Do you really measure twists per inch?

The various discussions of twists per inch and twist angle in forums led one overwhelmed reader to ask, "do you really measure twists per inch?"

I must say that for the most part, I just have a "ballpark" idea of what I want -- low twist singles, low-twist plied (which has more twist than low-twist singles...), firm 2-ply, or really tight 3-ply (sock yarn spinning -- been doing alot of that lately!)

I find the ply-back test (discussed in this post) helps me determine if I'm getting the yarn I want.

All that said, lately I've been on a twist-angle hunt, because of all the sock yarn spinning I've been doing. Measuring my own has been a bit after-the-fact, but it told me that my eyeball/ballpark attempt is pretty good. I think there's a fair amount of leeway in yarns in general, hitting an exact mark is mostly something for perfectonists (sic)

(based on a post by me to spindlers, 3/5/07)

If you're on a twist-angle hunt, too, then I can recommend these resources:

Mabel Ross's book The Essentials of Yarn Design for Handspinners (I know, I talk about this book alot -- it must be my favorite! yup!)

Eileen Hallman's video Spinning Cotton on the Charkha comes with a great glue-on-a-CD twist angle guide (please don't glue it on the DVD!)

Holly Shaltz's on-line tutorial Twist Angles

If you have another twist-angle resource, please post a comment to let me know or email me -- thanks!

2 comments:

auntiemichal said...

http://www.hjsstudio.com/twistangle.html is the link to Holly's Twist Angles page, right?

Amelia of Ask The Bellwether said...

@auntiemichal: thanks so much! the html link was mis-entered. It's fixed now. I love her tutorials -- the one on darning is terrific too!