Can you spin without extra tools?

By Amelia © August 14, 2010

It's been a fun summer here between teaching classes for the local community college (spinning and felting! what fun!) and a one-on-one spinning class at the local yarn store.

My one-on-one student had an interesting goal. She has sheep, the processed roving from their shearing last year, and she found a second-hand wheel with just one bobbin. Her goal was to learn to spin yarn for knitting without making any further purchases (just the lessons). She even used her own fiber in the classes. Yes, before the other teachers out there shake their heads, I did tell her it might not do; but it turned out to be some fairly nice Shetland roving (similar to the one pictured here), locally processed, and it spun as well as my usual teaching fibers, so we used it.

One of the things we worked on was a process flow ... what steps were needed to create plied yarn? Today was graduation day -- my now-former student is happy with her skill level and her yarn. Here is how she goes about it ...

1) Fill a bobbin with singles.

2) Wind the singles off onto a toilet-paper core or paper-towel core. Tuck the end in so that twist doesn't get released from the end of the single.

3) Repeat steps 1 & 2 so you have 2 cores full of singles.

4) Place each filled core in a large bowl (pasta, mixing, or otherwise) or even a bucket.

5) Take the outside end from each of the singles to start plying.

6) Ply until the bobbin is full; break the ends off, wrap them back around their own core, and tuck their ends in (see #2 for why).

7) Skein off the bobbin onto your leg-niddy (remember, no new tools!); tie in 3 places, twist up and set aside.

8) Repeat 5 & 6. If one of the singles' ends before the other, consider plying what remains with a hand-ply method. Or, save it to add on to the shorter end of the next pair of single-full cores.

9) Repeat 7 (skein up the bobbin-full).

10) Open up the skeins; soak-wash and rinse the skeins, squeeze out the water and hang to dry.

Whew! So the only extra things we used, in the end, were the cardboard cores that would otherwise have been recycled, and the bowls from her kitchen cabinets. Mission accomplished.

And the single-bobbin wheel? It's a charming Saxony Rick Reeves wheel with an engraved rose on the bench, in excellent condition, though with only the one bobbin. It did require a little catch-up maintenance, which my repair kit mostly addressed the first day. What a lucky find!

So -- yes, you can learn to spin with a second-hand wheel with only one bobbin. Despite my love of tools, tools, tools, we can usually find basic substitutes around the house, or do the same task with a body part (the leg-niddy) or just a bit slower (hand-winding balls versus the ubiquitous Royal ball winder).

Her approach reminded me that the main requirement of learning to spin is some level of dedication -- new spinners may not even realize they are providing that, they are so smitten by the fiber and mesmerized by spindle or wheel. It's that little bit of practice every day that turns you into a spinner. Like knitting, swimming, and even reading, there are things your body and brain need to learn how to do which only comes with applied practice.

So, spinners new and continuing, spin on, and spin happy :)

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© August 14, 2010 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/blog

I'm learning to spin, what books should I read?

By Amelia © July 20, 2010

I had the great good fortune this summer to add a title to my name I have always wanted: college professor. Cool! No, I don't have a doctorate. So perhaps it's not an accurate title. But, I am now teaching continuing education/community education classes for our local community college, Peninsula College.

The first class was Hand Spinning Yarn. The class learned to spin on spindles, skein and finish yarn, scour fleece, hand card, drum card, spin on wheels, hand comb, and the use of handspun in knitting, crochet, and weaving. One of the questions they asked was for some recommended reading, so they could continue with their studies as they continued developing their skills once our sessions ended.

This is an excerpt from the email I sent them ...

Here is a list of suggested reading (or viewing) for learning to spin.

For spindling, here are my three favorites:

Productive Spindling, by me (Amelia Garripoli).

Respect the Spindle, by Abby Franquemont.

Spindle Spinning: From Novice to Expert, by Connie Delaney.

There are some useful videos on www.joyofhandspinning.com and www.icanspin.com, as well as Abby's two part tutorial on youtube.com

For wheel spinning, my two favorite learn to spin books are:

Hands on Spinning, by Lee Raven -- this also has an excellent description of hand carding.

