# Spinning Consistant Yarn



## DragonFlyFarm (Oct 12, 2012)

I have been spinning for a bit now, but have always sat down and just spun. Up to this point I have not paid attention to twist angles, grist, tpi etc. etc. I've just done what the fiber seems to want to do.

I am currently scouring a couple alpaca fleeces for a project I am working on with my mom. She has picked out a lovely pattern for a shawl/wrap that is three shades of grey. I will be spinning up the fiber, a blend of 75% alpaca, 25% tussah silk. Up until now I have simply spun, made some lovely yarns, and decide later what they will become. They usually go to my mom who is an avid knitter. She has made some beautiful items with my handspun...I love it! This is my first project where I will be spinning specifically with an end project in mind....I'm excited, but nervous that I will make a wet mess out of matching up the finished yarns.

I'm planning on getting a yarn balance and checking my work as I go, but other than that I'm lost. 

Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks!


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## Wind in Her Hair (Jul 18, 2002)

don't make it harder than it is!

Just take a sample of the perfect single that you are TRYING to achieve and tie it to your maiden up by the bobbin. As you spin, check your single every now and then, to make certain you are STILL spinning the same single. 

That way, if you start to "stray" from the perfect single, you can either break off the run you don't like and join on and start back on the path to righteousness. :grin:

You will find that by checking and rechecking, your single will be consistent.


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## rabbitgeek (Mar 22, 2008)

Keep spnning the way you've been spinning.

If you need to do it different then do it different.

Sounds like you already know most of it.

We will be here to cheer you on! Hi Mom!

Have a good day!


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## Pearl B (Sep 27, 2008)

For consistency I like to predraft the fiber.

Good luck!


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## Wind in Her Hair (Jul 18, 2002)

Mom!?!?!?!?!?

Franco, is this really your mom???????


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

LOL, we have Franco's mom :rock: All of the recommendations above are good ones. I usually will take a sample of what I want the finished yarn to look like, even if it is a commercial sample. I'll also do as WIHH suggests. You can check your singles as a two ply by simply backing out a bit of single and allowing it to double back on itself. That will also give you an idea of how balanced your finished yarn will be..

Good luck! Please keep us updated on your progress. Remember to take photos to document your progress!


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

I think finding the perfect fiber that fits you is the key. Mine was/is a Romney/Mohair mix. It lows thru my fingers like I can do it in my sleep. And I pretty much can, ignore what I'm doing, my fingers just Breath on their own with this mix. No second cuts ,no VM, my thick skin and callouses feel it like silk on a babys bum. I also can spin tencil (sp),slick,slick stuff, as if I am a spider,not thin mind you but with such consistancy. Find what you like, what your hands are comfortable with and stick with it. You owe it to yourself to not be trying to conform to someone elses likes or dislikes or what they say/feel. I don't like cotton or silk, even these old rugged hands find it lifeless and dry. But you better belive, if it's pretty, sparkelie, or bright ,I'll try it, if only to just pet it and set aside to look at it.


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## Kasota (Nov 25, 2013)

Hiya, Rabbitgeek!


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## DragonFlyFarm (Oct 12, 2012)

Thank you all for the suggestions and encouragement! You guys rock.... I am currently prepping the medium colored fleece for scouring. I will have to snap some pics as I go. I do love spinning alpaca, the silk blended in will be new to me.... Fingers crossed


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

You can do this!


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## rabbitgeek (Mar 22, 2008)

Wind in Her Hair said:


> Mom!?!?!?!?!?
> 
> Franco, is this really your mom???????


Misunderstanding.

I was trying to say "Hi Mom" to DragonFlyFarms Mom.

Sorry for any confusion I may created.

Although chaos seems to be recurring theme around here! 

Hi DragonFlyFarms Mom!

Have a joyful day!


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## Wind in Her Hair (Jul 18, 2002)

:facepalm: I get it now!  Never mind me - I am just here to confuse things!


