheel up as single-drive, bobbin lead (Irish Tension).  Most of my plying of hanks of  5-ply  gansey yarn or 10-ply Aran weight are done using the Ashford ST Jumbo flyer. Thus, every week, I do work with ST and IT fliers. With IT or ST my twist is as fallible as anyone's. However, most of my spinning is done with DRS because it is more productive and my twist more precise.    Spending a lot of time working with precise twist makes me a better spinner when I am using ST or IT.  Sock weight yarns with large numbers of plys are plied using DRS control of  the AA #1 flier. This holds twist to within a few percent. That limits my sock yarns to skeins of about 10 grams or about 80 yards.  Small skeins are my penalty for demanding precise twist in my 6-ply sock yarns.

On the other hand, my WPI measurments tend not to be consistent with several other authors.  I worked with yarns of known grist and practiced doing WPI until my measured WPI for 5,600 ypp (10s) was a consistent 75,  my measured WPI for 11,200 ypp  was just over a hundred, my WPI for shirting or hosiery yarns was 150, and etc. This seems different from other authors, but most do not write about spinning this fine. In every case, my WPI tests were done with worsted spun rather than woolen yarns., and this may explain some of the difference. However,  I always pack to refusal, because it provides more consistent results. At this time, I do not trust my WPI for woolen spun yarns.  It is likely off by 10 % when it should be accurate to 6%.  Thus, to get the grist of woolen yarns I weigh a measured length.

I think some authors do not pack to refusal, so their WPI and hence estimated grist and required twist are different from my numbers.  My numbers work - consistently.