Start Spinning, by Maggie Casey -- a more recent book, very well written.

And for those who prefer videos, my favorite is Patsy Zawistoski's
Spinning Wool - Basics & Beyond.

For drum carding, my two favorites are:

The Ashford Book of Carding, by Jo Reeve, though specific to their
equipment, it is generally applicable.

Color in Spinning, by Deb Menz covers far more with dyeing, blending,
and creating colorways on drum carders and more.

For combing, which we'll cover in our fourth class, my two favorites are:
Combs Combs Combs by Susan McFarland, though out of print is worth the material.

Hand Woolcombing and Spinning, by Peter Teal, though not an introductory text, is the most thorough discussion on the topic of
worsted spinning.

Once you've had fun learning to spin and are ready to explore more,
books on yarn construction may appeal to you.

Essentials of Yarn Design for Handspinners, by Mabel Ross goes out of print quickly, and is a bit dry, but my favorite on the topic of yarn design.

Spinning Designer Yarns, by Diane Varney discusses a variety of yarn
constructions as well as dyeing handspun yarn.

Spin Control, by Amy King steps through a variety of styles of spinning and methods of yarn construction.

A great second-step to your spinning is also wheel control, for that I can recommend The Intentional Spinner by Judith MacKenzie McCuin as well as her DVD-set Popular Wheel Mechanics.

If you want a thorough discussion of all things spinning in one tome, The Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning will bury you in footnotes while discussing everything from fiber preparations to the style of groove on your wheel's flyer. Though at first I found his book overwhelming, I now find myself turning to it to look for good discussions on many of the "why"s of spinning.

(end of excerpt)

I'm having a lot of fun in my new role, the wet-felted scarf class was a real hoot too. The fall semester will include Needlefelt Art, Etsy/Artfire Online Selling, Yarn Dyeing, and a repeat of Hand Spinning Yarn, in addition to workshops being offered at the North Olympic Fiber Arts Festival 2010, the first weekend of October: Plying New Yarns, Spinning Wheel Mechanics, and Making a Braided Rug. If any of them are of interest to you, the best way to register is by calling 1.877.452.9277, after September 1.



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As I write this post, two of the books on the list above are out of print (Mabel Ross' Designing Yarn for Hand Spinners, and Susan McFarland's Combs Combs Combs). For help locating copies, see this post:
Where Can I Find Out-of-Print Fiber Art Books?

Also, if there's an out of print book you would really enjoy having, besides looking for it second-hand, consider contacting the publisher -- how else are they going to realize they should consider reprinting it?

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© July 20, 2010 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/blog

How do you spin a cloud?

By Amelia © July 6, 2010

In my spinner's e-tutorial, Spinning Slippery Fibers, I discuss spinning a variety of fibers (superwash merino, kid mohair, alpaca, silk, bamboo, angora, and cashmere), mostly working with prepared top or sliver forms.

There are many other different preparations of fiber out there beyond prepared top and sliver. I've listed many of those on this blog before. One I haven't talked about much is the "cloud" -- this is a typical small mill preparation for cashmere, pygora, and llama that is just scoured and de-haired, but not carded further. It is typically a light, airy mass of fiber without much organization.

In this year's Tour de Fleece, a companion spin-along to the Tour de France bicycle race being hosted on Ravelry, I'm spinning up 8 ounces of type C pygora cloud on my Hansen mini-Spinner -- that's my "station" in the photo; the first 2 oz. on the kate, the second 2 oz. underway. I'll ply them as the half-way point, and then tackle the next 4 ounces.

Clouds can be spun by tugging off a small chunk, starting to draft out from a point (any point) on the cloud, and drafting from there. It's a random preparation, not completely organized, so you may find yourself spinning folded fibers into your yarn alongside straight fibers.

