Understand the Spindle! Part IV

I seem to have made a mistake in my calculations.

A rim weighted whorl does tend to slow the copp/ spindle system after the copp has gotten large enough to act as a good whorl.  This was my basis of analysis for suggesting that whorls be removable so that they do not slow the spindle as the copp is finished.

Center weighted whorls on the other hand, can be fixed because they do not tend to slow the spindle as much.

A drop spindle for travel

Rim weighted whorls do have their uses.  This compact spindle was make for producing 6,000 ypp singles while out and about.

 The shaft is rosewood, the hook is steel, and the whorl is a steel machine nut threaded on a piece of rose wood.  The shaft weight is 3 g, and the whorl weight is 15 g for a total weight of 18 grams

 An evening's spinning, just over a hundred yards -  not much because I had managed to get some epoxy under the skin of a finger and it hurt.

In contrast, here is my current production spindle for 9,000 ypp singles:

 The whorl weight is 15 g, and the shaft weight is 5 g for a total weight of 20 g.

 Yes, the production spindle is faster. The rim weighting of the compact spindle slows it down.  Despite being heavier, the center weighted spindle spins faster, and transfers twist to the yarn faster.

These spindles do not push the limits.  They could be used upside down as bottom whorl spindles.  9,000 ypp singles are plenty strong enough to withstand a half-hitch.  Problems with the strength of half-hitches do not show up until higher grists.

Where were such tools when I was learning to spin?  Nobody was talking about them and nobody was selling them.

High Whorl vs. Low Whorl Spindles

The choice between high whorl and low whorl drop spindles in usually presented as purely personal choice.  However, there are rational factors that should enter into the selection of a spindle for a particular project. Both styles of spindle have their virtues, and things that they do less well.  Between them is a middle ground where either will serve.

Bottom whorl spindles are inherently more stable.  They are suited for robust designs which tend to be heavier, and less fragile.  These designs have substantial mass (more than 30 grams) and are suited for plying and making singles with grist of less than 6,000 ypp.

Top whorl spindles can be made lighter, so that less effort is required to accelerate them to very high speed.  The high speed makes them suited to spinning high grist singles.

This is not to say that it is not possible to make a heavy top whorl spindle. However, if you want a heavy spindle, you might as well go for the stability of a bottom whorl spindle.

A heavy spindle will not spin high grist singles as fast as a (center weighted) light weight spindle. Thus, the bottom line is that a well designed top whorl spindle can spin fine singles (greater than 9,000 ypp) several times faster than a bottom whorl spindle. This is an advantage that no amount of skill or experience can overcome.

A heavy (rim weighted) spindle delivers torque to overcome the higher resistance of  low grist singles and plying. For these duties the heavier spindle is better, and gets the job done faster.  There is nothing as frustrating as trying to spin a low grist single with a spindle that does not carry enough momentum.   (Yes, Virginia, you need to ask Santa Clause for 2 spindles;  a light one and a heavier one.)

So the next time a spindle vendor tells you that their spindle is "fast", ask,  "Fast for what?"  A spindle that is fast for plying and low grist yarns will be slow when spinning lace singles.  A spindle that quickly spins lace singles will have problems spinning low grist singles (or plying).  If they say for spinning lace, ask them what they mean by "lace".  These days, lace can mean anything from 4,000 ypp to 30,000 ypp and that is a huge range.

No drop spindle is as fast as a properly selected, and tuned, DD flyer/bobbin assembly.  However, the correct spindle for the job is a whole lot faster than the wrong spindle for the project. 

The sum of what I know about spindles

I have often said that I do not really understand spindles.  It turns out that part of  the problem was that I did not like modern spindle designs for the kind of singles that I was trying to spin.  The conventional wisdom of modern spindle design did not apply to what I was trying to do.

Here are spindle designs that work for me.  They are designed to spin 9,000 to 12,000 ypp singles at a good rate of speed.  The removable whorl allows continued high speed spinning even after the the copp gains enough mass to affect the rotation speed of the spindle - just take the whorl off and use the copp for rotational momentum.  The materials are rosewood  or ash shafts and ebony or cocobolo whorls.  The  whorls are in the shape of perforated truncated cones. These are more effort to fabricate than cylinders or disks, but are traditional, and do seem to work better. I use steel hooks and brass brads on the bottom.

For a short time, someone using a Peruvian folk spindle

From: http://abbysyarns.com/2011/02/peruvian-spindles-my-spindles 

might be able to keep up while spinning 10,000 ypp singles, but not for long - the physics are against it. For a spinner to try and spin 10,000 ypp singles on such a large whorl spindle means that they do not really understand the spindle. Certainly, it can be done, but it is a lot of effort.  With the correct spindle, it is much less effort. On the other, hand spinning the low grist yarns in the photo above using one of my spindles designed for fine spinning would be a huge effort.  It could be done, but it would be a huge effort.  A spinner that understands spindles, chooses the right spindle for the task.


