spinning – PLY Magazine

Passing the Torch: How Michael Pauly Built SpinOlution and Continues with SpinPerfect

August 14, 2025/0 Comments/in Advertisers/by Meagan Condon

It all began when Michael Pauly’s wife bought a handmade wheel from a local craftsman. “I looked at it and said, ‘I can do better than that,’” he recalls. What started as a hobby quickly became a full-fledged pursuit. His first wheel was, by his own admission, “really terrible,” but he kept refining. Over time, he built eleven traditional wheels, each more refined than the last. The final one earned Best in Show at the New York State Fair. Satisfied, he walked away from wheelmaking—or so he thought.

In 2008, after retiring from the Air Force, Pauly felt the pull to design again. That’s when SpinOlution was born. His focus from the beginning was safety and function. “I wanted a wheel that was safe around little kids,” he said, remembering how he once ran a sewing machine needle through his thumb as a child. He also wanted wheels that were easy to use and maintain—where spinners could remove a bobbin without disassembling the whole setup.

The first SpinOlution wheel was the Mach 1. From there, Pauly’s ideas grew into a full product line with options ranging from small, beginner-friendly wheels to wheels with massive 64-ounce-capacity bobbins used for spinning rope. “Some people want something huge, and we’re here for that,” he explained. But he was always focused on what the everyday spinner needed. “The 8-ounce bobbin is just about perfect.”

Two current SpinOlution models, the Bullfrog and the Queen Bee.

As the company grew, Pauly was soon overwhelmed trying to keep up with the demand for his wheels. That’s when he partnered with Roy Wallace, who began producing wheels during the 2008 recession. Now, seventeen years later, Pauly is officially stepping back. “Roy is taking over the company,” he said. “He’s better at making the wheels than I am.” SpinOlution’s future is now in Wallace’s hands. But Pauly hasn’t stopped designing.

SpinPerfect is his newest project, begun during the COVID-19 pandemic when he “had nothing better to do.” The focus of SpinPerfect is 3D-printed spinning tools, like bobbins and the PaulyWinder, a tensioning mechanism that distributes yarn evenly across a bobbin.

Unlike SpinOlution, Pauly intends to keep this one in the family. “It’s something I can pass on to my wife,” he said. “She doesn’t like working with machines, but she can manage this. It means she’ll have income when I’m no longer here.”

SpinPerfect isn’t about flashy innovation—it’s about offering spinners more choices, more tools, and more understanding. Pauly hopes the project empowers spinners not only to create, but to learn. “I always tell people: learn your machine. Take it apart. Put it back together. That’s how you keep it working.”

For Michael Pauly, spinning wheels have never been about yarn. They’re about curiosity, connection, and creating things that last.

The ICON e-spinner, one of SpinPerfect’s upcoming offerings, and a set of drop spindles with interchangeable whorls and customizable weights.

Rainbow Yarn

August 12, 2025/0 Comments/in Spinning/by Guest Blogger

by Kat Pong

I love rainbows. My first rainbow yarn was a long gradient. I took rainbow-dyed Three Feet of Sheep braids from Frabjous Fibers, spun them end to end, then chain plied. When I knit a scarf from the yarn, it created long rainbows, big chunks of color gently fading from one to the next. There’s magic in the full spectrum – red to violet, warm to cool. Fire to air to earth to water. A blending of the elements.

An idea formed in my mind – rainbow yarn, but this time I wanted six strands, one of each color, forming a spiral. I started looking for examples, and I found marled yarns of two or three colors, cabled yarn, fractal yarn, but not 6-strand rainbow yarn. Was it not done because the colors turned to mud? How would a yarn like that look worked up?

I bought six classic rainbow colors in 100% merino combed top from Paradise Fibers: Scarlet, Clementine, Jonquil, Emerald, Royal, and Violet. I measured off an ounce of each and Z-spun them into worsted singles of about 40 WPI.

Plying with six singles can get a little tricky; besides tangling and pigtails, proper tension, and all the usual challenges, there’s also all the bobbin-shaped objects and lazy kate space requirements.

The big secret to multiple plies is that there needs to be constant tension on the singles right up to the moment they start to twist together. Eventually, I built myself a lazy kate that had two columns with multiple bolts going across on each side. If I don’t have enough bobbins, I now wind each single onto an empty toilet paper roll and place each one on the lazy kate spaced as far apart as possible. I string a cotton yarn (Sugar and Cream worsted) so that it is slightly taut in front of all the “bobbins” on both sides to make it a tensioned lazy kate. I string each single in between the cotton yarn’s plies, so that the cotton yarn also acts as an extra set of fingers. I pull all the strands at the same time and keep tension throughout as I build up twist and let the wheel take up the yarn.

