Ask The Bellwether

Spinner's Alphabet: What Begins With N? Niddy-Noddy!

By Amelia © August 10, 2026

is for niddy-noddy, a tool many spinners have with their wheel, e-spinner or spindles. I like my body-noddies, as I always have them with me. When you get into lots of spinning, you may decide to upgrade to a skeiner to make skeins, as it's less stress on your body than a niddy-noddy, and faster as well.

My favorite niddy-noddy has a nostepinne as its center bar - another N! I do love a good multi-use tool. Nostepinnes are fairly simple, lightly sloped sticks used to wind a center-pull ball. the slight slope makes it so you can slide the ball off easily once its wound.

We usually skein up from the bobbin to wash the yarn, and then wind it into a ball to keep it under control when we knit, crochet, or wind it onto a shuttle or warping board for weaving.

One of the most important things about making a skein on a niddy noddy is to wind it properly so that it comes off without any crossed yarns. There's a rhyme used to set one up for the rhythm of the winding - do I know it? no. So I will let you google it. But I usually do it by making two Vs on opposite sides of my niddy noddy. And if I get my grip right, it's a gentle swooping motion with the hand holding the 'noddy while the other hand goes up and down making V after V after V.

Second most important is how you place your ties. I did a youtube on this a while ago, on a skeiner. When the skein is made off the bobbin, I like to make one tie with the inside end and 3 with the outside end, so that when I reskein it or wind it into a ball I can easily find the outside end to wind from. It re-winds much easier from the outside end.

But those boddy-noddies? The small one, used for samples, is your bent arm, winding between tumb-and-fingers and under your elbow. The large one, used for bobbin-fulls and spindle-fulls, is your bent leg, winding over your knee and under your foot. I do like that I have them both with me at the ready. When I'm travelling, those are the niddy-noddies I use, so there's more room for fiber and one less tool to track.

Do you have a spinner's alphabet N? Or a favorite style of niddy-noddy? Let us know in the comments. And come back in a fortnight to see what O is...

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© August 10, 2026 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/

What makes a skein stand out to judges?

By Amelia © August 3, 2026

skeins with ribbons — A pile of handspun after the fair,
waiting for their owners

Welcome to the final post of the handspun judging series ... in it we will detail the Finished Execution category on the score card. If you've just found this series, start with part one: How is handspun yarn judged at fairs? We've been working our way through the score card:

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

The final category is Finished Execution, where the judge gets to consider originality, creativity, and complexity. This is often what bounces items into Best in Class and Best in Show awards. Dye the wool yourself, card or comb it yourself, do something more complex or exposing than a 3-ply - the judge recognizes you are showing an extra layer of skill. Yes, I said 3-ply. 3-ply hides mistakes in the singles better than a single or a 2-ply. Putting that extra effort in makes your yarn unique.

I loved sourcing rare breed fleeces to process myself, and will always state that on the submission for this reason. We are lucky now to have mills that produce specific breed yarns - I love seeing them in yarn stores!

a Soay sheep — Deneb, my Soay - I raised him, roo'd him,
washed, carded, and spun a 2-ply.
My most complex project!

This area is really where notes from the spinner can help. You tell me what makes this creative, complex, or original. Did you feed the sheep? Source it at the judging of a wool show? Develop the colorway to match a photo or flower? Generally spinners don't tell me this sort of thing and so I have to evaluate on what I see. Is it "wool" or a particular breed or blend or non-wool fiber? Is the yarn structure appropriate to use and more complex than basic singles or plying? Is there something special in its appearance, content, or structure that says "creative skein here"?

This category truly leans in to the creativity and effort of the spinner. If the skein is "just" a 2-ply, it can still excel in originality; perhaps the spinner used a suint wash on the wool fleece, or dyed the fiber or handspun with natural dyes they grew. I've had a future project planned for a while, where I "write" a poem with beads with words on them - like the fridge magnet poetry - spinning the beads into the yarn in the appropriate order to read as the poem, to be knitted or woven into a "page". The planning, inclusion of beads, and effort would definitely take the project up a notch - all I need is for it to pop to the top of my "most interesting future project" queue to be the next project.