Teachers that say, "A good spinner can spin anything on any spindle" either do not understand the physics of spindles or they do not care if their students waste time and effort by working with the wrong tools.

As the copp grows, the rotational speed of the spindle declines, and with a large copp, the additional weight of the fixed whorl limits the maximum rotational speed of the spindle. This is the reason for a removable whorl.  It makes spinning that last third of the copp much faster.

Let us consider a recreational spinner drafting 100 inches per minute. If spinning singles to make 2-ply worsted weight yarn, then the spinner needs ~400 or 500 rpm, (average) and 3 inch whorls work very well. If the spinner is spinning 6,000 ypp lace singles then they need ~ 900 rpm to get the twist to hold the yarn together, and for the same weight whorl, it should be ~1.5" in diameter. (However, likely it will be lighter.)  My whorls have an average diameter of ~1".  A  10,000 ypp single requires 3 times as much twist per inch as  a 1,600 ypp single.  Thus, for me to spin 100 inches per minute, I need to average more than 1,200 rpm to insert the twist to hold that fine single together.

Spindles store energy! Twist is energy! Twist energy is inserted into the yarn from rotational energy stored in the spindle. If a spindle keeps spinning for a long time then it is slowly transferring energy to the yarn, that is: it is spinning slowly!  A belief that a spindle can transfer energy to the yarn and keep rotating is a belief in perpetual motion.  A spindle that slows down and stops, is a spindle that is doing its job.

The spindle with the smaller diameter whorl is going to spin faster. It is going to transfer its energy faster. Then, it is going to slow down and stop - it has done its job.  It is a fast worker.

Tools matter!  Any tool that can be made, can be made better.

ETA 4/23 Lignum is better than ebony for whorls.

Understand the Spindle! Part III

The next set of questions has to do with how the spindle is spun-up, and how much energy is in the "flick".

There are several "finger flick" motions that can be used to spin up a spindle.  These can give a spindle with a 2 inch whorl some 400 rpm.  That means they can give a spindle with a 1 inch whorl as much as 3,000 rpm depending on how the flick is delivered.  However, a smaller whorl diameter is likely to have a smaller diameter blade (the chopstick like stick in a spindle system).  A smaller diameter blade has a smaller circumfrance, which must rotate more times during the flick, so that a smaller diameter blade can produce much higher spindle speeds.  On the other hand, large whorls will need larger blade diameters to provide the torque to get  larger whorl rotating.  Thus, if you want to spin fine yarns fast, smaller whorls allow smaller diameter blades, which allow spinning the spindle faster during the flick.

In short, it is a system, and by changing the diameter of the whorl and the blade, we can make spinning one kind of yarn easier (and spinning another kind of yarn more difficult.)

The amount of energy that can be delievered to the spindle in one flick is limited.  As the weight of the copp grows, that weight and the weight of the spindle must be both be spun up.  Since some of the energy goes into accelerating the copp, there is less energy to accelerate the spindle.   Thus, as the size of the copp grows the spindle speed is reduced.  This effect can be reduced by using a removalbe  whorl.  Then the whorl is removed when the copp reaches a critical size and spinning continues using the copp as the "whorl".  This allow faster spinning and bigger copps to be built.

The total weight of the system is limited by the tensile strength of the yarn being spun. Fine, soft yarns can not suport as heavy a spindle system as a hard spun cord.  Wool cannot support as heavy a spindle system as linen, cotton, or hemp, and so forth.

On the other hand, spinning hard spun cords require heaver spindles and whorls with longer lever arms to insert twist into yarns with more spin rigidity.Thicker yarns require heavier spindles to hold the fibers in alignment as twist is inserted. (Even with woolen yarns, some parts of some fibers have to be held in alignment so that they can be wrapped around each othe to generate the friction to hold the yarn together.)

Thus, we can design or select a spindle to facilitate the kind of spinning that we want to do.

For strong/ heavy cords/heavy plying : A heavy spindle with a large diameter whorl such as a Navajo or dare I say it?  (I dare!) the old Ashford spindles.

For singles for 2-ply worsted yarn:  This is where the common modern designs excel with ~3" whorls and total spindle running weights ~2 oz.  Cupped or weghted whorl rims allow slow, carefull drafting for spinning very pretty yarns.

