Spinner's Alphabet: What begins with J? Join!

By Amelia © June 15, 2026

I once joined two spindle-fulls
to make a larger skein

J

is for join. Joins are crucial in spinning - you join old fiber to new unless you spin continuously from one large bump of fiber. I see people avoid joins with a passion. I took the other route - I was having such trouble with joins when learning that I created a bunch of 6" lengths of fiber and did join after join after join trying to get better at them. I wish I knew then what I know now!

A successful join holds together once spun, and also when plied (if you are plying) and when the yarn is put to use in knitting, weaving, or whichever use you put it to. I've seen them fall apart at each stage over the years - did I mention how much trouble I had with joins when I was first learning to spin?

I tend to name my joins so I can remember when they are appropriate to use. The first successful one I learned was the "staple length join", where you hold old fiber against new fiber for at least a staple length of the fiber, and draft the two together. Usually holds. Hard to hold slippery fibers.

The second one I learned was introduced to me as a V join, useful for slippery fibers. It's a fantastic join, because it increases the surface area of old fibers against new fibers: you split the remaining staple of old fiber into a V, and put the drafted out new fiber within. I describe this as a sandwich to my students, and one came back with "it's a Victory sandwich!" and since then the name has stuck: Victory join. I teach this join to beginners as it is the most likely to succeed in the yearbook of joins.

The third one I leared was introduced to me as a Worsted join, used when you have to join fiber to yarn - perhaps your leader, or the yarn you were spinning snapped and you can't get a staple length of fiber to join against. It is also called a Cotton join. I don't know why it's called a Worsted join, as the other joins also can be used when you are spinning worsted without removing any % of worsted-ness from your spin. I made my peace with this join when I renamed it as "Rescue Join" - it's used to rescue a spin when all I have is yarn I need to join to fiber. Hold yarn against fiber until there is enough twist that the yarn grabs onto the fiber.

I was thinking this morning about joins and realized that Victory Joins are great except when you have very short staple fibers. Then the staple length join is about all I can manage, but I do fan out the ends of old and new fiber. So I'm thinking of calling this one the "Fan Join" now to make it clear you want to maximize surface area of old and new fibers to help them grab hold of each other as you draft, uniting them in twist as yarn.

If you want to read about how to join when plying, see How do you make joins when plying?

Whichever way you join, if it holds together, it's a good join!

My only other J is "just" - whenever I find myself saying that I always back off. We use that word like the thing we are describing is easy (oooh - another four letter word!) when in fact it's our skill and expertise that make us think that. As a great manager once said to me, you don't know what someone else's experience is, only your own. So don't tell them something is simple, as it may not match up to their skill and expertise.

I'm curious - what joins do you use? Do you have another spinning J?

~~~~
© June 15, 2026 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/

How is Technique evaluated by a Fiber Arts Judge?

By Amelia © June 11, 2026

This small thick/thin cable skein needs
spinner notes to explain the goal
and technique used

Welcome back to the fiber arts judging series ... this is part three of five. If you've just found this blog series, I recommend starting with part one: How is handspun yarn judged at fairs? and then reading part two: How are Skein Appearance and Preparation Evaluated? before continuing on with this part. We've been working our way through the score card:

1. General overall appearance.
2. Preparation for exhibit — clean, properly skeined and tied, of listed yardage and/or weight, blocked if necessary.
3. Suitability of fiber to yarn—amount of twist, diameter of yarn
4. Technique — twist evenly executed, appropriate plying twist, diameter consistent throughout, structurally durable, yarn designs consistent, dyeing/blending consistent
5. Suitability of yarn to use—direction of twist, amount of twist, diameter of yarn, handle of yarn, appropriate number of plies.
6. Finished Execution – originality, creativity, complexity.

In this post we address the largest category, Technique. At this point I am ready to get deeply familiar with the skein, having already had an initial look for the overall appearance and read the spinner's comments provided with their submission to help evaluate suitability of fiber to yarn.

With the fourth category, spinner-provided backstory can help alot. Listening to skeins is possible, but words from the spinner add invaluable insights I might miss even with my experience. I look for consistency in twist and diameter, unless the spinner has told me why those are not consistent, and thus what I should be looking for. Let's keep this simple to start. One piece of feedback I often provide is "inconsistent twist/diameter in the single has led to inconsistent ply twist". Maintaining the same twist and diameter takes skill. I know many spinners don't want their skeins to look commercial-perfect and I do honor that, but I have to grade on the criteria. So if they tell me they spun it long draw, I can weigh that it is harder to spin consistent diameter with that method and grade accordingly. I have had posts on this blog about consistency, but let me add one more - you can even out twist along your single by putting the bobbins at some distance from the wheel when you ply (or similar for spindles). This might even be a case where rewinding bobbins while the singles are fresh can help - rewind with the source bobbins farther away to allow twist to move along the length as you rewind the bobbins.

Next in Technique I evaluate "appropriate plying twist". This ties in to intended use - socks, warp, and other durable yarns need high twist while singles for knitting and crochet need lower twist. There also needs to be a viable reason for over- or under-plying. Lace benefits from underplying, while durable yarns benefit from overplying.

Structurally durable also relies on intended use - a loose ply may be fine if the use won't lead to snags, while yarn with alot of very thin bits that are mistakes may end up snapping under tension such as when used as a warp.

Yarn designs consistent relies on the yarn structure, and in an art yarn category on information provided to see if it is infact art yarn. A cable, when done properly, looks like little dots of rice. Coils should appear at regular intervals unless it's been stated that irregularity was part of the design - then they need to be mostly at irregular intervals. Tell me what yarns you've designed in the comments, and I will add some thoughts about what makes their design appear consistent.

Finally for Technique, we evaluate if dyeing/blending is consistent. This may often not be applicable, in a naturally colored single-source fiber. So if there are points per sub category, I often struggle with this one. Also, information on who dyed the fiber and who blended it can matter - commercial dyeing and blending really lean to "appropriate fiber for use" more than effort the spinner put into the Technique. I'm not supposed to grade Louet on their blends, it's the spinner's work we want to evaluate.