That said, I do also love to see any entry - even the store-bought solid color top spun into a 2-ply yarn has a place. I've sometimes made an effort to cover all the categories in the fair with my submissions; it's a fun challenge. Some fairs only break up the entries by yarn structure, where others may have categories for tools used, preparation, or intended use. As a judge, I enjoy seeing when every category has several-to-many entries. It makes my job more interesting to have that variety, and I know I am going to uncover surprises as I work through them all.

3-ribbon hat — At my local fair, it's the handspun items
that tend to take Best in Class/Show

Once all the entries have been judged, my job isn't done. I get to lift one item from each class for "Best in Class", one item overall for "Best in Show", and my favorite one of all, "Judge's Choice". The Best ones often are the highest points unless, for example, there's a stunningly spun simple skein that has fewer points than a more complex one in the same class. Choosing from among all the entries for Best in Show often takes me a while. I go take a walk once I've done all the judging so I can contemplate what I've seen. When I return, the Best in Show item often leaps out at me. Judge's Choice doesn't have to have top points. It is my favorite one. For me, it's easy to find it - I lay out all the skeins and run my hand above them - I will reach for just a handful, sometimes only one - and Judge's Choice comes from that pool. I don't consider the points I assigned, errors are even less important. it's the one I most want to take home with me. Though I never get to!

I hope you've found this series intriguing, and that it encourages you to enter your local county fair. I'm looking forward to fair season, and aspire some day to enter an item in my state fair as well!

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© August 3, 2026 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/

Spinner's Alphabet: What Begins With M? Micron count!

By Amelia © July 27, 2026

bobbin of handspun with mini hedgehog — handspun wool with a tiny hedgie

is for micron count. This is used to tell us the diameter of individual fibers. Fine wools are about 20 microns; Cashmere is under 18, similar to cotton (which is 11-22 according to various sources online). And wikipedia's fun article on textile measurement says a micron is "about one-fourth the width of a strand of spider silk"!

The finer a fiber is, the easier it is to spin a finer yarn. It's like our hands are taking inventory of the fibers - 12 Wensleydale fibers are going to make a noticably thicker yarn than 12 cashmere fibers!

I had the good fortune to have a llama (see What Begins with L? with fiber with a micron count of 18 - as an adult llama! Truly scrumptious.

If you want to read about wool and alpaca micron count in detail, I can recommend this blog post from Thread Collective: Understanding the Micron Count of Wool Yarns and Fibres

Other fun M's: Mohair (discussed in What advice do you have for spinning Mohair?), Merino (ahhh the softest wool breed), mordant (how we prepare fibers so dye will attach)

What's the finest fiber you've spun? I'm told Sea Island cotton is the finest of the cottons, so I'm going stash diving this afternoon!

Do you have an M to add to our spinner's alphabet?

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© July 27, 2026 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/

Spinner's Alphabet: What Begins with L? Llama!

By Amelia © July 13, 2026

is for Llama. That super fun, often mislabeled fiber. No, it's not just coarser than alpaca, it's also softer. Depends on the llama! My Mahogany, pictured here, had 18 micron fiber as an adult. Bolivian Llama is by far the nicest breed for fiber. And so many natural colors!

Llama, like alpaca, is a bit more slippery than wool as it has less scale on the surface. So I focus on making very solid joins with at least a staple length of fiber left when I add new fiber, ensuring old and new are drafted together. That said, llama can felt! I made some 100% llama socks and they were unfortunately put in the dryer - not by me! So do take care.

I love putting llama in a sock blend, in fact, as it can have a nice staple length and nice llama, like my Mahogany, can add softness as well. My favorite llama blend was Mahogany and Marge, a Shetland sheep with a moorit fleece. Their two colors went well together leading to a rich roving that was a pleasure to spin!

Llama was the fiber I turned to when I started trying to spin laceweight. It was lovely for that, so easy to draft. I was still early in my spinning career, so though I did knit lace with it, as seen in the image, it was not quite laceweight in thickness. Now that I am more skilled, I do still love spinning llama laceweight. I still have a bit of Mahogany's fleece in my stash, and I love combing it to have a perfect smooth prep for spinning fine.

Other fun L's: laceweight, the goal of so many spinners that Shetland Lace Ring Shawl, with yarn so fine the shawl can be drawn through a ring; luster, the natural sheen in mohair, longwools, silk, and viscose fibers (tencel, rayon, etc.)

What has been your experience with llama?

Do you have another spinning L?