Pygora is a fairly slippery fiber, so my grip on it is tighter than on wool. That may be why I found the tufts matting in my hand. I checked the clouds in their packet, and found that they were not matted at all, so realized that the matting was likely from the warmth in my own hand. Next time, I tugged off a smaller tuft to spin -- it all spun up without any matting. Clearly, the time the fiber spent clutched in my toasty palm was the culprit. I'm happily spinning away now with my matt-free tufts of cloud. Sure, I do joins more often, but that is easier than unmatting the fiber.

This tuft-spinning is working quite nicely, as the pygora has a nice staple length, about 2.5 inches. If it were a very short fiber, like camel down, yak, or some cashmere, I might prefer to card the cloud into punis and spin from those. The post How do you spin short Guanaco fiber? talks about handling shorter staple cloud preparations.

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Other posts you may be interested in:

Where can I get my fleece processed?

Does roving have a direction?


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© July 6, 2010 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/blog

What I did at the Northwest Spinner's Conference ...

By Amelia © June 12, 2010

The Northwest Regional Spinner's Conference was held at the Pinelow Retreat by Deer Lake in eastern Washington this year -- a quiet, peaceful place to have a conference. Yes, we had a little rain; and cell-phone reception required a patch of sky; but then again, there was WiFi, and good eats.

In the evenings, I spun two different yarns ... on my bottom-whorl spindle, I was using Andean speed-plying. On my SpinOlution Hopper, I spun an auto-wrapped single.

As with all things, the speed-plying improved as I worked my way through. If you learn this technique in a class, give it a spindle-full afterwards -- you will find the motions coming more naturally, and may find it a more efficient, effective way to ply. I certainly did!

Speed-plying requires a pre-wound plying ball, and a bottom-whorl or mid-whorl spindle. You set the spindle twirling by rolling the top part of the shaft between the flats of your hands. There's a YouTube video of Abby Franquemont performing this here, and the technique is included in my book, Productive Spindling. Since twist enters it quickly, you want the pre-wound ball so you can feed more yarn into the twist once the spindle is twirling.

The auto-wrapping was interesting, because I started with the method described in Intertwined, but adapted it for my thread. The silver metallic thread I was using had a tendency to jump up and leave stiff loops hanging off the yarn if I left the cone sitting untended to wrap the yarn; it really needed some light tensioning to make the thread behave a bit more calmly. So, I moved the thread a little closer to me to be under my hand, and let the thread lay across my palm. I didn't put any pressure on it, just let it feed up and wrap around the newly drafted single as I was spinning and drafting. All-in-all, it was a nice result with just enough freedom of movement of the thread for wrapping to vary along the length.

Both the plying and the autowrapping came much easier toward the end of the four ounces involved in each. A great reminder that part of gaining skill is practice!

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Spinning in the evenings wasn't my only activity. I also had a "full load" of classes to teach; three of them you can purchase as e-tutorials at askthebellwether.com:

• Exotic Fiber Spindling -- featherweight and Akha spindles with lovely exotic fibers: alpaca, cashmere, camel, yak, and more.
  
• Core Spinning -- we delved into ways to make balanced core-spun yarn as well as exploring different core materials. The picture here is from the Medallion Scarf pattern in the e-tutorial, using the core yarn as garter stitch medallions at each end of the scarf.
  
• Spinning Slippery Fibers -- a wheel (and spindle) spinning class looking at the common needs of slippery fibers: superwash, mohair, alpaca, silk, bamboo, angora, cashmere, and others.
  

These were great fun to teach, and I look forward to feedback and questions from both my in-class students and folks who give the e-booklets a spin!

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© June 12, 2010 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/blog

How can I do Sock Machine Selvedges?

By Amelia © May 27, 2010

A question from a reader of this blog ...

My question is: I have recently purchased a Legare 47 and need to know if it is only possible to make a selvedge "cast-on" at top of sock in 1 x 1 rib, or can it be done with 3 x 1 or others? For me it has only worked using the 72 cylinder and doing 1 x 1 rib. Won't work with 54 cylinder. Any ideas?