~~~~
© June 11, 2026 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/

Spinner's Alphabet: What begins with I? Indigo!

By Amelia © June 1, 2026

I

is for indigo. Natural dyeing is so much fun, I even grew indigo and used my crop to dye some handspun skeins. It's a great treat to know I can make my fiber or handspun blue from a plant, with shades from rich blue to soft blue.

The biggest surprise to me was when I put some already acid-dyed skeins in an indigo bath - they came out blue, not the expected green (over yellow) and purple (over red). My dye bath was a dux-redux bath, which a chemist told me, meant it contained a dye remover! So, it removed the acid dye as it laid the indigo dye on the skeins. Although I would have enjoyed those colors, I was pleased to get a nice blue on my soft squishy skeins.

I also dyed fiber and a few tea towels - so it's up to you to decide at which phase to dye.

One of the things to be careful about if you do grow indigo, is to ensure there is no Japanese knotweed growing in the area. They will cross-pollinate and your next crop of indigo from cross-pollination will not produce dye. I ran into this with one crop, but luckily had seeds from the previous crop still, so my next crop succeeded. Sourcing seeds can also be difficult, the source I had is no longer producing them.

There's also "instant indigo", the prepared dye, which I've seen friends get good results with. One friend had an annual indigo party where we would experiment with different preparations (cake, instant, powder, dried leaves, fresh leaves) on different fibers (cotton, silk, wool). You can see some of the results in the picture with skeins on the drying rack.

Have you tried indigo? How'd it go?

The other I that came to mind was ingeo, one of the wave of manufactured fibers from different sources. Ingeo is made from corn. It's a bit squeaky with a bit of shine. I never tried it in blends, actually I never got past making sample skeins with it. I'd be curious to hear what your experience with it was/is. There's no longer any in my stash of fiber or handspun.