Lace singles (6,000 - 12,000 ypp) :  Here modern spindle designs get schizophrenic, with light weight but long lever arms.  I like a removeable whorl bead (sometimes a metal nut) with a total spindle weight near 0.7 oz. Whorl diameter varies from 0.5 to 1" depending on the desired yarn texture. As the copp grows, I take the whorl off and allow the copp to act as the whorl, so that the final weight of blade and copp of 560 yards is only a few grams heavier than the original blade and whorl weight.

Fine Singles (grist greater than 12,000 ypp): Supported spindles (Russian & Tahkli ) work very well, but drop spindles can be much faster.  The trick is to use thin blades and small whorl beads.  In particular, top spindles spun up with thigh rolls can allow rapid production of fine singles.

Understand the Spindle! part 2

In Part I, I mentioned mass that is farther from the center of rotation slows the rotation of the spindle.  This is a dramatic effect.  Suppose you have a spindle with a 12 gram whorl in the shape of a flat disk. If that whorl is 1 inch in diameter, then the speed will be X for one "flick" that gives the spindle rotation.  If the spindle is made with a thinner whorl, then a 2 inch diameter whorl, still weighted at 12 grams, have a speed of X/8.  If the spindle is made still thinner so that it has to be 3 inches across to weight 12 grams, then the speed will be X/27.  That is, a spindle with a 1 inch whorl will spin 27 times faster than a spindle with a 3 inch whorl when they both carry the same rotation energy.  When spinning yarns of the same grist, the spindle with the 3" whorl will deliver its energy to the yarn much more slowly and be much more suited to spinning thicker yarns that require much less twist per inch.  The 3" whorl also has a longer lever arm and thus can deliver more torque.  Thicker yarn requires more torque to insert  twist into the yarn.  Thus, large whorls are better suited to spinning thicker yarns and small diameter wholes are better suited to spinning finner singles.

Cupped and rim weighted whorls, where even more of the weight of the whorl is farther from the axis of rotation result in even slower spindle rotation. This is not bad if you are learing to draft, but it is no good if you want to spin a lot of fine yarn, fast. The classic example is the CD spindle  (http://danielson.laurentian.ca/qualityoflife/Fulltext/Textiles/Making_a_cd_drop_spindle.htm ).  These are spindle with wide, thin whorls that spin slowly for a long time.  The classic Russian supported spindle (http://askthebellwether.blogspot.com/2007/08/how-do-you-spin-on-russian-spindle.html) has its whorl very thick and close to the axis of rotation.  As I look around, the Russian support spindle and the Tahkli are the most comon fast spindles around.  However, it was not always so. 

We find large numbers of small "whorl beads" at sites around the world. see http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/139611.html , http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/140002024 , http://antiquegreeks.info/?s=Bead+Spindle&c=37906 , http://www.stringpage.com/viking/spindles.html , and  http://www.woolery.com/store/pc/Medieval-Spindles-c281.htm .  Were these really used for spinning or were they just decorative beads?  Using metal machine nuts of size and weight similar to those described on the Viking page, I have made spindles that spin fine threads fast. To modern spinners that are accustomed to spinning with modern spindles that spin slowly, these spindles with small whorl beads spin disconcertingly fast.  Unlike the supported Russian and Tahkli spindles that are spun up with a flick, these top and bottom whorl spindles that I have been making can be spun up with thigh rolls and 2-handed tosses to truely high speeds.  Speeds that spindles with mass on a longer leverarm cannot match.

Nobody using a modern Peruvian spindle such as (http://abbysyarns.com/2011/02/peruvian-spindles-my-spindles) can spin that fast, because their spindles are have evolved by tradition to spin slower, with more torque to spin the coarse singles being produced for local utilitarian consumption.  In fact, there are modern Peruvian spinners that use metal machine nuts as spindle whorls. These spinners do spin fine threads fast, they just have not gotten as much publicity.

I do not want a spindle that spins for a long time.  When spinning fine threads (e.g., 100 wpi and much finer) , I want a spindle that transfers its energy to the thread  -- very rapidly.  That means, the spindle is spinning fast.  When my spinlde is inserting twist rapidly, it is putting energy into the thread and that loss of that energy will slow the spindle down rapidly. Thinking that a spindle can insert twist and keep on spinning is like believing in perpetual motion machines. Spindles store energy, they do not create energy.  A spindle that spins for a long time means that it is not transfering its energy to the thread.  A spindle that spins for a long time means that it is spinning slowly, transfering its energy to the thread slowly, and it is inserting twist slowly.  I am not saying that this is bad. It is necessary for thick yarns and for spinners that are slow drafters.  I am saying that traditional spinners used spindles that made spinning the kind of yarn that they wanted to spin easier and faster.  However, today we have a lot of spindles for spinning all kinds of yarns thrown on to the market, and they are not labeled as to what kind of yarn they were designed to spin.  Moreover, modern spinning teachers do not explain in any kind of  detail WHY such and such a spindle is better for a particular project.

