PLY article index

How do you set up a spinning experiment that doesn’t break your brain or your bank yet still tells you what you want to know? The answer is that you set it up very intentionally and with lots of attention to detail. Don’t let that deter you; it’s actually quite simple and doesn’t take too much time or fiber. You’ll start by coming up with an objective question and making it very specific, then defining and confining the materials and techniques you’ll be using, and finally you’ll do the experiment and measure the results.

Prevailing wisdom says not to card really long fleece. In this article, the author determines a maximum length of fiber that can be effectively carded. For the purpose of this experiment, the term “effectively carded” means that the carding process will not be greatly altered from the process used when carding the control fiber, and that the resulting fiber preparation will draft smoothly and spin easily.

A number of factors are already well known to affect which woolen attributes may be imparted into a yarn produced from a given fiber. Despite those factors being well understood, the question of how the draft length affects the ultimate characteristics of a given yarn has, thus far, not been widely explored. Therefore, this article investigates how the drafting length impacts a woolen yarn.

Traditionally rolags were created on hand cards, but tools evolved as time passed, and drum carders and blending boards were created. While all three of these tools have carding cloth in common, they each func¬tion rather differently when it comes to the creation of rolags. Each of these styles of rolag should achieve some loft in the spun yarn; however, they have varying levels of cohesion, uniformity, and density due to the way the carding cloth interreacts with itself and the fibres. This article looks at how the style of rolag makes a difference in overall loft.

A worsted yarn is typically smooth, with good stitch definition. In worsted drafting the spinner pulls fiber forward or back¬ward in a controlled manner. No twist is allowed to enter the fiber supply, and the fiber is compressed and smoothed. Does one method of drafting (forward or backward) create a smoother yarn than the other?

Almost every spindler says – or they’ve heard someone say – that you need a larger, heavier spindle to spin thick yarn and a smaller, lighter spindle to produce thin yarn. This article sets up an experiment to determine whether that is indeed the case. Do heavier spindles spin heavier-weight yarn, and do lighter spindles spin lighter-weight yarn?

Spinners are often interested in working directly from a fleece, but the cost of tools can be prohibitive. One fiber preparation option is spinning from a fiber cloud – no tools required! This article looks at whether spinning yarn using a fiber cloud creates a yarn as soft and consistent as using tools to process the fiber.

Pre-drafting fiber – the process of stretching out and thinning roving or top to a manageable size before spinning – is a common recommendation for a new spinner. But how does pre-drafting fiber affect our yarns? This article compares spinning with and without pre-drafting the fiber to see how the effect on the final yarns, using both combed top and carded fiber and three different fibers.

When we ply our yarns before use, typically the goal is to balance out the twist we’ve added in the singles by plying those singles in the opposite direction. But when we leave the yarn as a singles yarn, once the yarn is knit up, it often tends to slant in one direction. Both the individual stitches as well as the whole textile can exhibit this skewing or biasing. This article examines how much twist a singles yarn can hold before it starts to show bias.

Spinning wisdom tells us that worsted-spun yarns hold up to wear better than woolen-spun. In a worsted-spun yarn, the fibers are aligned and packed in closely, reducing movement and making them wear longer and pill less. On the other hand, the fibers in a woolen-spun yarn are disorga¬nized, trap air, are not as smooth (have more ends poking out), and allow more movement inside the strand. This creates a yarn that abrades more, and more quickly. But what happens when we use fine fibers, which are typically more vulnerable to abrasion? This article examines how spinning woolen versus worsted impacts a yarn’s resistance to abra¬sion when the yarn is made from fine fibers.

Should wool be spun from the butt or the tip to achieve a smoother yarn? Some will say it should be spun from the tip, while others say it should be spun from the butt. And some say it should simply be spun in the same direction. This article experiments to see which direction creates a smoother yarn as well as the impact of the wool type.

When sorting a fleece, we generally set aside the shorter fibers for carding (either with hand cards or a drum carder), while the longer fibers are typically combed or spun from the lock. Many reputable sources suggest that a staple length of 4 inches is the minimum for combing. This article experiments with varying fiber lengths under 4 inches to determine the effectiveness of the combing process on those shorter fibers.

Is there an ideal length of time to rest singles before plying? This article looks at how different resting times for singles affects the ease of plying as well as the effect of the finished yarn and knitted swatches.

While finishing woolen yarns, we often perform aggressive finishing methods. This article explores several of these methods to see how far we can push it before a long draw yarn is no longer usable as woolen yarn.

This article looks at the difference between a top-whorl spindle and a bottom-whorl spindle and shares the results between the two using the following criteria: stability, grip, winding on, winding off, slippage, body mechanics, aesthetics, and portability.

This article tests the effect of ply structures (2-ply, 3-ply, chain ply, crepe, opposing-ply, and 4-strand cable) on the strength of the yarn.

This article looks at the ply twist in 2-ply and 3-ply yarns and examines how much ply twist can be added before create bias in knitted swatches.

In this experiment, the author aimed to compare the strength of three different groups of wools (fine, medium, and long) across three dif¬ferent ply structures (singles yarn, 2-ply, and 3-ply) in a worsted yarn.

This article explores how a drive band impacts the spinning experience but looking at how the material, shape, and thick¬ness of the drive band affect the yarns being spun. The author spins a bulky woollen and a fine worsted using drive bands with various materials and shares the results.

A common complaint from crocheters is that yarn splits, dividing into separate plies as they stitch, even yarn that they don’t find splitty when knitting. Z-ply yarn is generally suggested for crocheters as being less likely to split. This article delves into the question of whether direction of twist affects a yarn’s tendency to split when crocheted, testing singles yarn, lower-twist 2-ply, and higher-twist 2-ply, each worked in double crochet and Tunisian simple stitch.

A true hand-combed top, or a fully worsted fiber prepara¬tion, is at the foundation of a dense, strong, lustrous worsted spin. It’s the most durable type of yarn one can make. This article explores whether you can attain iden¬tical – or at least similar – results from a carded sliver.

This article looks at whether it makes a difference in a drum-carded blend if you feed fiber through the intake (licker-in) drum compared to applying it directly to the main drum. The author does a side-by-side comparison of appli¬cation to the intake drum and the main drum and tests the spinnability of the resulting blends.

This article explains how to use a charkha to spin long draw. It covers charkha styles, fiber selection, charkha setup, and methods of spinning, including step by step photos. The article also includes a section on spinning on a great wheel.

Photos showing how to make a puni and how to make a rolag using hand cards