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© July 13, 2026 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/

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:

General overall appearance.
Preparation for exhibit — clean, properly skeined and tied, of listed yardage and/or weight, blocked if necessary.
Suitability of fiber to yarn—amount of twist, diameter of yarn
Technique — twist evenly executed, appropriate plying twist, diameter consistent throughout, structurally durable, yarn designs consistent, dyeing/blending consistent
Suitability of yarn to use—direction of twist, amount of twist, diameter of yarn, handle of yarn, appropriate number of plies.
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.

Hat and skeins — 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

head of a mostly white Shetland sheep with horns — This is Pi, my Shetland sheep, in the early 00's

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.

Soay sheep after roo'ing — 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

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:

General overall appearance.
Preparation for exhibit — clean, properly skeined and tied, of listed yardage and/or weight, blocked if necessary.
Suitability of fiber to yarn—amount of twist, diameter of yarn
Technique — twist evenly executed, appropriate plying twist, diameter consistent throughout, structurally durable, yarn designs consistent, dyeing/blending consistent
Suitability of yarn to use—direction of twist, amount of twist, diameter of yarn, handle of yarn, appropriate number of plies.
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

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/

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:

General overall appearance.
Preparation for exhibit — clean, properly skeined and tied, of listed yardage and/or weight, blocked if necessary.
Suitability of fiber to yarn — amount of twist, diameter of yarn
Technique — twist evenly executed, appropriate plying twist, diameter consistent throughout, structurally durable, yarn designs consistent, dyeing/blending consistent
Suitability of yarn to use — direction of twist, amount of twist, diameter of yarn, handle of yarn, appropriate number of plies.
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.

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.

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© 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

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!

Hawser yarn skein — 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!

deck of cards from Sarah Anderson's book — 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?

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

How is handspun yarn judged at fairs and shows?

By Amelia © May 11, 2026

My best-in-show entry
two-ply sockyarn, overplied, rough finished
to make the superwash Merino durable

You've done your best, filled out the paperwork, and submitted your entry. How is it graded? Spinning isn't a multiple choice quiz, after all.

Some fairs use the Danish system, where your yarn is judged against a set of standards and awarded a ribbon on its own merits. Others use a best-one-wins system, where skeins compete against each other with the best one winning, then second, and possibly third place entries.

My home county when I was entering fairs used the Danish system, and the then-NwRSA (now NwSFA) judging scorecards. These have been developed by hand spinners for handspun, so they are more applicable than the more generic craft scoresheets used in other parts of the fair.

The Black Sheep Gathering premium book from that time sums up the NwRSA judging criteria nicely:

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

I've had the good fortune to judge at several different county fairs over the years - the only drawback is that I need to be unfamiliar with the local spinners' work, which really curbs my attendance at area spin-ins. Each judge develops their own approach to evaluating the entries, while adhering to the common knowledge of what spinning entails.

I like to divide the skeins up by the categories that the fair or show uses; some divide by fiber, some by structure, and some by spinning device. Then I typically start with the category with the most entries and evaluate several skeins without assigning any points to get a feel for the entries at that fair. Once warmed up, I can go back and complete their evaluations then continue on to the remaining entries in that category.

I always check that a fair has an evaluation form appropriate for handspun yarn, and the premium book requirements. If the premium book is missing things that impact many entries, I give feedback to the fair/show organizers so they can add requirements such as stating intended use. If that particular key item is missing, I do the best I can with what I have in front of me.

Each skein is evaluated in full against the feedback form; I work through it from top to bottom though sometimes as I get more familiar with a skein I go back to earlier categories on the form to add more detail and potentially adjust a score - usually up, not down. I know the effort spinning takes, and asking to have your work evaluated takes a certain kind of braveness that I prefer to encourage and honor.

Yes, it takes a while to evaluate each skein. I usually pack a lunch and plan on a long day. I get there before the building is unlocked so I can organize and start even before my scribe arrives. I off-load as many tasks as possible - reskeining skeins is quickly taught to a non-spinner volunteer so they can tidy the skein up after I've opened it for evaluation. And each and every feedback form is packed with positive and gently corrective feedback, and a line at the bottom with my overall joy in their entry, in whichever form it took for that particular skein and the notes the spinner provided. If you've entered a fair I've judged at, I hope you've seen that feedback and found it useful or at least appropriate. I've been told by some that they appreciated the detail but have no intention to ever spin the "perfect" skein. I honor that, and recognize that handspun yarn has character we cannot copy in commercial yarn.