Understand the Spindle!

What could there be to understanding a simple spindle??? What could I say, that other spinning teachers have not already said?  This post is not about basic spinning with a spindle, it is about becoming a very good spindle spinner, quickly!

Spinning is about inserting twist into a fibers.  Twist is energy.  Inserting twist is physics. A full understanding of spinning includes understanding the physics of the situation well enough to understand why different kinds spindles are better for different kinds of projects.  Understaning the physics of spindles will help you choose more functional spindles and help you match the project to the spindle.  The right spindle for the project will help you spin faster.  The right spindle for the project will help you spin finer.  The right spindle for the project will help you avoid overspin!  (I am not kidding!)  The right spindle will help you spin thicker. 

Physics gives us a model so that we can understand what kind of spindles will work better for different kinds of yarns.  This means that we do not have to experience every kind of spindle before we can pick the right spindle to spin the knid of yarn that we wish to produce as the next project.  This makes learning to spin easier, faster, and cheaper.  That is, we do not have to have spun with (own) all kinds spindles to know what spindle is right for the yarn that we want to produce.  It takes much of the trial and error out of becoming a very good spindle spinner.

There are a lot different ways to "spin-up" your spindle.  Supported spindles want to be "spun-up" one way and top whorl drop spindles want to be spun-up in other ways.  Read "Amos" and  talk to your spinning teachers.  Learn all the ways that your spindles can be spun up.

For a particular spinner at a particular time, a specific spin-up technique will impart a certain amount of energy into the spindle. For now, I am going to call this a "flick", however the energy is delivered to the spindle. That energy will be expressed as rotation, or angular velocity. The speed of rotation will depend on the energy the spinner is able to deliever, the total mass of the spindle, and the distribution of the mass with respect to the axis of rotation.

If the spindle is light in weight (low mass) the spindle will spin faster.  If the spindle is heavier, the spindle will spin slower. A flick will cause a supported Russian spindle made from the the local (Russian) pine to spin faster than the replica turned from maple, because the pine spindle is lighter than the maple spindle of the same dimentions. On the otherhand, each spindle contains one flick of energy and will insert the same total number of  twists into a thread of the same fiber and grist.  However the pine spindle is rotating faster and thus will deliver its twist faster, so that the spinner will need to draft faster when using the lighter pine spindle.  The  maple spindle will spin slower so the spinner has more time to draft.  The faster drafter will have to wait for the slower maple spindle to deliver the twist required to hold the thread together.  Where the form factor is the same, the lighter spindle will spin faster (given the same flick).  However, the recreational spinner may (very likely) prefer the slower pace of the slightly heavier spindle.  Or, a "Russian" spindle turned from basswood, will spin faster than one made from Russian pine because the basswood spindle will be ligher than the pine spindle.

For two spindles of the same mass, the spindle with more of its mass farther from the axis of rotation will spin slower when given one flick of energy.  Again the total energy available to insert twist is the same in both spindles.  However, the spindle with its mass closer the its axis of rotation (e.g., Russian spindle) will spin faster than a spindle with (some of) its mass farther from its axis of rotation (e.g., a "CD spindle").  Thus, the Russian spindle is more suited to fine grists that require 30 tpi to hold together and the CD spindle is more suited to grists that will hold together with only 4 tpi.  Because the Russian spindle is spinning fast, it will deliver its energy and slow down rapidly.  Spinning at ~500 rpm the Russian spindle will deliver the twist for 16 inches of thread  (at 30 tpi) in about one minute and come to a rest.  In contrast, the CD spindle may only be spinning at 50 rpm so that it takes 10 minutes to deliver its energy.  Thus, it takes the CD spindle a very long time to twist a fine thread, so people do not use CD spindles for fine spinning, they use them for thicker yarns that require less twist to hold together.  These thicker yarns develop more twist rigidity and take more energy to twist, so that for the yarns that CD spindles are used to spin, CD spindles slow down and stop in much less than 10 minutes.   However, given the same kind of "flick" a CD spindle and a Russian spindle of the same total mass carry the same energy, but they rotate at different speeds.

Spinning Stash

Spinners brag about how big their fiber stash is.  Sometimes, they will even say that their fiber stash is so big that they have raw fleece that has been in their stash for months without being washed.

That is proof that they have not bothered to learn the basics of their craft.  It does not matter how they talk and brag, if a spinner stores dirty fleece for more than a couple of weeks, they do not know their craft.

