Frontpage Article – PLY Magazine

Alpaca Wool: A Misnomer

November 19, 2024/0 Comments/in Frontpage Article /by Meagan Condon

How many times have you heard someone selling their alpaca wool? Or touting their alpaca wool scarf? The only problem is that it isn’t wool. Let me explain!

Fibers can be categorized into a few different classes, including hair, wool, and fur (excluding kemp and guard hair for the moment).

Let’s check out Meagan’s handy chart to get us started.

FIBER TYPE	QUALITIES
FIBER TYPE	CUTICLE	MEDULATION	GROWTH	DENSITY	SEBUM
FUR	Scales overlap, forming as many as 10 layers	Generally present and pronounced	Reaches a maximum length and then sheds	Higher than 60,000 follicles/sq inch	Limited quantity of sebum
HAIR	Scales overlap, forming as many as 10 layers	Generally present and pronounced	Continuous growth, but sheds	500 follicles/sq inch Only 100-200 active follicles at a time	Limited quantity of sebum
WOOL	In fine wools, scales overlap, usually forming 1-2 layers. Scales are barbed	Generally absent or almost absent	Continuous, if not sheared	Up to 60,000 follicles/sq inch	Lanolin in varying quantities

Alpaca is actually a hair fiber, like our own hair. Like us, they shed a small amount of their fiber, but it continues to grow and get longer if we don’t cut it. Because of this continuous growth, alpacas have to be sheared regularly for their health.

Check out this microscopic view of alpaca fibers. The first thing you might notice is the dark line going down the center of each fiber. This is the hollow medulla.

Air = Warmth

Any time there is air trapped in a fiber, it contributes to it being a warmer fiber. Air is an insulator. Wool does not have a hollow center, which is one of the reasons why alpaca is so much warmer than wool.

The keratin structures in alpaca fiber are different than the structures in high-memory wool. As a result, the fiber has almost no memory. That means it will not return to its original shape once it has been stretched out. This is great for drape, but not great for anything that requires stretch, like socks or mittens. We often blend wool with alpaca to compensate for its lack of stretch.

While it may be tempting to call alpaca wool because it is so squishy and wool-like, there are some fundamental differences that mean that the fibers behave differently. Are the spinning police going to come after you if you call alpaca wool? No way! Still, it is sometimes helpful to have that scientific distinction to help guide your creative process.

wool from different breeds of sheep demonstrating different lengths of fiber

Three Tips for Making Consistent Yarn

October 29, 2024/in Frontpage Article, News, Spinning /by Meagan Condon

Maybe you’ve just learned how to spin and now you are struggling to create consistent yarn. Or perhaps you’ve been spinning for a long time and are ready to refine your technique. These tips will help you create a more consistent yarn.

Tip One: Know Your Staple

examples of different breeds of wool showing different lengths of locks from short to long

If you are experiencing problems with inconsistent yarn, it is often related to drafting. Whether you’re a new spinner or an old hand, it is always valuable to go back and check the staple of your fiber and adjust your hands. For newer spinners, it is a question of building up muscle memory. For experienced spinners, it is easy to fall into hand habits and default movements.

Remember, aim to hold your hands roughly 1 to 1.5x the staple length. If your hands are too far apart, you will wind up with thin spots where your fiber drafted too much. If your hands are too close together, you might be wearing out your hands by fighting to draft your fiber from both ends. This can result in thick sections in your yarn.

Also try to reach the same distance into your fiber supply each time you draw fibers into the draft zone. The deeper into your fiber supply you pull from, the more fibers in your drafting zone and the thicker yarn you will make.

Tip Two: Rhythm, Rhythm, Rhythm

Rhythm is everything in spinning. Consistent yarn requires the same number of twists in a particular length of yarn, throughout an entire skein. If you’re like me, rhythm doesn’t come naturally.

First, try to practice treadling your wheel with nothing on it; no fiber, no yarn. Treadle while watching a movie. Treadle while having a conversation. The more you practice treadling, the more regular you will become, even if you don’t have a strong internal sense of rhythm. When you practice treadling, you are increasing your muscle memory and reinforcing the neural network. The less you have to consciously think about treadling, the easier it is to find rhythm.

If all else fails and you can’t find a natural rhythm, don’t give up. You can always count. You read that right. Count your treadles for each time you draft. Even if you can’t keep a steady treadle, you can make sure you’re still getting the same amount of twist each time you draft. A funny thing happens when you manually count treadles; often, your rhythm and your muscle memory kick in when you least expect it.

Tip Three: Sleep on It

All this practice sounds fantastic, but there’s one more thing you need to bring it all together – a good night’s sleep. Research has shown that sleep is necessary for the consolidation of information. Basically, during sleep, the brain retraces the neural pathways used for a particular task and determines which pathways are the most efficient. By reinforcing certain pathways, the same information is more likely to travel along those pathways, saving the brain resources. If you’re feeling frustrated after a spinning session, set your work aside and come back to it the next day. You’ll be amazed at the difference it can make.

So You Wanna Learn to Spin

July 15, 2024/in Frontpage Article, News /by Guest Blogger

Hello! If you have found your way to this little corner of the internet, I take it that you are at least somewhat interested in learning how to spin yarn. Well, new friend, you have come to the right place!