Twistedspinster

Steps in yarn prep - reeling off

Here, Steph's showing how to reel off the freshly spun singles. There's quite a bit of distance, because this helps to even out the twist. Next comes measuring the grist of the singles - length and weight.


After measuring the length and weight of the yarn (and recording it too!), it's put on this squirrel cage swift for reeling back to a bobbin. After winding to the bobbin, it can be plied.

I imagin you're wondering why she winds on to a reel, then onto a squirrel cage? Well, the reel has a set diameter, so you can measure the yardage (and the weight after you take it off). If, at this point, you take these singles and set the twist, or dye them, or even just have a sproingy yarn, you might not be able to get the skein back onto that reel.


Here, you can see Steph winding onto a bobbin to get ready for plying.


OK, I'm getting carried away by the bobbin-winding, but I love this action shot of the yarn! Do look at the details of Steph's winding station, it's quite ingenious.


This is how Steph recommends plying - see how far away the lazy kate is? Again, that's to even out any twist.



Steph's demonstrating how to ply, and I wanted to get a good shot of Sylvia's wheel. It's made by Alden Amos, by the way.


This is the cotton that I've been working on this week - not counting the punis I've spun on the tahkli. That's my laptop screen, for scale. And yes- this is cotton from the back yard! The scary part? This is about one tenth of the total.

posted by Ruth S. @ 10:09 PM