If you are going to store wool for more than a couple of weeks, it should be clean.  Do not buy fleece that has sat dirty. Fleece that has soap or scouring compound residues on it is dirty.  Soap or what ever must be rinsed out of the fleece. Once the fiber is clean, it is easy to store for years. Yes, it will settle and pack and may need to be re-carded or re-combed, but it will keep well.

Wool that is being combed, carded or spun should be oiled (actually a gell of oil and soap).

After being combed, carded, or spun, the fiber prep should be scoured before extended storage

Good professional spinning practice for a thousand years has been to work with clean fleece.  Spinning in the grease does not produce as consistent or as good a yarn as can be spun from clean fiber.

More on how I spin

Fiber gets combed, and then I diz off using a diz with a 3/32" or 1/16" hole.  

The sliver goes into a bin, and I wind it tail first on to my distaff. The sliver takes on 1 twist per wrap of the distaff, which holds it together.

I take the fiber off the distaff over its end, so it loses its twist and is ready to draft.

The sliver going into my drafting hand is much thicker than the tip of the sliver being drafted.  Tension on the sliver between my drafting hand and the distaff holds the fibers in alignment.

With the fiber approaching the drafting zone in close alignment, no "inch worm" drafting is required.  Fibers simply draft in what is very like a continuous attenuated long draw.  I use a very long drafting zone. Where there is a problem with the fiber prep, I may need to "back draft" a bit to maintain consistent grist. However, with good fiber prep, neither hand needs to move much, and the process is as fast as twist can be inserted, and the yarn wound on.  Since the maximum speed of  fliers on a treadled wheel is about 3,600 rpm, the limit for spinning 6,000 ypp  is ~ 12.5 yards per minute, and the limit for 12,000 ypp is just over 6 y/hr.  That means a good days spinning (on a flier) is about 5,000 yards per day for 6,000 ypp and 2,500 yards per day for 12,000 ypp worsted single. ( Actually, my rule of thumb is a hank (560 yards) every 2 hours regardless of grist.) If I want to go faster, I will get a motor spinner or a driven spindle.

All of this depends on having a bobbin flier assembly with the correct effective bobbin core diameter and differential rotation speed to insert the correct twist per inch of take up.

The flier/bobbin assemblies as they came from Amos had a differential rotation speed (DRS) of ~ 1.15 for spinning long draw woolen.  I made new bobbins with DRS in the range of 1.07 to 1.01 for spinning fine worsted singles.

This approach results in a very high quality worsted yarn, and it is very fast.  With well prepped fiber, 2,000 yards per day of 12,000 ypp worsted singles is easy.

The technique is easy, but you need to plan your tools to make it work.  

Oh, and I have moved to using grease rather than oil on my flier/bobbin assemblies. Grease stands up to the speeds I am spinning at better than oil.   I still use oil on the drive wheel and crank.

A finer flyer

Last night Stephene Gaustad delivered a new #0 flier from Alden Amos.

The bobbin has this morning's play on it.  Note where the single crosses the dime.  I think not bad for ordinary fiber with an ordinary prep.

This is a flier that takes Romney fleece and turns it into frog hair.  I swore that I would never use that term, but there it is.  I guess I have "cobweb" on the brain today.

Will this flier spin finer than the Alden Amos  #1 production flier?  Stephenie tests both by spinning 40,000 ypp singles on them before they get packed for shipment, so Alden will not promise that either flier will spin finer than 40,000 ypp, but yes, this flier will spin finer.

However, for  spinning a lot of 11,000 ypp singles in a day, the #1 production flier is the tool of choice.  For situations where I need to spin very fine, this is the tool of choice.

Bobbin Winder

I spin on a little spinning bobbin, and then I suck the spun yarn off  (technical term meaning wind off  : ) with a bobbin winder that is a bobbin stuck on a tapered dowel that is chucked into a cordless electric drill.  It is fast and it works.

At Stitches, somebody wanted a bobbin winder to wind off (Suck yarn off of) her little wheel.  I told her my solution and she said, "But I do not have a tapered dowel !"  So I went home and turned her a nice tapered dowel.

 However, This morning at the Chinese market a chopstick would work.  And they do!

Here I show use of wooden takeout chopsticks, but the cheap plastic re-usable are even better.

Spindle vs. wheels

I say, " wheels can be faster than spindles." That is not a value judgment, that is a demonstrable fact. Spinning slowly may be a meditative activity, like yoga, and I do not say that meditation is bad.  I only say that, "I want the most thread in the least time."

