spinning lessons

I have been spinning since mid October. My second or third attempt, (all on a spindle) was very chunky and uneven. I had dyed it green and yellow-gold, using Koolaid. This was about 13 yards of very variable yarn. I also had another skein of the same fiber, more even, also Koolaid dyed. I would like to make a hat out of these two pieces. but the chunky/skinny part wasn't very good. So I took it apart.

That's right. I unplyed it, which wasn't too difficult. Then I took each ply and respun it, twisting it backwards to get out the excess twist where that had happened. I picked apart the chunky parts, which were somewhat felted together. Then I gently redrafted the fiber into skinnier strips which twisted into a much more even yarn. It broke dozens of times, of course. Each time, I carefully separated some of the fibers, and tryed to hold enough together as I twisted to create a thin, but not threadlike, yarn. Still not completely even, but way better.

I then washed the two pieces, the former plys, in order to get out some of the kinkiness. I just soaked them in hot water, with a dash of wool wash, for about 20 minutes, and hung them to dry on a plastic hanger, weighted down with water bottles (so I could control the weight and not put too much weight on each strand). Finally, I replyed them together.

In the original yarn, the colors had been somewhat handpainted to create two rather short lengths of yellow-gold (maybe four or five yards total) and the remainder a fairly dark green, (maybe 8 or 9 yards). However, what with dramatically lengthening the fat parts of the yarn, due to redrafting them into more reasonable thickness, the colors in the two strands (plys) no longer matched up when I replyed the yarn. Also, the colors became more muted, sometimes significantly, because the redrafting and respinning exposed some of the undyed fibers at the center of the yarn. At some sections, of course it matches pretty well, since there was more of the green. However, in some sections, there is now a barberpole effect with green plyed with gold. Other sections are in between in the color process. I don't want to redye it; I think it is nice the way it is.

Here is what I found out about my spinning process:

1) The thick parts felted somewhat. I had to pick and pick at some of them to get them separated enough to redraft. This happened even though as a new spinner, I hadn't heard about whacking your yarn in the finished process, and was VERY VERY careful to handle it gently, using only medium temperature water, not agitating it at all, and patting it gently to get the water out before hanging it to dry.

2) The thin parts were often way overtwisted. Sometimes the fiber had made a little series of corkscrews that I had not been aware of when I previously worked with this yarn. I kept it under enough tension to prevent it curling back on itself, but the corkscrews were abundant, and not always in the thinnest part of the yarn.

3) Although I had thought I had used a lot of Kool-aid, it had only covered the surface of the yarn. Thus the fat places were totally white inside, and even the corkscrews were white where the original plying had covered some surface of the strand. In other words, only the outside of the plyed yarn had dyed, not the inside, or even the side where the plys laid together.

4) I have apparently learned a whole lot about spinning in the less than three months I have been at it.

This was really worth doing. I am glad I took the time to undo and redo. I really like the new skein, which is now about 19 yards, and very pretty. When I finished it, having learned much more about yarn, I washed it in hot water, rinsed in cool, toweled it as dry as I could, whacked it a couple of times (I am still not sure about this, need to take a lesson or have a demonstration), and let it dry. Then I took pictures.

See even an old dog can learn new tricks.


Remember this is all being done on a spindle. I really like the spindle for learning. There seem to be three basic steps, drafting, twisting, and winding on. On the spinning wheel, I couldn't seem to separate the steps in my mind, and felt I had no control. I didn't know what I was doing, and although I did make "yarn", it seemed like magic and not something I was doing. With the spindle, I can see each step as I do it. They are separate somewhat. When I was practicing at home, I was very diligently parking, drafting, twisting, and winding on. Repeat. Then at some point I realized that I had been forgetting to park, and just drafting as the spindle merrily spun and spun, and the yarn got twisted. On the spindle, you can examine each half yard or so before you wind it onto the spindle, and make corrections for over/underspinning, over/underdrafting, and so forth, before you wind on. This is the way I have been managing to make a somewhat consistent yarn.

Naturally as I improve, I imagine that the whole process will become more automatic and easier, and just as I found myself drafting and twisting at the same time without really realizing this happened, I think the whole process will become more automatic and simpler.

I have been watching my grandson, age four, learning to write his name and the letters of the alphabet, and just as he improves gradually as he practices, so I hope to improve my spinning until I become the boss of it, and NOT the other way around.