What's your I?

~~~~
© June 1, 2026 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/

How are Skein Appearance and Preparation Evaluated?

By Amelia © May 25, 2026

My Akha-spun skein and
the tools used to create it

This post continues my review of fair judging steps when evaluating handspun skeins. As you may recall from the first post, the forms used to evaluate handspun skeins typically have these categories:

1. General overall appearance.
2. Preparation for exhibit — clean, properly skeined and tied, of listed yardage and/or weight, blocked if necessary.
3. Suitability of fiber to yarn — amount of twist, diameter of yarn
4. Technique — twist evenly executed, appropriate plying twist, diameter consistent throughout, structurally durable, yarn designs consistent, dyeing/blending consistent
5. Suitability of yarn to use — direction of twist, amount of twist, diameter of yarn, handle of yarn, appropriate number of plies.
6. Finished Execution – originality, creativity, complexity.

I gave an overview of the process in my earlier post, How is Handspun Yarn Judged at Fairs?. In this post we will look at the first two items, general overall appearance and preparation for exhibit. Come back for later posts as I work down the form.

First, I group the skeins into the categories that fair uses; some fairs divide by spinning tool, some by yarn structure, some by fiber content. Then I take a category and dry-run a few entries; that is, I evaluate but take no permanent notes to get a feel for that county's spinners. Once I'm warmed up, I choose a random skein in a category to start with - in fact, I might have the scribe, if I'm assigned one, hand me skeins one by one.

I take the skein, look for its information tag, and read that. Anything the spinner can tell me is useful - first off, the premium book may have requirements, but in particular any background on why they chose to spin that fiber, how they made the choices they did in spinning it, and what they might use it for is all super useful but all but the last are seldom required by the premium book. I do check for any required information; some require yardage, fiber content, intended use, and perhaps even a swatch. All of that provided information is part of general appearance. It also feeds well into the other categories on the score card.

At this point I take a look at the skein to fully evaluate the first category, general appearance. A tidily wound skein with sufficient skein ties (4 is usually enough, maybe 3 on a small skein - or the number the premium book requires). The ties must not distract from the skein - I'm embarrassed to say the first skeins I entered had thick white cotton ties (oops) but later ones would use lengths of the yarn itself, unplied to use as little of the handspun as possible in the ties. Basically, anything that does not distract me from the skein is fine. The skein should also have no odor or dirt. I do not grade on the color of the fiber as my personal preference in color choices only comes to play in assigning Judge's Choice to my favorite among all the entries.

Ouch! those white ties!

I tend to write notes on the feedback card, generally positive and supportive with gentle correction, but avoid assigning points right away. I'll make notes all down the card and once done, assign points as appropriate for each category.

Some of the appearance items apply to the next category, preparation for exhibit. Here I focus on what the premium book required and what information was provided. Having extra information is a plus here. If yardage is provided, I have to do at least a rough check that it's in the ballpark - I will be more exact in a smaller fair but if there are a huge number of entries, I have to estimate with a partial count.

This category says "blocked if necessary" which means I do need to know how the yarn will be used to determine if blocking makes sense for that use. Knitting yarns generally wouldn't be blocked unless they were singles or were purposely over- or under-plied; weaving warp should be blocked unless the notes call out the loom used as a rigid heddle; weaving weft might be blocked if it was high-twist singles, though that twist can also be managed on the weaving bobbin; crochet yarn tends to be similar to knitting yarn. I have explored several other yarn crafts and so tend to apply what I know about them to the yarn I'm presented with - if you have one you're interested in, drop me a comment and I'll reply there. But I'd say those 3 uses are 98% of the entries I've seen over the years.

How do I know if a skein has been blocked? Generally if a skein is balanced or blocked, it hangs in an open O when it is opened and hung from your hand. So if it twists on itself more than 2 times, it likely has not been blocked. I can check the yarn itself, if it is plied, for some elasticity - wool will have a little bounce, if balanced and not blocked. I can also twist the plied yarn more and less to see if that open O is a balanced skein or not. Plied yarn is balanced at the point where the plied yarn is thickest - so if adding twist or removing twist makes it thicker, then the skein was not balanced and thus was blocked. Singles can be a little more tricky - sure, if the skein of singles hangs in an open O, it must have been blocked. But if it does not, the question is was it blocked but not to straightness. Typically then I check the twist angle in the single. Usually if the twist angle is more than 15 ° but the skein only twists a few times, it's been blocked.

One last comment about blocking - another finishing that has a similar effect is rough finishing. The only effective difference is that I can undo blocking by rewetting or resteaming the skein, but I can't unfelt it after rough finishing.

Whew! alot goes in to those two seemingly straight-forward categories. And yet, even the later categories will inform my evaluation of these two. So the form is never complete until I come to the end and review all the notes I've written on the skein, to assign points as directed by that fair's evaluation form.

I'd be curious to know how you prepare skeins for the fair, and what information you like to include with your submission, regardless of what the fair requires.

Check back in a few weeks for the next post where we will tackle evaluating technique in handspun yarn.

~~~~
© May 25, 2026 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/

Spinner's Alphabet: What Begins With H? Hawser!

By Amelia © May 18, 2026

H

is for Hawser yarn construction. This is a fascinating 4-strand yarn structure used in rope, and made popular by Sarah Anderson's The Spinner's Book of Yarn Designs: Techniques for Creating 80 Yarns (Storey Publishing, LLC, 2013) (affiliate link, thanks!).

To make a Hawser yarn, you spin singles Z, ply Z (crazy I know), then finish by plying S the 2 Z-plied 2-plies. It looks like a 2-ply yarn in the result from a distance, but up close it looks a bit like a sloppy 4-ply (ok, mine did!). Fun/chaotic to spin and a great way to get out of my "ply S" rut!

From a whole-skein view, it looks like a 2-ply; but that close-up above shows some "messy 4-ply" vibes!

To help myself understand the steps involved, I like to draw a flow chart for the structure. All the letters are spinning direction, and if lines lead into a letter, it's plying those lines in the direction stated. Here's my Hawser chart:

The main thing to understand is that the goal is balance, but along the way it can get very unbalanced - plying Z-spun singles Z for example - that's crazy yarn! But the final S twist here is to bring everything back into balance. The Hawser 2-ply look is best served by that Z-ply step making the yarn look plied when under tension - but when you relax it, it curls on itself like crazy trying to find balance. So you want a good plying setup with a sturdy kate, and if you can let those Z-plied bobbins rest a while it will help.

It can be fun to break the "rules" on spinning - try spinning an S single. It definitely feels different! You'd think you can't ply S and Z spun singles together. As a 2-ply, it's really elastic, but as a 3- or 4-ply it makes a very durable yarn to have one single spun opposite to the others. That's in Sarah's book too!

Here's a peek at the deck from The Spinner’s Book of Yarn Design by Sarah Anderson (Storey Publishing, LLC, 2013). I travel with the deck so whenever I want to try something new, I can shuffle it and draw a random one to challenge myself.

I had no other H's ... What's your spinner's H? What explorations have you made in yarn constructions?

~~~~
© May 18, 2026 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/