Have you entered a fair? I highly recommend it, getting feedback from another experienced spinner outside your local circle can open you to a new view on your yarn. Be sure to provide the skein's backstory along with your skein when you submit it. No fair I've seen stops you from adding information beyond what is required by the premium book. And I welcome your questions on fair entries. I sure had fun when I was entering - trying to enter all the categories was often my goal, and fit well with my love of technique while it gave me ample opportunity to stretch my tool skills and explore yarn structures. And lots and lots of project ideas, a.k.a. intended uses for my yarn.

I'd be interested in writing more about the categories on the form if you are interested. Let me know! If you don't want your feedback to show up as a comment on the blog, use the Contact page instead - thanks.

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

Spinner's Alphabet: What Begins With G? Grist!

By Amelia © May 4, 2026

My still-all-time-favorite spin,
3-ply sockweight CVM

is for Grist. That should be a four-letter word, given how much practice it takes to spin to a target grist. It's the measure of a yarn typically in yards per pound (YPP) or meters per kilo. Things that impact Grist: Wraps Per Inch, Twist Angle, Drafting Style, Fiber, Finishing.

In color classes I often talk about "spinning to the grist" - getting the same yardage with the same weight of fiber. If you have ever had this happen, I hope you went and bought a lottery ticket, or celebrated in some way.

My most recent run-in with grist is attempting to use a McMorran Yarn Balance to estimate YPP of handspun. I do not recommend that, by the way - it has not proven reliable with my human-spun skeins. So, I put my handspun on my skeiner and then count the rounds, or run the whole skein through my yardage meter between swift and ballwinder.

The one YPP number I keep in my head is 1600 - the typical yardage for socks. With their tight twist angle of 35-40°, drafting style is less important. I aim for sock fiber to produce 100 yards per ounce, or 400 yards for a pair of socks. I've seen that number again and again no matter the blend.

For the same yardage and WPI, I can use weight to compare twist angle. Higher twist is denser, so I know if my 400 yards of 16 wraps per inch sock yarn is less than four ounces, I'm going to have socks that will wear out faster than 400 yards of the same WPI that weigh four or even five ounces. In fact, the five ounce skein would be super tough and have a pretty high twist angle.

I can also take a comparative guess at drafting style or fiber preparation with the same weight and WPI. The skein with more yardage is likely to have some woolen component, while the skein with less yardage is likely to have some worsted component. Worsted prep/draft lead to denser yarns, causing the same yardage to weight more than a skein with woolen prep and/or draft.

It amazes me how, even after spinning for decades, I still come up with ideas for experiments to hone my spinning knowledge. There's always something new to explore, be it tools, fibers, or the intricacies of spinning itself.

Other fun G's: garnetting (cutting yarn up and recarding it to make new yarns). This is how we get the recycled blue jean fiber that I love to blend with cotton.

Two questions:

Have you had the magic of spinning to the grist happen? Even within an arm's length is "close enough"!
What's your spinning G?

Spinner's Alphabet: What Begins with F? Fiber Artist!

By Amelia © April 20, 2026

is for Fiber Artist. When people call me a fiber artist, it makes me a bit uncomfortable. I don’t instinctively feel like an artist. I tend to think of myself as an artisan. I’m drawn to the craft itself — the methods, the repeatability, the satisfaction of using tools and technique to reliably achieve a specific result.

I suppose this goes back to my background as an engineer, where the goal is to design a process and then execute it well. We use our tools to get results, and there’s something deeply satisfying about refining that process until it behaves the way we want it to.

Over the years, I’ve seen that fiber artists come in many stripes and colors, and that the label can apply to me too. There are fiber artists who focus primarily on the art of what they do. They create unique pieces, rarely the same item twice, because they’re working to embody an idea or concept.

My own path has been different. As an artisan, my focus for many years was sock yarn. That was a ten-year journey. I embraced the idea that I could refine my process until I could reliably produce the sock yarn I wanted, while still exploring different variations within that framework.

Another aspect of my skills is analytical. I’ll encounter a commercial yarn, love its feel, and then work to copy it. Often I end up improving on it, because I can choose the breed of wool, the fiber content, and the structure. I can make deliberate decisions that shape the final result. I don’t see that as plagiarism or copying. I see it as using my skills to reach an intended target. It’s part of the craft — understanding something deeply enough to recreate it, and then making it my own through the choices I make along the way. This harkens back to my background as an engineer, where what we are doing is working to get results, and we use our tools to get those results.