Thanks for asking ... it's nice to do a sock machine post, as I was recently knitting on mine and even playing with selvedges. I'm going to assume you have a 72-slot cylinder, a 54-slot cylinder, and a 36-slot ribber. This gives you a few options...

First one ... if you want to do a 3/1 top edge, you could put a needle in every cylinder slot, without the ribber on yet, and use an e-wrap to make a selvedge. You wrap every needle from where you would start to knit with an "e" of the yarn you plan to knit with (pull along tail through so you can get all the way around with it), counterclockwise around the cylinder, in the same order the needles will knit. Then, knit one row. This makes a selvedge that won't unravel. At this point you can put the ribber in and transfer stitches from cylinder needles (removing them!!) and onto ribber needles as you like.

I admit, this selvedge is fiddly -- the number of times I have dropped a stitch in that first ribber row, I hesitate to count. I've been very pleased in the reliability of my NZAK to not drop ribber stitches, so I can use this selvedge when I want to. It has the virtue of working no matter what ribbing I want -- 3/1, 2/1, 1/1, or mock rib.

Second one ... a mock rib hemmed selvedge. For this, you leave out every n-th needle. For a 3/1 mock rib, it's every 4th needle. And, you just start knitting with your real yarn once you have your waste yarn knitting cleanly. Once you have 10-40 rows (how many defines the depth of your hemmed top), you pick up the first knit row's stitches and put them around the needles with the current row, so the first row is knit into the next round of knitting.

Third one ... there's a great selvedge you can do with a 36-slot ribber and 54-slot cylinder. If you use only every other slot in the ribber, you can set up for a 2/1 ribbing. Once this knits cleanly with the waste yarn, attach your sock yarn and continue like so:

1. Knit one row with the sock yarn.
   
2. Lift the first cylinder needle of each pair all the way around (well, as around as you can ... just be sure to continue with this step as you start the next one...).
   
3. Knit two complete rows with that first-of-each-pair needle not knitting. Yes, this puts a bar of yarn in front of it each time.
   
4. Now lower the out-of-work needles, carefully, so their latches are open and above the bars, and knit the next round.
   

Whew! This is actually a fairly easy selvedge, and my favorite for 52-cylinder socks and mittens.

You mentioned the 1/1 ribbing; you could, if you want a 3/1 sock on the 72, use 1/1 ribbing just for 3-4 rows and then convert over to 3/1 ribbing for the rest of the leg.

There have been other selvedges I've played with -- e-wrap on cylinder needles, then starting ribbing needles by picking up the bar from the row below (not easy!); and a variety of sewn selvedges after taking the sock off the machine -- but I'm going to guess you're looking for a cranked selvedge, not a hand-done selvedge. So go ahead, experiment -- try out a variety of selvedges, knit short tubes, and see if they hold or let stitches run.

I've been happiest with 1/1, 2/1, and mock rib hemmed-top socks, all of them pretty deep -- I'll do 25 rows of ribbing, and 40 rows before hanging the hem of a mock rib. I used to only do 5-10 rows, but it doesn't make a deep enough ribbing to hold the sock up well. 3/1 topped socks haven't stayed up that well for me, so I don't tend to use it at the top edge of a sock.

The socks up at the top have a 1/1 top, 3/1 leg and foot; they are tiny ... knit on my NZAK's compound cylinder :-).

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Related posts:
Sock machines: hem or ribbed top?
Sock machines: How do you put a selvedge on a 3/1 sock?
Sock Machines: Can you use a 36-slot ribber with a 54-slot cylinder?

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© May 27, 2010 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/blog

How do you unwind from an odd-shaped spindle?

By Amelia © May 20, 2010

Although round whorls are most common, these days a spindle whorl can have any shape at all -- square, triangle, even an irregular shape. If you usually put the spindle in a bowl, a round whorl will roll easily on the sides. But a spindle whorl that's square will not unwind as smoothly.

