Tips to make spinning easier.
I have loved the idea of making things from fiber for a long time as my mother was an accomplished fiber artist, weaver, tailor, embroideress, and all things related.
She had a big standing spinning wheel that must have been over 100 years old. You spun the yarn while walking back and forth pushing around a wheel that was probably 5 feet across, called a walking wheel. That’s how I was taught to spin.
Why is it called spinning? Because in order to take a fiber and make it into something that can be used to make things, you have to line up the fibers and put a twist on them so the tension of the spin holds the fibers together, making them much stronger and the fibers are organized so once they are all lined up and spun into a long fiber, their little ends don’t poke out and stick your skin. This takes the energy of the spin to hold it together.
Then after making one long strand, you spin them again in the opposite direction and let their twist in opposite directions hold them together. This called ‘plying’. After the two or several strands are thus twisted together, you now must finish the fiber by hot water and wacking the fibers by taking the bundled fiber and slapping it wet onto a table, floor, back of a chair or something. This drives the fibers together more permanently.
These several processes together are called ‘spinning’.
I am a fiber artist including spinning my own fiber into yarn. I use two methods – by hand on a drop spindle http://www.instructables.com/id/spinning-yarn/?ALLSTEPS which is a non-mechanical hand held flywheel on a stick way of spinning fiber that goes back thousands of years. And a spinning wheel that thru a foot petal that drives the wheel that spins the fiber, a mechanical device (many kinds but all work on the same principle of twisting the fiber into a form that holds together and can be knit or woven).
Both create a similar product of twisted fiber that holds its shape and can be further made into clothing or fabric of many kinds. I happen to find it very appealing and relaxing plus beautiful as doing it by hand tends to make a less than perfect fiber that when knit or woven has a very hand made organic look to it. The more skilled a spinner becomes the more even the fiber finished product is.
A FB friend asked a question as a beginner in spinning. I took the time to help her out with her questions and this article was the result. It is an art form, but in earlier times it was a necessary skill if you wanted to wear clothing not made from animal skin or have fabric for all the uses we now have for it. Now we appreciate the comfortable feeling and beautiful richness of hand made things in a world dominated by industrial processes.
My friend had trouble with uneven and lumpy fiber when spinning. Here was my suggestion: Do you comb out the fibers very carefully? Pick out the little short fiber bumps while you are carding. (Carding: the process of combing out fiber on a special flat surface with lots of little hooks that grab the fiber and lay it out on the comb in preparation to spinning the fiber into yarn. Carding for spinning video
As you spin, don’t rush, but pull out the exact amount of fiber from your prepared roll of carded fiber you need for the next section, drawing it evenly along in your hands. The fibers tend to pull together so it’s a matter of pulling the fiber along to get fewer strands till the right thickness is achieved or grabbing a bit more to make it thicker. Hold the fiber with both hands near and about 6″ or so from the head of the entrance onto the curled hooks of the spinning wheel (the entrance to the part of the wheel that spins and holds the yarn on a spool). Build up a bit of twist tension nearest to the wheel and once you have drawn out the fiber from the first hand to the farthest hand, just let go of the first hand nearest to the wheel and let that twist take on the length of the untwisted drawn fiber. Then run the next length of fiber thru the farthest hand drawing it out to a length, holding the end closes to the wheel tight so you can pull it without letting the whole length twist out of control. Then let go of the closest hand letting the twist go to the untwisted length held by the other hand.
As you get more control you can go faster. Good luck with your spinning and be patient with yourself. Also make sure your fiber is clean. As you grab a bunch of carded fiber to comb, pick thru it and get all of the little bits of straw or grass, or other debris, and little black spots or whatever is in there that isn’t nice. It will be yellowed if not already washed. Pick out any little tufts of short fiber in clumps (this comes about when the fleece is being cut from the animal or along the edges of the fleece) as these bits will make your fiber uneven and clumpy. I take anything out less than 1 ½ inches long.
Some people clean a big pile of the raw fiber or fleece then wash it to get it to the correct color, ridding it of animal dander and dirt. https://woolery.com/how-to-wash-and-prepare-fleece/ This video talks about sheep wool. Other fibers may take other cleaning processes.
You need to get all the cleaned fibers lined up going the same direction then available as you draw from it to be spun into the spinning wheel orifice as the wheel twists the fibers. So the line of the yarn is all in one direction and controllable as to thickness (numbers of parallel fibers).