Humans use toys to learn skills. Toys are an essential good. Children use dolls to learn child care skills without endangering an actual baby. I used spinning toys to learn basic skills. The Traddy as it come out of the box was a toy.  As tweaked and fixed, it is a very fast wheel.  Playing with that wheel, taught me how to "fix" a wheel. That was good.  I used spindles with a wooden whorls to lean basic spindle skills.  That was good.  However, basic physics told me that there where ways of getting a (drop) spindle to go faster, and to spin finer.  I looked, and did not see such spindles on the market, so I made faster spindles myself.   (http://gansey.blogspot.com/2011/10/spindles-and-spindle-whorls.html )  Playing with wooden spindles taught me to make faster spindles that spin finer.  And, I will say that such spindles spin disconcertingly fast and are not suitable for beginners. I do not say they are better, I only say that they are faster and allow spinning finer.

How can anyone dismiss this technology without trying it?  I cannot patent it, this technology is at least 3,000 years old.  It was in use in the Highlands of  Scotland within living memory. And, it is in use in South America today.  Anyone that talks about South American spinning tools and does not mention removable metal whorls is not telling the whole story.

Spindle advocates say, that if I would just practice, then my spinning with a spindle would be as fast as my spinning with a wheel. OK!, let's assume that I practice until I have perfect spindle technique and my wind-on operations require zero time.

With respect to supported spindles, if one is spinning 6,000 ypp, then 5 yards per minute requires ~180 revolutions per minute. If one is spinning 12,000 ypp (110 wpi) at 5 yards per minute than one needs about 400 rpm on a sustained basis. That approaches the upper limit of hand spindling. Yes, you can get instantaneous speeds in excess of 2,000 rpm, but that is not the sustained average speed over a work day or work week. (Of course, the flier on a stock Ashford wheel cannot sustain such speeds either.)

However, I have fliers for my wheel that will sustain average speeds of more than 2,500 rpm. My wheel has produced more than 2,000 yards of worsted 12,000 ypp singles in an 10 hour day. No spinner with a spindle can do that. When we get to serious lace at 35,000 to 40,000 ypp (200 wpi), then a spindle will produce twist for a maximum of about 2 yards of single per minute, while spinning at my wheel,  I am still limited by my drafting ability to about 5 yards per minute.

The the numbers above dramatically understate how much faster a wheel spins compared to a spindle. If we look at reality, even the best spindle spinner must take some time to wind-on. Thus, in reality a hand driven spindle is very much slower than a properly setup wheel. Anybody that says differently, likely does not understand how to select and setup a wheel to achieve good spinning speed. Anybody that says differently should be ready, willing, and able to show that they can use their spindle to produce more than 2,000 yards of worsted 12,000 ypp singles in an 10 hour day. I am perfectly willing to show anyone how to hand spin 2,000 yards per day of 12,000 ypp worsted singles in 10 hours on a wheel. Let me use a Studio Gaustad Motor Spinner, and I can go much faster. The numbers above prove that no amount of practice will make any hand driven spindle as fast as a properly setup wheel (or driven spindle). This is not about me or you, this is physics.

People say that I do not like spindles and that is just not true. After I had a good, fast wheel, I put a lot of effort into finding a spindle design that allowed me to spin much faster than I could on the stock/standard wheels at a LYS. Given my choice of of those strictly stock wheels or a spindle of with a removable metal whorl, I would take the spindle because it is faster. However. let me put new bobbins on those wheels and do a couple of other tweaks, and suddenly the “fixed” wheels will be much faster than the spindle. Anybody that says a spindle is faster than a wheel does not know how to set up a wheel for faster spinning.

If we look at garment weight, worsted thread (9,000 ypp to 15,000 ypp) and consider ergonomic factors for a full time spinner over a period of years, then the wheel will spin a great deal more thread. In the 18^th century, when all spinning was done by hand and there were huge numbers of full time professional spinners, it was a common rule of thumb that a spinner with a wheel could produce 7 times as much thread as a spinner with only a spindle – and that was a spindle with a removable metal whorl. To me, that number seem a little high, but it could be correct because professional spinning wheels in those days had two fliers allowing spinners to spin a thread with each hand. See for example http://gansey.blogspot.com/2011/10/double-flier-spinning-wheels.html .

I am old, and my wrists are weak. I must consider ergonomic factors. If I want as much thread as possible over my remaining years, a wheel is my best choice, but that is just me.

Science, spinning, and illusion

For a long time, one of my jobs was to evaluate technologies, first for Bechtel and its clients, and later for the US Department of Energy.  Large capital investments and the health and safety of large numbers of people were on the line, so the reports had to be correct.

As I started spinning, I looked at the technology technology of spindle spinning with all of the rigor that years before I had applied to technologies related to disposal of hazardous oil refinery wastes and zinc refineries.

