Ask Jillian January 2025
How do you get yourself to practice other styles and structures of yarn? I learn to do something new and then just go back to my default yarn. I want to make new yarns!
Eleanor, Ithaca, New York
Hi Eleanor,
It’s sometimes hard to get yourself to practice new things. For me, I find it comes down to comfort – I love spinning my default yarn! It’s also some combination of not being sure what to do, wanting my new yarn to be perfect on the first go, and being overwhelmed by all of the possibilities.
Here’s how I encourage myself to practice and experiment with new things.
Make it enjoyable
Use your favorite fiber and color and use your favorite wheel. These things will make the spinning more pleasurable, but you also know exactly how these things behave, so you don’t have the added layer of figuring out a new or finicky fiber or using a wheel that you may not be able to adjust on the fly.
I also pick something that I’m excited about to watch or listen to while I’m practicing. A TV show, podcast, or book that I only watch or listen to while practicing will get me to my wheel and my new yarn. A bonus to this is it also naturally sets a time limit; working on a new yarn regularly for smaller bites of time, happily spinning, is better for learning than sitting at the wheel for hours and hours exhausting yourself.
Make a plan
Have an idea of what you’d like to spin, and be sure to make it smallish. I find it’s better to make a plan that has several yarns that are building blocks to a bigger goal. Even better if it’s tied to something else you are already excited about or are expanding on.
For example, I want to get better at spinning a worsted yarn consistently at a variety of sizes. That’s a giant and kind of amorphous goal. It’s not a goal that will get me running to my wheel. But if I shift it into a series of yarns tied to other things I want to do or am already interested in, I get excited to spin.
Two yarns are at the top of my worsted spinning list this winter: 1) a fingering weight yarn (smaller than my default) out of a soft short-stapled fiber (a challenge to keep consistent) to make a Sophie Scarf (not a huge amount of yarn and a cozy project for winter), and 2) a low-twist worsted yarn to experiment with grist (a long-time obsession) – I’m looking for the lightest worsted yarn I can make.
If you tie your plan to a very specific yarn or pattern it will motivate you even more.
Make notes
I talk about this a lot (it helps me to remember to do it too): figure out a way to keep notes on your spinning and keep track of your goals and experiments. You will learn so much about your spinning!
Keep notes on fiber, prep, draft, wheel setup, ply, and finish for each of your yarns. Then make your yarn into a swatch in whatever craft you are working in, and evaluate your outcome. Make more notes on what worked and didn’t, suggest adjustments, and dive in for another sample. Keep repeating the process until you have the yarn you want.
Is it weird that when I’m learning and experimenting, I’m excited for my yarns to be not quite right? I learn so much more from a yarn that went off the rails when I go through the evaluate–adjust process.
I like to tell my students, if you want to be a better spinner you have to make a lot of crappy yarn.
Make it public
Tell your spinning friends about your plans and goals; they will cheer you on the whole way. Chances are someone in your spinning group will be really good at what you want to do and give you tips.
Watching other spinners spin the type of yarn you want to make helps too: friends, students in class, YouTube videos, and if you are a member of the PLY Spinners Guild, you can watch a variety of teachers do their thing.
Everyone spins a little differently; a room full of spinners making a 3-ply, worsted, fingering weight yarn will be a room full of different techniques – no one will have twist between their hands, but they will hold the fiber and draft in their own unique way, and seeing that always helps me tweak my own spinning style for the better.
Jillian
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