Spinning & Weaving Articles

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Spinning on a wheel requires the same hand muscles used for hand spinning. If if you have already developed these, it should be easier when you add in the treadling movement with your foot. Before you begin spinning you might want to try some of these warm-up exercises: These warm-ups and stretches transfer blood and warmth to the muscles and tendons, which makes them more flexible: Spread your fingers wide apart. Starting with the little finger, roll them down to your palm. Do not forget to roll in the thumb. Repeat ten times. Put your fingers together. Slowly roll your fingers toward the palm. Make a fist. Slowly continue rolling toward the inside of your wrist. Repeat ten times. Use this stretch to keep the kinks out of your shoulder and neck, as well as to relieve tension in your arms and hands. You need a skein of yarn to perform this stretch. Take a skein of yarn and hold it over your shoulder with one hand. Reach behind your back with the other hand and catch the end of the skein. Give a good, steady pull with both hands. Reverse your hands and repeat. Use this stretch to help relieve tension or pressure in your wrist. Stand next to a wall with your body parallel to the wall. Raise your arm from your side to shoulder height and extend your arm to reach the wall. Place the flat of your palm against the wall, fingers pointing toward the floor. From your fingertips to your palm, gently press down until you have as much contact with the wall as you can. Slowly turn your head away from the wall until you feel pressure. Count to 60. Release. Reverse sides and repeat. To begin spinning, you need a wheel, an empty bobbin, 20 inches of two-ply yarn, an orifice hook, and 1⁄2 pound of curded roving. Corriedale or a similar type of fleece is a good choice: Lay the leader over the fiber in your fiber hand. With your spinning hand, start the wheel to the right, and push down on the treadle. Pinch the leader and the fiber with the fingers of your spinning hand and pull about 3 inches forward. Try not to let the twist get into the fiber before you have stretched out the amount that you want. Slide your fingers back to the hand that is holding the fiber. Let the twist from the leader string transfer to the fiber. Continue with the pinch-pull-and-slide rhythm. You should now be pulling out the fiber by itself, stretching it out, and guiding the twist back to the fiber hand. Remember to relax the fiber hand slightly so the fiber can be pulled out smoothly. When you run out of fiber, add another piece of roving; use the same method that you used when you transferred the twist from the leader to the fiber. Lay a length of your spun yarn over the fiber and pull a bit of the fiber and the yarn out together. Allow the twist from the yarn to transfer to the fiber. Now you are spinning!

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

A spinning wheel is an extension of your body and needs to be adjusted to you. Every wheel spins differently. As you spin on your wheel, you can adjust it to fit your style of spinning. Remember to make all of the adjustments gently, moving the pegs a fraction of an inch at a time. Keep the wheel spinning while you adjust it, listening to the sounds that the wheel makes, and paying attention to how it feels: Put on the drive band Instructions for the drive band differ depending on the type of drive you have: Single drive: Place the drive band on the whorl (put it on the middle-sized whorl if your wheel has more than one). If the wheel has a scotch brake, make sure that the scotch brake is in place. Here the spinner moves from the largest whorl to the middle whorl on a three-whorl flyer. For bobbin-driven wheels, place the drive band on the bobbin. This type of wheel has a brake on the flyer, and you should make sure that it is in place. Double drive: Place one loop of the drive band over the bobbin and one loop over the whorl. On a double-drive wheel, the flyer whorl must always be larger than the bobbin whorl. If the two whorls are similar in size, the yarn will not wind on the bobbin. Adjust the drive band tension Take all of the tension, including the scotch brake, off the wheel. When you treadle, the wheel should turn while the flyer stays still. Keep tightening the drive band tension until you hear a whooshing sound from the drive band. That is the sound of the drive band skipping. The flyer should start to barely turn; tighten it just until that sound goes away. Do not put more tension on the drive band unless you hear that sound again. Put on a bobbin If you have the wheel-maker’s instructions, it should tell you how to replace the bobbin. If you do not have the instructions, every wheel should have some way to take the flyer off so that you can replace the bobbin. Take the flyer off. If it has whorls screwed to the end of the shaft, take them off as well. Slip the bobbin on the shaft, and make sure that it turns easily. Replace the whorls and the flyer. Make sure that the maidens are at right angles to the mother-of-all. Some bobbins are designed to be used with either double-drive or single-drive wheels. They have a groove for the drive band (also called a whorl) on either end. One end should have a small whorl, and the other end should have a much bigger one. Remember to put the drive band on the big end of bobbin if you are using a scotch brake, and on the small end if you are using a double drive. The wheel should still work if you put them on the wrong way, but it will not work well. Attach the leader The leader is attached to the bobbin with a lark’s-head on a bight knot. This simple knot stays tight, no matter which way the wheel turns. Follow these steps to make the lark’s-head on a bight knot around the bobbin. Fold the 20-inch length of yarn in half. Use a plied yarn or the yarn will come apart when the wheel rotates. Pass it around the bobbin. Put the loose ends through the loop and tighten. Loop it again around the bobbin in the opposite direction and pass the loose ends through the loop. Pull tight. Thread the leader over the hooks and through the orifice with the orifice hooks. You should bend your orifice hook. The curved shape makes it easier to pick up the yarn as it comes through the orifice. Adjust the bobbin tension No matter what type of wheel you are using, there should be a way to tension the bobbin. Tension on the bobbin makes the yarn feed either more quickly or more slowly onto the wheel: On bobbin-driven wheels like the Louet, the tension can be changed on the bobbin by increasing or decreasing the drive band tension, and the flyer tension gives finer control. On a single drive: Hold on to the leader with the fiber hand. The spinning hand makes all of the adjustments to the wheel. Now treadle the wheel. If the leader pulls out of your hand, then loosen the scotch brake by loosening it. If the leader feels like you have to push it on the wheel, adjust tighten the brake. On a double drive: The adjustments for the drive band and the bobbin are made using the same tension device; when you tension one, you tension both of them. Although this is not as precise as the scotch brake, you always have the same ratio between the bobbin and the flyer.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

The warp is the threads that are stretched lengthwise on the loom. The weft is the threads that are woven across the warp. Depending on what you are weaving, you can use either your own handspun or a commercial yarn for the warp. The warp shown in the following figure is a commercial rug warp that is strong and fairly coarse. It is the perfect warp for weaving a pillow cover with handspun, because the handspun will completely cover the warp. To warp the frame loom, follow these steps: Roll your warp yarn into a ball. Tie one end on the top of the frame of the loom. Wind the warp around the frame of the loom. Keep the warp firm and even. You will have threads on both the front and back of the loom. You can bring both of these sets of threads together with a weaving technique called twining. To twine your warp, you need a length of strong cotton yarn that is three times the width of the loom. Follow these steps: Fold the cotton yarn in half. Loop the yarn around the frame just above the bottom bar. Pull it tight. Twine the cotton yarn through the warp by taking one warp thread from the front, slipping it between the pair of cotton yarns, twisting the cotton yarns together, and picking up the back thread. Slip the back thread between the pair of cotton yarns. Give the cotton yarns a twist. Continue picking up one warp thread from the back and one from the front all the way across the warp. This cotton thread is taken out when you finish weaving. This warp is perfect for thick, handspun yarn. When you are weaving, you should pack the handspun tight with a tapestry beater or a kitchen fork. This ensures that the handspun covers the warp.