Before I made my lazy kate, I found using the ball winder and then placing each ball in a separate empty tissue box also works pretty well (don’t use the center pull option unless you want six messes). Gravity and the plastic sleeve help keep tension on the singles.

I place the kate with all the singles on the other side of one hand and distribute the singles between the fingers of that hand, leaving the thumb available to add tension to a specific strand when needed. If I need to pause while plying, I use a piece of tape or a pin to tack down all the singles so no spin enters past that holding hand. The other hand pulls through a length of the singles and then slides down to allow the twist to enter smoothly. I keep the tension from the wheel high and the speed much lower than what I use to spin singles. I over-ply slightly, as a noticeable amount of twist is lost when the yarn winds onto the bobbin.

That first yarn was about 236 yards, 5.4 oz in total, S-plied, 12 WPI. The yarn is soft, squishy, and pleasantly round.

I finish my yarn in a warm bath with Dawn soap and a splash of vinegar, then give it a warm rinse and roll it out in a towel, with just a few light snaps to even out the twist. For this yarn, I created samples in knit, crochet, and woven, using it as an accent against a black bamboo handspun. I liked the effect of the yarn in small doses in knit and crochet, and I was pleased with how the rainbow effect is preserved in the woven sample. Later, I also tried a sample of bargello-style embroidery (my own design), paired with crewel wool embroidery thread. 

I also tried cabling two ways: First, S-plying with extra spin 3 x 2-ply (red, orange), (yellow, green), and (blue, purple), then Z-plying those 3 couples. Second, S-plying with extra spin 2 x 3-ply (red, orange, yellow) and (green, blue, purple), and then Z-plying the trios. Both cabled yarns created a different lovely pattern. They were 14 WPI cabled yarns that felt somewhat ropy and firm, not squishy. They seemed more like something that would stand on their own, perhaps as a necklace, or shoelaces. 

The final experiment was to S-ply each color on itself with extra spin, and then Z-ply those six colors together. This created the clearest rainbow yarn where each color was clearly defined, a 12-strand cable, 10 WPI. The yarn was smooth, round, and firm, but not ropy (bumpy) as the other two cabled yarns were.

Experimenting with rainbow yarns opens up many spinning possibilities for me. I’m looking forward to trying different color combinations. Or maybe wrapping a 6-strand multi-colored yarn in yet another color. Any worries I had about visual tension with so many colors are laid to rest. It turns out, rainbows are beautiful wherever you find them! Happy spinning!

Kat Pong is a part-time fiber artist living in Maryland with her husband, six-year-old son, and two cats. Crochet, sewing, knitting, and embroidery were passed down through the family, but Kat’s latest passion is spinning. She loves rare sheep breeds and her Spinolution Monarch, and just like her kid, her favorite color is “rainbow.”

It’s a Wrap! Tour de Fleece 2025

July 31, 2025/0 Comments/in Community/by Meagan Condon

As the 2025 Tour de Fleece (otherwise known as TdF) draws to a close in a few days, spinners from around the world will reflect on the past three weeks of creativity, camaraderie, and craftsmanship. I hope they all have a chance to take a breath! The event, which runs parallel to the Tour de France, has once again proven to be a highlight of the fiber arts calendar. Whether participants met their goals or simply had the chance to spin with friends, the end of the race marks a moment of celebration and community.

The 2025 TdF saw an even stronger sense of global connection. Fiber artists from diverse backgrounds, locations, and skill levels united over the shared challenges. Simply searching for #tourdefleece2025 on social media will bring up hundreds of photos of finished yarns.

On a personal note, I love using TdF as a chance to step out of my comfort zone. One year, I challenged myself to spin with a pair of underwear (clean) on my head just to get my teammates to giggle. While this year I haven’t accomplished anything quite so wild, I have managed to spin up about half a pound of low-twist singles as part of a new fiber experiment (more to come). My comfort zone is pretty wide at this point, but singles yarns still confound me.

Did you spin in TdF this year? If so, what did you accomplish?

