Spinning Thick Yarn
by
Pegg Thomas
Suzie Spinner, as raw beginner, worried about the thick-and-thin yarn
she produced in her first efforts. She strived for “perfection” and
worked to produce a fine, even single. Hours of practice paid off and
the smooth, fine, even single looks great! However, since Suzie only
practiced to achieve this goal, it is the only type of yarn that she can
produce.
Does this sound familiar? Do you have to ply three or four singles
to get a thicker yarn? If so, you may want to re-learn to spin thick
again. What does it take to spin a thicker single?
Most of us when learning to spin practiced to be able to work our hands
as fast as we worked our feet. In other words, we’ve become speed demons!
High speed spinning produced fine yarn. The first step to spinning
thicker is to slow down. The easiest way to do this is to set your
wheel to a slower ratio. Most wheels have at least three ratio choices
on the flyer unit. Choose the largest of these to slow down the wheel.
Many wheels also have several choices on the wheel itself. Choose
the smallest groove on the wheel. This will slow your spinning down
without having to change your comfortable treadling speed.
The easiest method to help spin thicker yarn is to pre-draft your fibers
to the amount you wish to have in the drafting zone. For example,
you may want to draft out the fibers to the thickness of your thumb.
When spinning these pre-drafted fibers, you let them slip smoothly between
your fingers as the twist takes them up, not drafting them any more.
This will produce a thicker, consistent yarn. You control the thickness
of the yarn by the thickness of the pre-drafting. Tearing strips from
batts or rovings can achieve the same results but it is a little harder
to control the size of a torn strip.
The basic ingredient to spinning thick yarns is to allow more fibers
into the drafting zone before the twist grabs it up. Slowing down,
pre-drafting and working with a short
draw all help this happen. So give it a try and break out of the
“thin” rut!
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