I embrace the art and craft of spinning and am happy to be recognized as an artisan, teacher, writer, and yes, even artist in this space. I'm excited to see where the next decade takes my spinning — cotton, perhaps, as my looms call to me for new projects.

A table of spindles from my Spindle Tricks presentation

I had originally considered having F stand for fiber, since that is the heart of what I do as a fiber artist, and then building you a beautiful taxonomy of everything fiber, the animal, plant, and manmade fibers, and all the subcategories below them. There's just so many!

Other fun F's: Finishing (so important when spinning yarn!), Felting (see Rough Finishing...), Fiber Festival (aka Wool Show)

I would love to hear about your fiber artist journey and about the fibers that you love to spin.

What's your spinner's F?

How do you measure twist angle?

By Amelia © April 13, 2026

I much prefer to measure twist angle in my yarn instead of twists per inch.

Part of this stems from my unwillingness to count treadles when using a wheel, perhaps because neither my spindles or my espinners have a treadle. The other part is that twist angle has the same impact on yarn whether I spin thick or thin, while twists per inch (TPI) change as wraps per inch change, to get the same feel.

I am a huge fan of Mabel Ross - to the point of having two copies of her book Essentials of Yarn Design for Handspinners, and one of each of her others, Encyclopedia of Hand Spinning, Essentials of Hand Spinning, and Hand Spinners' Workbook: Fancy Yarns. (All links are affiliate links - I may benefit from you using them to make your next purchase.) She has lovely tables in her books of WPI, treadle counts, TPI, and twist angle. I distilled it down for myself, filtered through my experience, to:

15° → very soft fluffy yarn - usable but easy to split when knitting
25° → medium knitting yarn - great for hats and scarves
35° → durable yarn - lowest twist I like for socks
45° → crepe yarn - high twist weaving yarn that will crinkle the fabric woven to a balanced sett

You can buy specialty tools for measuring twist angle, or simply use a protractor. I've done both. In fact, Mabel Ross's book has a twist angle tool printed on cardstock in the back. The tools are handy because they contain the typical twist range, so you aren't going to measure in a way that mis-reports twist angle as 75°.

Protractors, however, are much easier to find in your local school supply aisle or online, like the one I found here. I can display it on my phone when I want to measure twist angle. With the protractor, I line my yarn up on the 0 line at the flat bottom, and keep it parallel to the 0 line as I slide it across toward the 90° on the other side.

The angle lines on the protractor tell you what twist they measure - those slanted like the middle of the S measure S-twist (counter-clockwise twist) and the other half, slanted like the middle of the Z measure Z-twist (clockwise twist). What about the 90° mark? I like to jest that it is for measuring corespun, as that has the fiber wrapping a core, perpendicular to the length of the yarn.

In the series of pictures that follows, you see me moving the yarn across to measure the ply twist, which here is S-twist. I am looking for the angle line that matches the angle of the strands twisting around each other.

If you agree with me, you will say this twine (it's what I had to hand for these images...) has a twist angle between 25° and 30°

I would use the other half of the protractor for Z twist.

I recently posted on twist in singles vs. twist in yarn plied from them. I usually use a ply-back to see the ply twist and help me decide on the appropriate amount of singles twist, rather than trying to directly measure twist angle in singles. I invite you to check out your current spin against a protractor and free yourself up from counting treadles.

Spinner's Alphabet: What begins with E? E-spinner!

By Amelia © April 6, 2026

is for e-spinner. E-spinners have long existed, I remember when I was learning to spin in 2001, the Roberta Eortl was popular as a plying tool. In fact, the early e-spinners seemed to mostly be focused on making plying take minimal time. However, they were not all that friendly for spinning in groups as they were pretty loud. I made a hunt in the early 2000's for a quiet e-spinner and came across the Womack Butterfly. It was both gorgeous and quiet - yay! Then HansenCrafts showed up on the scene and since then e-spinners have really taken off. Theirs was whisper-quiet, light, and very portable with the addition of a small battery pack.

Learning to use an e-spinner for spinning is different from a wheel or spindle. So if you already spin but want to start on an e-spinner, don't be surprised that there is still a learning curve. The key difference is that an e-spinner twists at a constant speed, while you can vary the speed of your wheel or spindle almost without thinking of it.