Preparing the fiber for spinning is an important step and makes for a good smooth continuous process once you start to spin your fiber. I usually get out my carding combs before spinning and card rolags (a processed roll of fiber ready to spin) (see more explanation of a rolag below) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolag enough for a spinning session. I line the rolags up on a satin fabric sample that is slippery so none of the fibers in the rolag catch on it. As I make a bunch of them and lay them parallel to each other, I roll up the satin fabric so the rolags stay isolated from each other and as I unroll the satin cloth and grab each rolag to add to the spun yarn they are handy and uncontaminated by dust or house junk. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/98094098114709027/ Here’s a diagram of a wheel and the names of their parts so you can follow my ideas.
Then I start spinning. When I fill up the bobbin I keep the fiber moving from one hook on the flier to the next so it loads evenly along the bobbin. These hooks take the spun fiber as it enters the spool and deposit it on a place on the spool, to load it evenly. Then when it’s full I wind it up into a ball or use a nostapinne (https://woolery.com/using-a-nostepinne/) to create a ball with a hole in the middle for easy plying (putting together the single strands you have spun into a multiple strand of 2, 3 or 4 strands we call yarn). A nostapinne is a hand held special kind of stick smooth and graduated in thickness which you wind your yarn on to make a ball.
But you can also purchase a ball winder that is a little mechanical device, speeds things up.
Here is a picture of the spinning wheel and where each part is. How to choose a spinning wheel Halcyon Yarn Blog … Halcyon Yarn | Spinning yarn wheel, Spinning wheel, Spinning yarn
A rolag (Scottish Gaelic: roileag) is a roll of fiber generally used to spin woolen yarn. A rolag is created by first carding the fiber, using handcards, and then by gently rolling the fiber off the cards to make a neat roll of prepared fiber. If properly prepared, a rolag will be uniform in width, distributing the fibers evenly. The word derives from the Scottish Gaelic word for a small roll.
Animal fibers have traditionally been used to create rolags, but today’s spinners use many different fiber materials, including manufactured and plant fibers. Traditional spinners using animal (protein fiber) wool go thru each process of the fiber usually building up a pile of processed and cleaned fiber then go to the next process without undo fuss having to stop the spinning to make a new batch of fiber to spin. That way you can really get into production and get a lot done in a day.
As you set up your spinning tools and material, you’ll need: carding combs, a supply of clean fiber free of debris such as sticks, spots of dirt, bits of fiber too small to spin usually as a result of the fleece being shorn off the animal; something to set your finished rolags on (usually a slippery length of fabric about a foot wide, I like fabric samples from upholstery fabric stores made of heavy satin like fabric (they are usually free); your wheel (or drop spindle); and chair; a pair of scissors; a nostapinne or yarn ball roller; and a cloth bag to keep your balls of finished yarn.
Slivers or rovings https://joyofhandspinning.com/types-of-fiber…/ are also commercially available if you don’t want to go to the trouble of preparing your fiber for spinning. These usually come in fat rolls of precarded fiber all fibers going the same direction. Some people prefer not having to do the carding as it can be time consuming. But I personally prefer to do my own carding as it helps me be sensitive to the nature of that particular fiber, and I can control the size of the rolag by making it myself. While a roving tends to be long and too fat for my comfort in drafting the fiber: pulling the fiber to the correct number of fibers going into the twisting process.
When you first start to spin, taking your time in drafting the fiber to the comfortable number of fibers going into the twist takes patience but as you gain confidence your speed will naturally increase as your control of it becomes more natural to you. When I first started to spin on a wheel I found going into spinning sites on the internet and watching the videos people made as tutorials was tremendously helpful.
One of the things I found helpful for myself was choosing the kind of fiber I wanted to spin, based on what I wanted to make of the yarn. Alpaca is my favorite. I am allergic to sheep wool and I found cotton too ‘sticky in drafting it, as it tends to catch on itself and doesn’t slide smoothly together going into the twist orifice on the wheel. I’ve never tried linen but it requires keeping your finger wet and the strands of the fiber are very long, so it’s very fine work. I love the softness of alpaca.
Finishing is the last step. It’s the thing you need to know of how to process the yarn once it is spun so it holds together well and doesn’t peel off fiber when being worn. Here is an excellent article on finishing yarn: http://knittyblog.com/…/jillians-spinning-finishing-yarn/
Good luck with your adventure in spinning.
The Garden Lady of Georgia 