# Overtwisting-new spinning wheel



## mil_to_farm (Aug 31, 2013)

I just got started on my first spinning wheel(an Ashford Kiwi2) and no matter what I do the fiber twists into pigtails. Every search and the guidebook that came with it say it's the bobbin tension but I've adjusted it through every setting possible and still get a slow intake tothe bobbin and overtwisting.

I've tried oiling everything, adjusting the tension, and treadling as slowly as possible but the fiber still won't go onto the bobbin and gets coiled up tight.


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## Pearl B (Sep 27, 2008)

Hello & Welcome!

That happened to me when I was a new spinner. All I can suggest is just keep checking everything till you find out what it is. 
I had a wheel, the tension string would slip into the drive band groove.

I don't have a Kiwi, I do have a single drive. Heres a vid I found about a Kiwi. I hope it helps!

[YOUTUBE]oURFsc5Ojjg[/YOUTUBE]


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## Lythrum (Dec 19, 2005)

I did the same thing, and I had to do all of the things you mentioned - fiddle around with the tension, try to keep a consistent speed treadling. I think the thing that helped me the most was doing a lot of pre-drafting. I also found that the kinked up yarn was hanging up on the flyer, and wasn't feeding in (which is apparently common when the wheel reverses while you are spinning). I know it sure is frustrating, I hope you can figure it out.

And welcome to the forum!!


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Try this:

Make a bit of yarn then stop treadling. Turn the bobbin by hand and see if it winds on smoothly and loads onto the bobbin. If it doesn't wind onto the bobbin when you turn by hand, you need to find out why. Possible reasons include having it snagged on one of the hooks, or having the leader tied in such a way that it slips around. If you find the problem there, you are good to go (I'm gonna guess it's your leader - if you can hold it still and wrap the first bit of yarn by hand and make it "stay" you should be good after that).

If turning the bobbin by hand is no problem and it winds on, check your maidens: is one of them twisted slightly inward and binding on the flyer or the bobbin? Twist them straight so flyer and bobbin turn evenly.

If all that is working, check tension: Take some commercial yarn and tie the leader on the bobbin, feed it through the orifice, and crank the tension right off, completely off. Now start treadling and tighten the tension just until the yarn will wind onto the bobbin. 
(In fact, for your "diagnostics", it might be best to do the whole thing with commercial yarn so you are not also fighting with drafting while trying to figure out why you aren't getting takeup).

Also ... do you have your brake band on properly? 

Try those things and see if they help. Come back (maybe with a picture of your flyer assembly, taken from directly above) if not, and we'll see what else we can do for you.


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Agree I with Frazzle, back off all tension. 

Oh, wait a minute. I think my friend has the same wheel and had this problem. If I remember right the tensioning on this is really screwy. I had to undo it and redo the way it was tensioned. Can you take a picture of your tension? Are there two springs on it? We had real problems with the two springs. I'm not sure why they have it that way, it is very unnecessary. Once I fixed it it all worked fine. Let me know and I'll walk you through what I did.


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## Ana Bluebird (Dec 8, 2002)

I have a Joy with two springs on the tension and have no problems but I use very little tension, like these gals say, start with none, then add very little till you get it.
Back when, my instructor always had us start out with just peddling, no hands, peddling slow as we could without going backwards. We did that for 5 minutes or so before we tried spinning, getting the feel of the wheel. Then if we had trouble she would say, "speed up the hands OR slow the foot." My favorite advice of hers. Don't get discouraged, we all started out that way, well, I did anyway, I think.


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## freelove (Jun 17, 2005)

When I first got my Traveler it did not take up well. That was only one of the myriad problems, but that is another story. Try using a bit of beeswax on the whorls and see if the drive bands grab a little better. It worked for me. 

I was an experienced spinner and knew to check all of the usual fixes. This was what helped.


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## mil_to_farm (Aug 31, 2013)

I had an AH HA moment!

I realized that I'd been expecting the bobbin to suck in the twisted fiber. All I had to do was get into the habit of kind of feeding it to the bobbin and the vast majority of the overtwisting was corrected. Wheee!

Once that mystery of the universe was figured out, I spun a pound of super fine alpaca without trouble. It still turned out lumpy and uneven but hey,fix one issue at a time.

Thank you for the advice everyone!


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

LOL! Yea that would do it! So glad you figured it out and saved yourself a lot of frustration.


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## Pearl B (Sep 27, 2008)

Congrats!! Its usually something simple like that. It was 2 days before I got to spinning on my new spinning wheel, & it was some simple little thing. I still have a little checklist of things I look at-go through before I begin spinning. When all is checked I put a few drops of oil in certain spots & spin away.

You will have many happy hours of spinning ahead of you!


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