There is now a rich variety of e-spinners; I'm a huge HansenCrafts fan - not only because I teach Zoom workshops through them, but also because the wood is lovely. See 3900? yeah. Amazing. (3900 is its serial number, printed on the underside.) That said, the 3-d printed or plastic molded ones have their place. The Electric Eel Wheels are affordable and you can 3-d print extra bobbins. The Daedalus line has a huge following. Ashford already had an e-spinner but redesigned theirs to fit in this new landscape; Louet now offers the Jenn-E e-spinner. And there are others out there... but please, avoid the cheap knock-offs on Amazon. If it's a no-name e-spinner likely it's not going to have good manners.

The same advice I offer wheel spinners I offer you: look for a second-hand one; the mark-down is not as significant as it can be with wheels, but you may save a little and should also be able to re-sell it if it turns out not to be your dream e-spinner. I have mine with HansenCrafts #3900 that's for sure!

Why Spin on an Electric Wheel? - shows my lovely Butterfly!
How do I choose the Speed Setting on my E-spinner? - featuring HansenCrafts #3, so early that they were not yet making the flyers!
There are several others as well, tangentially related: see these blog articles mentioning e-spinners

I'll leave you with two questions...

Do you have an e-spinner? Which one and what do you think of it (be kind!)?
What's your spinner's E?

How much ply twist is "balanced"?

By Amelia © March 30, 2026

Typically we tell new spinners to seek balance in their plied yarn ... see How Much Twist do I Need When I Ply? for that advice. If you let singles rest, the twist in the single is still there, but dormant. Don't wake it up before plying! Instead, keep a fresh ply-back from when the singles were spun to guide plying twist and realize that the dormant twist will show up when you wet-finish your skein after plying.

However, I would really like more specific advice. Some authors talk about counting treadles - clearly not spindle spinners!

What follows is from an old Ravelry post of mine:

"Mabel Ross’s theory, in Essentials of Yarn Design, is that ply twist is 2/3 singles’ twist. So, your final yarn has 8 TPI [twists per inch] in the 2-ply and each single has 4 TPI remaining in it. But why would two, skinnier, 4 TPI singles “balance” with an 8 TPI 2-ply? I know, 4 + 4 = 8, but does that hold true here, isn’t it more like 4 and 4 in parallel, not in series, pulling against 8? Clearly I’m thinking about this too hard, muddying my ability to understand what I’ve always taken as fact in my desire to get at its underpinnings.

"Alden Amos’s theory, in The Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning, states that ply twist is 1/2 singles’ twist. I read that 10 times last night trying to figure out what he meant. Does he mean, once it’s plied, that your 2.5 TPI 2-ply has singles that each still contain 5 TPI? or that your 2.5 TPI 2-ply has singles that when not plied were 5 TPI? And do either of those things match up to Mabel Ross’s statements?

"Anne Fields (Spinning Wool: Beyond the Basics) quotes Mabel Ross, so she’s taking her numbers as a given. And Peter Teal (Wool Combing and Spinning, the original version) doesn’t really discuss balanced yarn, since he wants to be aware of what the twist is in his singles, and he wants there to be a certain amount, so he discusses plying twist in those terms."

End of quote

Well, that didn't really help. Especially the TPI of the single after plying - I want to know how much twist to put in the single and then how much twist I put in the ply.

These days, I do still use the freshly spun ply-back sample as a sample to match to when plying. And rather than TPI, I use twist angle to let me know what type of yarn I'm spinning. Medium knitting yarn wants a 25° angle of twist while durable sock yarn wants a 35-38° angle of twist. This is true no matter what my yarn diameter (WPI, wraps per inch) is.

If I don't have a sample, I can make one by folding a length in half and knotting the ends, being careful not to let any twist come out. Put it in warm water and the dormant twist wriggles the sample up to show what balance is in the 2-ply.

If I have no access to warm water, I can visually inspect the plying. When balanced, the fibers in the singles area straight, and the plied yarn is at maximum diameter. Before it's balanced, the singles are compressed and after the balance point, the plied yarn compresses.

You can find many posts on this blog about balance in plying if you'd like to dive into the topic further.

I may never get to the bottom of the singles-vs-plied twist question - but perhaps someone else will rig up an Alden Amos-style twist counter and then we'll all know. Will it be you?

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