How is Suitability evaluated by a Fiber Arts Judge?

By Amelia © July 6, 2026

A felt hat from my first handspun.
Gently judged with great feedback!

Welcome back to the handspun judging series ... this is our fourth entry of five, and in it we will detail the Suitability category on the score card. If you've just found this series, start with part one: How is handspun yarn judged at fairs? and then read part two: How are Skein Appearance and Preparation Evaluated? and part three: How is Technique evaluated by a Fiber Arts Judge? 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 two Suitability categories. I can evaluate suitability of fiber to yarn without knowing the planned use. However, if the spinner hasn't told me what they intend to use the skein for, I usually have to make up a use for the yarn to evaluate it. Of course, being a kind judge, I make up a suitable use, and mention that in the evaluation. Do they end up making what I've evaluated it? I never do find out.

The third category is suitability of fiber to yarn. Often I skip over this one and do the fourth category first as it helps inform me for this category. So I've done the same on my blog.

After evaluating Technique, I am very familiar with the skein and can return to Suitability of Fiber to Yarn. In some ways this is driven by intended use as well - does the fiber suit that use? First, I look at amount of twist. Generally acceptable: low twist for knitted hats and scarves and weft and decorative yarns, high twist for socks and warp and durable yarns. You may see some cross-over, and when I see it I lean into what the spinner told me to look for justification.

Something that is never acceptable without clear justification in the notes: corkscrewing in the singles. This can occur in thick and thin yarn, as twist gathers in thin spots, making them likely to curl up in pigtails. Without careful monitoring, those pigtails may sneak into the plied yarn as well.

Second I look at diameter of yarn. Finer fibers are more suitable for finer yarns, however only the single need be fine - for example, I had a friend make a 6-ply of a merino/mink blend to get to a worsted weight yarn, where the 2-ply might have only been laceweight. Coarser fibers may be seeen in a variety of diameters, and work well for thicker singles. If the spinner hasn't stuck to this, then diameter plays against twist - a thicker single in fine wool needs more twist to hold together well. There is also Anne Field's notes on spinning to the crimp, where the crimp in wool drives yarn diamater. Finer fibers tend to have tighter crimp. (Her notes are explained in Spinning Wool: Beyond the Basics, an excellent book [affiliate link but at those prices, get it from your local spinning guild's library]).

It's a natural transition to move from suitability of fiber to yarn, to suitability of yarn to use.

The hat with its skein and some newer skeins and hat.
I do like spinning for hats.

Our fifth category is suitability of yarn to use. In premium books that don't require the entry to state intended use, or when the spinner failed to provide the information, this can be tricky. If the information is missing, I usually provide a recommendation in this space and then grade against that at a reduced level. There are several sub categories to evaluate here.

• Direction of twist - usually we spin Z, clockwise, and ply S, counter-clockwise. Knitting likes a final twist direction of counter-clockwise, though, so a cable yarn ought to be either spun the other direction or rough finished to avoid untwisting. Some techniques, like tvandstickning (twined knitting) want a final Z twist.
• Amount of twist - durable yarns need more twist. Soft puffy hats need low twist yarn.
• Diameter of yarn - socks need fine yarn; lace usually uses fine yarn. Scarves are usually thicker yarns, but if they have a pattern specified, then the yarn needs to be close in diameter (and fiber, and structure) that the commercial pattern uses. Luckily ravelry provides many of those details. Unluckily many county fairgrounds are in low- to no-cell signal zones. So I make a list to check during lunch, off-grounds.
• Handle of yarn - how does it feel? scratchy yarn as a scarf or hat is not good. Super soft easily destroyed fibers in loosely spun yarn is not good for socks.
• Appropriate number of plies - nalbinding with wool, a single is best but 2-ply is not uncommon; warp is usually plied, so a good reason must be supplied for a warp yarn that is a single; more complex structures need reasonable uses for them suggested.

Whew! At this point I am close to done on the form and beginning to come up with some general positive comments I can write on the bottom of the judging slip. I want to see more entries each year, and will encourage spinners to re-enter and perhaps to give additional categories a try as well.

This is being posted in July, and County Fair season is fast approaching ... are you entering? I'd love to hear what you are preparing or, if you are reading this in the fall, how things went.

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© July 6, 2026 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/

Spinner's Alphabet: What begins with K? Kemp!

By Amelia © June 29, 2026

This is Pi, my Shetland sheep, in the early 00's

K

is for Kemp. Kemp is the coarse part of an animal's coat that is more hair-like and not nice to spin unless you really, really want to make ropy yarns. So it might have its uses. Shetland sheep get kemp in their haunches; Soay sheep have kemp and a really short but very crimpy fiber coat that can be combed off in the spring with their natural molt. That is, if you don't wait too long and find they've rubbed it off on the fences!

With my Shetlands, the kemp was mostly on their legs and back haunches; even though their fleeces were on the small side - being smaller sheep generally - I still skirted the kempiest bits away, as I never found a good way to separate it.

Deneb, my Soay, after a rooing session
Still had more to do

With my Soay, I would catch them once they started rubbing on the fences and could brush their fleeces off. Primitive breeds like Soay have a natural break that occurs in the spring, so it took nothing more than a normal dog comb to remove their fleece. Their kemp was throughout their fleece, so I had some despair initially. Luckily, I found that when I drum carded it that the kemp would fall out as the fiber moved from the licker-in to the main drum! Cleaning up that mess was a small price to pay for getting 95% of the kemp out. The rest I would remove as I spun the single, as it would stick straight out and a simple pluck removed it from the yarn. Over the years, I've found that making that plucking motion along the length of the yarn disturbed the strand less than pulling away from it.

And what did I do with that kemp? I put it in my garden as a slow mulch. I was excited to see "wool pellets" made from mills' wool waste show up at area wool shows, validating my small efforts at recycling the kemp.

Two questions to leave you with:

• Do you have any tips for removing kemp from fleece?
• What is your spinner's K?

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© June 29, 2026 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/

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?

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© 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.

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© 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?

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