Dizzing Three Ways

July 29, 2025/0 Comments/in Tips/by Meagan Condon

I am an incredibly lazy spinner. If I can do it without digging the specialized tool out of storage for it, I will! Sometimes that makes more work for myself, though I don’t like to admit it. For the longest time, I would create roving or top without a diz, just drafting it out with my hands… because it was too much work to find the diz. However, I am a diz convert, especially after seeing how much nicer the preparations behave.

Photo by Jacqueline Harp in Winter 2022, Neck and Shoulders issue.

What’s a Diz?

A diz is a simple, useful tool for handspinners. Often made from wood, bone, plastic, or ceramic, it is a small disk, sometimes concave and sometimes flat, with at least one small hole through which fiber can be pulled. It is designed to create a consistent roving.

Here are three ways you can use a diz with different fiber preparations:

1. Making True Top from Wool Combs

Dizzing wool directly from combs is ideal for worsted spinning. Once you have combed the fiber and the fiber is aligned on one of the combs, clamp the comb to a table so that you have both hands free to work the fiber. Bring the fibers on the comb to a point and feed the fibers through the diz. Twisting the tips of the fiber can help it feed through the small hole. Start to draft the fibers from the tip. As your top thins, slide the diz downward toward the comb until it has a firm grip on the next set of fibers. Then draft the fibers some more. Do this until there is minimal waste fiber left on the comb. You can coil your roving in a neat little nest for safekeeping until you are ready to spin.

2. Creating Roving from Drum-Carded Batts

Batts from a drum carder can be turned into manageable roving using a diz as well, and it can be done directly from the drum carder. Once all the fiber has been applied to the drum carder and blended, typically we would remove it to create a batt. Instead, find the seam of the drum. From one edge of the seam, slide the doffer about 1 inch along the seam and lift to break the continuous loop. Gather the tips of the fiber from one side and put them through the diz as described above. As you draw off the roving, you’ll slowly move the diz down and around the drum in a spiral until you have removed all of the fiber.

3. Refining Woolen Prep from Rolags

Though usually spun directly, rolags can be dizzed to get a more semi-worsted preparation. This technique can also be used to loosen fauxlags, which are very tight rolags made on blending boards. Gently pull the fibers from the tip of the rolag through the diz. As you draw the rolag through the diz, it will straighten and align the fibers somewhat.

Final Tips:

Choose the right hole size based on fiber and yarn weight. A small hole will make a small yarn.

Pull slowly to avoid breakage or bunching.

Start with clean, well-prepared fiber for best results.

wool from different breeds of sheep demonstrating different lengths of fiber

The Goldilocks Problem: Staple Length Matters

July 24, 2025/0 Comments/in We couldn't fit it in the print issue!/by Meagan Condon

Staple length—the average length of individual fibers in a fiber preparation—is one of the most important characteristics to consider when preparing and spinning fiber by hand with a worsted technique. Whether you’re spinning Merino or a longwool like Wensleydale, understanding staple length helps you to control your drafting technique and create the yarn you intend.

I consider this the Goldilocks problem of worsted spinning. The goal is to position your hands to allow you to draft “just right.”

Whether you use a forward or backward draw when you spin, your hands draft the fibers out into a narrower strand before or while twist is being added. The distance between your hands creates a drafting zone: if your hands are too close together for the staple length of the fiber, the fibers won’t slide past each other easily. You are essentially holding both ends of the same fiber and I promise the fiber is stronger than you in this tug-of-war match.

If your hands are too far apart, you may lose control of the draft, especially with short fibers. You might find that as you draft, the fiber suddenly comes loose and drifts apart, leaving you holding two separate sections of fiber and a whole lot of frustration.

The ultimate goal is to set your hands at just about the average staple length, so the fibers can move and draft smoothly without pulling apart. Not too wide, not too narrow, but just right.

For short-stapled fibers, like cotton or yak, your hands need to be close together—sometimes only an inch or two apart—to control the drafting and prevent the fibers from slipping apart. One of the reasons we often choose a long draw for these fibers is because of how difficult it can be to maintain such a short draft zone.

Medium-staple fibers, such as Corriedale or Romney, are more forgiving. You can draft them with your hands 4–6 inches apart. Many spinners find their comfort zone in this range.

Long-stapled fibers, like Lincoln or silk, require your hands to be farther apart—sometimes MUCH further apart. If you hold your hands too close, these long fibers won’t draft well; instead, they’ll resist movement or break under the stress.

Matching your hand placement to staple length is essential for an efficient, consistent, and ergonomically sound draft and to avoid unnecessary frustration. If you are ever fighting your fiber while spinning, stop and ask yourself if your hands are too far apart, too close together, or just right!

