How can I spin "hairy" yarn?


There's a type of yarn/spinning called lock spinning or
tail spinning; the idea is to start with washed locks,
and that you end up with yarn with "curls" coming out all
over it.

I've done this two ways: with short-staple kid mohair locks,
I took a fine yarn singles and while plying the fine yarn,
"inserted" the mohair locks as I went. The plying yarn grabbed
them and held them, and since my hands were busy with the
plying, the tendency to want to smooth them was stifled -- mostly.

Or with just locks, take the locks at the cut end, hit that end
with a flicker to open it up, then draft from there; you keep
adding locks, and you have to _let_go_ of each lock when there's
1/2 to 1 inch left of curl -- let it run free of the singles you are spinning.
You can either ply this on itself (for a fairly bulky yarn) or ply it
with thread. Usually mine is pretty highly twisted, so I don't want
to leave it as singles.

(posted without picture by me on Spindlers this day)

2 comments:

Sian said...

Thanks for that Amelia, I like to pick up spinning tips. Especially how to make funky yarn!

Amelia of Ask The Bellwether said...

Some details on "core spinning" which can be used with locks to spin a curly yarn: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~handspin/inlay10.htm

And here's a nice photo of some tailspun yarn:
http://www.knitting-and.com/gallery/v/textiles/spinning/noveltyyarns/tailspun.jpg.html