So, how do I deal with that? It depends on my mood ... I might slide the cop onto a straw and unwind from that, or put the spindle in a spindle kate to unwind from it. I have some "real" ones but I've also been known to cut key-holes on two sides of a shoe-box and use that. Keyholes are round holes about an inch or so from the top edge of the shoe-box with lines cut up to the top of the box. I can squeeze the spindle in by pushing down, and the lines stay closed while the spindle rides in the round holes below them -- if they fail, a bit of masking tape will hold them shut, and is easy to cut or remove once I'm done.

I've also been known to slide the first spindle-full off onto a straw and then put that cop and the second spindle-full, still on the spindle, on my bed to wind together into a plying ball.

When I'm winding off of the spindle after plying, I'll usually skein off by holding the spindle like a lollipop and rotating it in my fingers as I wind it around the niddy-noddy or body-noddy.

For an authentic Andean experience, you'd stick the bottom pointy end of your bottom whorl spindle in the ground or between your toes or feet, and then pull the yarn off the end. This does change the twist a little bit, like pulling up from the center of a center-pull ball, but unless your yarn is on the border of too loose to be yarn, the difference will be minor. Still, if you do not want to affect your amount of twist, you'll want to use one of the other methods above.

~~~

This post inspired by a question on the Spindlers Yahoo List.

Related articles:
Can you spin a sheep?
How do you wind a plying ball?
Does the ball-winder add twist?
How do you wind yarn on a niddy-noddy?
10 things I learned on my summer vacation
What is Andean spindling?

For more spindle-specific posts, see the Spindles topic.

For even more spindle management tips for top-whorl, bottom-whorl, and Turkish spindles, see my book, Productive Spindling.

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© May 20, 2010 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/blog

Balancing creativity...

By Amelia © May 7, 2010

Every so often, I lapse into a "meta" phase of considering my direction and environment. A step back really helps me evaluate, improve, and re-energize my goals.

Henry of Wake Up Cloud recently helped with that, asking what the biggest blocker was in pursuing my dreams.

My current goal is to explore weaving and find what I like most about it, as I continue to explore the ins and outs of spinning.

Having been spinning for 9 years now, and mastering a variety of skills to the point of teaching and selling handspun, I enjoy the activity and continue to find ways to expand my skills. I would say it's only in the last few years that I've finally developed a rhythm for consistent singles. My forays into fine spinning have been developing to new lengths (pun intended!); that aligns nicely with my desire to weave fine threads.

Weaving is a fascinating art as well. The perfectionism of weaving fabric provides a nice balance to the more care-free nature of spinning. I have, of course, thrown my handspun on the loom in a variety of ways (perhaps not quite as care-free as WeaveZine's silly string method...) and luckily had success with that. I know my future weaving will involve handspun.

As with all fascinations, these interests of mine can overwhelm the day-to-day living of raising a family and caring for pets, flock, and home. My current meta-goal, then, is finding a balance -- keeping family and all content while continuing my fiber explorations.

Sometimes it means teaching my children a bit more cooking and cleaning so they can help out on the family side. They're used to mom teaching them things, being spinners themselves and exploring needle-arts, felting, dyeing and weaving alongside mom. Since we all enjoy that, it's perhaps no surprise that they are happy to learn cooking and take great pride in the meals they've prepared.

Sometimes it means taking personal time -- this weekend, for example, I'm attending a workshop by Anne Field on Collapse Weave. A few years back, I might not have let myself go away for 3 days; but now I know the family will do well and even benefit from the time without mom at the tiller.

I know I'm not the first artisan to go down this path ... I recently read Anita Luvera Mayer's books and was struck how, in the forwards, she grew as a person. In her first book, she notes how family needs and wants kept her from the loom for many years. In her second, she mentions the difficulty of leaving them to go to shows and workshops. And in the third, she celebrates the growth of herself and her family to function both together and apart. I plan to continue reading her books, "I don't do guilt anymore" really sounds like it will be a fun read from a woman who has definitely arrived.

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Similar posts:

Simplicity and Craft

How Can I be more Productive?


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© May 7, 2010 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/blog