One of my conclusions was that the use of a half hitch as taught by Abby Franquenmont (and as she learned as a child in South America) limited the fineness of the yarn that could be spun with such spindles and/or limited the the size of the copp that could be managed.  I reported my conclusions below and somebody asked on a thread on Ravelry, if those conclusions were correct.  There was a lot of back and forth.

Abby had to defend her long held style of  spinning, so she set up an illusion, purportedly to test the physics, in the same way that 19th century snake oil salesmen purported to test the laws of medicine.

Her little test did prove two things.  Unless one takes special care, hand spun yarn is not uniform.  She should have taken Amos's class on spinning to a standard back in the days when it was offered.  The second is that when loosely spun wool singles are subjected to tensile stress to the point of failure, first the single stretches, then the fibers drift apart.  Every spinner that looks at what they are doing knows this.  Abby used this to present an illusion that pretended to be science.

Physics says that a half hitch will reduce the strength of a half hitch by about 40% in an  axial load, and this is based on the difference in load on the inside and the outside of the radius as the yarn wraps around itself  in the knot.  Abby choose a load direction that minimized the difference between the inside and the outside radius.  However, this is not the direction of the load that occurs during spinning.  This is physics, and in physics, the direction of the forces matters.  That is why we learn to use force vectors. Abby should  have paid more attention in physics and calculus.

If you have a fairly uniform wool yarn, tie an overhand knot in if and pull on both sides, the yarn will break at the knot.  However, with a half hitch the force on the spindle side of the line is reduced by friction as the yarn spirals down to the copp.  In the case of the half hitch  the failure starts at the knot and runs between fibers away from the spindle (and half hitch.)  The actual break occurs a few fiber lengths away from the knot.  Thus, the failure of the yarn appears to be 1-6 inches away from the knot depending on the twist, ratchet, and  staple length. This is indeed what Abby found.

I would say that Abby's little illusion absolutely demonstrates that a half hitch reduces the strength of  a woolen yarn, despite her attempt to minimize the effect by changing the geometry of the stress to minimize the knot effect.

Large needles

I like the fabrics produced by fine needles, and thus I have not been making the needles/adapters for large needles.  I have suggested that users of large needles can reduce the stress on their hands by simply dropping  down a needle size.  I was wrong, and I am sorry.

I do not do commissions, however my SIL's 60th birthday is coming up and she wants a cowl.  She has been asking for this for a couple of years, now she is saying that I must do it for her big birthday.  The pattern calls for large needles.  I got out my old cables and swatched. It did not look very good. I was up until midnight making adapters to use those big old  DPN in the bottom of the stash needles with a knitting sheath.

Next morning, sure enough, it looks my knitting again.

I will make adapters to use large needles with knitting sheaths. 

Esty

I have stopped obsessing over spinning, and am again making knitting sheaths and needles that are listed on Esty.

There are some new tools in the shop and I have learned to do some things faster meaning that prices are down. 

First conceptual project

The start of the first conceptual project:  A Jersey

The yarn is 6-ply sport weight. The construction is cabled 3 X 2-ply.  Two plies are always gray Cotswold.  This gives a "silver sheen" to fabric. Then, two plies are white and two plies are brown. The brown accentuates the silver sheen.  Two plies are fine wool and two plies are "Shetland".  When the Shetland is white, then the brown is Rambouillet.  When the white is Cormo  then the brown is Jacob (very like Shetland). Thus, there are always 4 plies of  high luster wool in the yarn and 2 plies of finer, lower luster wool to contrast. Each yarn ball is ~ 2 oz. All plies are spun worsted.  About half of the plies are already spun.

The sweater will be knit in round, on 2.38 mm gansey needles. The fabric is smooth and dense but elastic. Garment will be a basic blouse, Plan 1 from Knitting in the Old Way. 

Thunder and lighting

Alden Amos has "FIXED" my wheel.  Now it is 10 to 15% faster, with measured flier speed in the range of 2,500 rpm, the disagreeable vibration at 1,600 rpm is gone, and it is like WOW! This flier reduces the effort to spin 250 yards of  11,000 ypp worsted single per hour from "moderate" to "easy".  Treadle effort is less. All from a new flyer/bobbin assembly.  Production of threads in the 40,000 - 50,000 ypp range is 4 or 5 times faster than I could mange with the stock Ashford DD flier.

We did not even touch the Mother of All. We are still using standard Ashford flier bearnings.  Alden made three bobbins for this flier, with DRS set for grists of 6,000, 11,000 and 50,000 ypp.  The price and wait was reasonable for such custom work.

Flier/bobbin as made by Alden.