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## DragonFlyFarm (Oct 12, 2012)

Great forum, awesome folks....a little confusion is ok


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## IowaLez (Mar 6, 2006)

Two things you can do to get an evenly spun yarn with the twist even throughout:

Keep a sharp eye on the drafting triangle in front of your hand that holds the unspun fiber and feeds to your hand that drafts the single that goes onto the bobbin. If you let the twist go too far back into the triangle, it will grab more fibers than you want.

The other is to calculate how many turns of the wheel it takes to put the right amount of twist into a certain length of the drafted singles. So if you want about 6 tpi in the finished, plyed yarn, and your wheel ratio is 5:1, while spinning the singles you will need to treadle 2 times per inch. You lose about 30% of the twist when plying 2 singles together. Make a conscious effort to get that rhythm down, and then you will have an easier time of getting the yarn you want when you are done.

I learned this from the famous Mabel Ross books published back in the early '80s, she is long dead now, but she knew a lot of very technical stuff about spinning, and did a lot of research with textile experts and got electron microscope pics of various fibers so one can see the fibers' exterior roughness that creates the "grabbiness" or "slipperiness" when they are spun and causes the fibers felt when washed wrong. 

If you can ever get your hands on her 2 small, self-published, spiral bound books, buy them! Her more basic book is "Essentials of Handspinning", and the more advanced one that I have is "The Essentials of Yarn Design ". I highly recommend these two books to train yourself to develop consistent habits that make spinning life much easier.

My book has a tear-out set of twist angle measuring, heavy paper "rulers", one black with white printing, and one white with black printing, to use with both dark colored and light colored wool. I can easily print them on plain paper, send them to people who want them, for a very nominal sum to pay for the printer ink (my son's printer) and postage in a regular business size envelope. and then they can then be glued onto heavier cardboard to use. It also has in it another tear-out ruler of ingenious design for measuring your yarn wraps per inch; from 1/8ths of an inch thickness, up to 25ths of an inch, (a mm is actually a hair's thickness less than one 25th of an inch).

They are both out of print, but another lady, Ruth Gough, Wingham Wool Work, bought the license to republish them from Mabel's son, who holds the copyrights, and mine is of the reprint. I had an original back in the late 80's, but loaned it to to a spinner in 1989, who happened to have a meth problem and never got it back... 

The books are very hard to find; I stumbled on mine at a yarn shop in Ames, and paid $30 for it, which seems costly given the size and binding of the book. On Amazon they are going for about $90 these days, but you might find one thru the spinners on Ravelry for a lot less. Both books are worth their weight in gold, imho.

I might take some photos of some of the technical pages and the photos on them, when I get the time, and that way I post them and share them with you guys. The book I have has lots of more basic info, like about washing and handcarding; I bet you guys don't know that if you wash a luster wool in water above 95 degrees, the luster will be impaired a good deal!


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## hotzcatz (Oct 16, 2007)

Those sound like interesting books, IowaLez! Most spinning books are for the beginning spinner and then there's nothing once you get past the beginning stages.

Here's a whole webpage on yarn gauge and consistency. "A spinner's compass" on Knitty.com I was looking for a page that showed the clear acrylic card with the black lines of various thickness on it which you hold your singles up to while spinning, but apparently those are hard to find now.


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## IowaLez (Mar 6, 2006)

HotzCatz,

I think the last photo or two is of that type of gauge you are speaking about. If you want, when I have time and am in Jefferson a ways west of here, I can make copies of both the white and black one at the library and for the cost of copying and postage I can mail them to you. Then you use a glue stick to fasten them to thin card stock and they are good to go.


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## kkbinco (Jun 11, 2010)

hotzcatz said:


> I was looking for a page that showed the clear acrylic card with the black lines of various thickness on it which you hold your singles up to while spinning, but apparently those are hard to find now.


Is this what you're thinking of? I forget where I picked up the file from (not as listed on the card), sorry.

View attachment SpinnersControlCard.pdf


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## hotzcatz (Oct 16, 2007)

Thanks, IowaLez, for the kind offer! This forum is the best! However, I already have one printed on clear acrylic made by Vipfibers. It is even on a pull out string so it's easy to pull it out to the single and compare. Apparently they quit making them, though. Since this one was from last summer's mainland vacation, I'd have thought they were more common but it must have been sheer luck that one was available while we were on vacation.


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