beautydreaming: (Default)
[personal profile] beautydreaming posting in [community profile] spinning
So I've been trying my hand at spinning with a drop spindle. And first it was drafting that was kicking my butt. But I'm better at that now.

Now, it's my yarn . . . twisting up on itself if I'm not holding it straight. I thought it would work itself out in the plying, and it didn't. So my first handspun yarn is just a twisty, tangly mess. How do I get it to stop twisting up on itself, by itself?

Date: 2009-05-24 04:23 pm (UTC)
mighty_aphrodite: (Default)
From: [personal profile] mighty_aphrodite
Sounds like you're over-spinning it.

Date: 2009-05-24 04:33 pm (UTC)
mighty_aphrodite: (Default)
From: [personal profile] mighty_aphrodite
Well, you can try winding it into a long hank and hanging it up with a weight attached to the bottom to kind of straighten it out. That may help some. Which method of handspinning are you using? I like the park method, where you spin, stop, then let the twist travel up the fiber as you release more roving. I think it's easier not to over spin this way.

Date: 2009-05-24 07:24 pm (UTC)
sedge: image of Dreamwidth sheep spinning yarn from the logo (spinning)
From: [personal profile] sedge
There's several things that can be going on here.

*If your singles sat for a while before you plied them, you might need to wash the yarn to get a true sense of whether the final yarn is balanced or not, because the spinning twist will relax over time and not be balanced by the fresher plying twist. Washing the yarn will reactivate the original twist and let you get a better sense of the final result.

*You might have either under- or over-plied compared to the twist in your singles.

Here's how I think about it.

My singles are generally Z-twist; that is, I spin my spindle clockwise, ending up with yarn twisted like this:
/
/
/
/

Plying goes in the opposite direction, so my plied yarn is S-twist:
\
\
\
\

Ok. So how to get a balanced yarn (assuming I want one)?

If I let my plied yarn hand in a U-shape, and it twists back on itself with Z-twist, I've over-plied and need remove twist from that section of yarn. Likewise, if it twists on itself with S-twist, I need to add more plying twist.

In my opinion, most spinners actually underspin and underply their yarn, which results in weaker yarn. Note that this is a personal opinion!

Online articles about this that you might find of interest:
http://www.abbysyarns.com/wordpress/?p=105
http://www.hjsstudio.com/balance.html
http://www.knitting-and.com/spinning/plied-yarn.html

Date: 2009-05-25 06:58 pm (UTC)
sedge: A drawing of the head of a sedge wren. (Default)
From: [personal profile] sedge
Have fun!

Date: 2009-05-26 07:46 pm (UTC)
2eclipse: (knitting)
From: [personal profile] 2eclipse
this.

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