If I had this flier early on, I would not have spent so much time messing with drive bands.   Note that it was not the bearings that were the problem, it was the aerodynamics of the flier.  If you are going to spin at 1,000 rpm, you do not need to mess with all of this stuff (e.g., aerodynamics & drivebands), but it will take you all morning to spin 560 yards of  11,000 ypp worsted single.

 Single wound off  of a bobbin I made this morning.  

It is something of a pain in the neck,

 because it is a bit finer than the rest of the singles for this project.

The tachometer tells me the flier hit speed of 3,800 rpm while spinning this.

I out sourced the flier, because I cannot do dynamic balancing.  I can make a flier that will run at 1,000 rpm.  I cannot make a flier that runs this smooth, at these speeds. Flier/bobbin assemblies made by other wheel makers may be prettier and have fancier bearings, but they do not have the specific differential rotation speed (DRS) that I wanted. Alden Amos is the only wheel maker that I know, who really understands DRS.

Every design has compromises, and every designer weights those compromises differently.  Out of long experience with what people do to their spinning equipment, Alden's designs are conservative. Alden's designs always work, and they endure.  

Another video of spinning

Spinning a thicker, thread that can be seen more easily by the camera:

This is a Merdian Jacob fiber from a fleece I got in 2010.  I did a bunch of 2-ply jumper weight, and I am just spinning a bit more of what was on the bobbin, because it is thick enough to show on the camera.

The flier looks like it is going slowly, but that is a strobe effect from the camera shutter speed.  Actual flier speed is in the range of 400 to 500 rpm.

 DRS is 1.05 with a 5/8" bobbin core.

Again, this is spinning slowly for the camera.  Normally, I would be running the flier at more than 1,600 rpm

How I spin; A video

Here is a better video of how I spin. From over my left shoulder:

And from over my right shoulder:

The fiber is an indifferent prep of Shetland that somebody gave me, and I fixed.  The grist is in the 11,000 ypp range, and the flier rpm is ~500. Twist is in the range of 12 tpi. Twist and to a lesser extent, grist  is set by the DRS (~1.017 with a bobbin core of  ~5/8") of the flier/bobbin assembly.  Thus, I can switch bobbins, and bingo, I have right twist for 14,000 or 25,000, or 50,000 ypp.  All I have to do is make sure the grist is right for the twist. If I need other grists, I make other bobbins as in the last post.

The main thing is that this is a continuous process that produces a true worsted single. Note the use of a distaff.  The distaff is necessary to keep the fibers just behind the drafting zone aligned and parallel.  The fibers are fully aligned as the twist enters them. Of course, these video sequences are much slower than I normally spin, but you can see there is minimal hand motion, so that my hands can keep up when spinning much faster. This technique is a very fast way to produce a true worsted yarn.

These singles will get cabled up  into 8-ply (fingering) for a sweater.  I insert some slubs so you can see the progress of the single.  In the second video, the twisted single is invisible at this resolution. Sorry about that.

First new tools of 2012

I started off the year by making some new bobbins:

The one in the flier is for singles in the range of 11,000 ypp (20s) and the one on top is for finer singles (20,000 + ypp, 40s; these numbers have changed as I use different fibers, different fiber prep, and made better measurements).  These bobbins are a little lighter and the wider whorls allowing slippage for spinning finer yarns than the DRS would suggest.  On the other hand, that slippage slows everything down, particularly as speed increases and the aerodynamics of the flier start to consume significant power.  I do need a more aerodynamic flier.  (The oil finish is drying on one right now!)

They look small, but they will both hold a little over an ounce of  singles.  An ounce of 20s is 700 yards.  An ounce of 40s is 1,400 yards. Thus, I have no problem winding off full hanks of 560 yards from these bobbins.

The physical flier ratio is 22:1.

They took about half a day to make.  I bored 5/8" maple dowel with a 9/16" hole on their axis by holding them in the wood lathe.  I enlarged the axis boring at each end by 3/8" x 7/16" to hold the brass bushing bearings.  For the ends, I cut a 2" square piece of 3/4" maple stock, trimed the corners to ease the start of turning, and on the drill press, bored a 5/8" hole through the center. On the band saw, I cut the ends apart, one ~ 1/4" thick and the other ~1/2" thick.  I glued the ends on the core.  A couple of hours later, on the wool lathe, I rough turned the thin end, and then the thick end.  Then I finish turned the thin end, making sure it cleared the flier. Then I finish turned the whorl using the scrapers that I made last year and posted below.
The bushing bearings were inserted, and held in place with a dab of silicon adhesive.  A bit of sanding, some Danish oil, and they got left on the rack to dry while I made dinner for my wife.

Normally, I would let the core/ends-blank glue-up dry overnight, but this time, I got away with only ~ 2 hour set time.