Knitting Patterns for Handspun Yarn

July 22, 2025/0 Comments/in News/by Karen

Although you can use handspun yarn in almost any knitting pattern, sometimes there are patterns that work better than others for handspun. This is especially true if you have limited yardage, have any inconsistencies in the yarn, or aren’t sure about what gauge you should be aiming for.

With those ideas in mind, finding patterns that allow for variations in gauge and yardage are the most helpful to make something you’ll love that allows your handspun yarn to shine in all its glory.

Variable gauge

One of the places to start is to look for patterns that can be adapted based upon your gauge. That way you can find the needle size that creates a fabric you like with your yarn and use that gauge for the pattern. If you’re searching for patterns on Ravelry, for example, in the advanced search options, you can select “any gauge” under Weight to help find these patterns. Here are some of the ones that caught my eye (note: all links are to Ravelry).

Musselburgh Hat by Isolda Teague: This has been one of my go-to patterns for hats because it’s adaptable to various yarns with tables that give you all the stitch counts based upon your gauge (which you take by casting on the hat and measuring when you have an inch or two of fabric—no gauge swatch needed!). It creates a double-sided hat, which you wear by folding one side into the other, so you’re making two hats in one. This allows for using two different yarns (switching at the halfway point of the knitting), stripes, or even adding in stitch patterns. (Pictured is my in-progress handspun Musselburgh.)

The Traveler Cowl by Andrea Mowry: This cowl is knit on the bias (flat and seamed), which makes it a great candidate for handspun yarn of any size as you can adjust the final size of the cowl as you go. In fact, the designer had handspun yarn in mind for this pattern.

Boomerang shawls, various designers: Another great option is to look for boomerang-shaped shawls. These shawls are not quite crescent shawls and not quite triangular shawls but somewhere in between, and the idea is to keep working on them until you run out of yarn. So they’re great both from a variable gauge standpoint as well as from a yardage standpoint. I’m currently working on the Handspun Boomerang Shawl by Natasha Sills and have also made a Quaker Yarn Stretcher Boomerang by Susan Ashcroft (pictured).

Speaking of Susan Ashcroft, you should check out more of her patterns (Stichnerd Designs) because she has several other “yarn stretcher” or “boomerang” patterns that can work wonderfully with handspun. She has a whole bundle of her patterns that she’s made specifically for those patterns that work well with handspun yarn.

Tensfield or Langfield by Martina Behm: These two hat patterns (the second is the slouchy version) have a fun construction that will showcase your handspun yarn. Even better, because you adjust the size as you knit, it doesn’t matter what weight of yarn or gauge you use. I haven’t made one of these yet, but I’ve just added the pattern to my queue!

Aunt Maggie by Shilo Weir: This free knitting pattern was created after the designer received encouragement during a spinning class with Maggie Casey to make sure to knit with their handspun. Written with a variety of yarn weights in mind, from sport to bulky, the pattern information includes a note about how much yarn you’ll need to complete the cowl.

What if you don’t want an accessory but instead want to make a sweater? Designer Elizabeth Felgate has several sweater and cardigan patterns that can be made using any weight of yarn. Even better – you don’t even have to calculate your gauge! The construction of the garments has you measure your progress as you go (in inches or cm) to get the size you want.

What other patterns have you found that work well with handspun? Share them in the comments!

PLY Guild: Second Season Drop – Episode 3

July 15, 2025/0 Comments/in Guild/by Jacey Faulkner

I am thrilled to report that the third episode of the second (worsted) season of the PLY Guild has dropped and is almost ready for your viewing pleasure! It’ll be up on July 18th (we had a little family emergency and so it’s running behind 2-3 days).

This episode is all about combs! You’ll learn how to choose combs and use combs from some great teachers including: Maggie Casey, Laura Linneman, Michelle Boyd, and Jacey Boggs Faulkner. We’ll cover 2-pitch Viking combs, 4-pitch English combs, 3-d printed combs, combing with clamped combs, combing with unclamped combs, combing with a hackle, dizzing, and planking! It’s a long episode so set aside some time, get out whatever combs you have (or some fiber and a wheel/spindle) and enjoy! If you don’t have combs, don’t worry, the next episode is all about creating worsted preparations without combs!

Watch the episode now!

We’ll see you again with a new episode in six weeks (but in the meantime, come see us in a spin-in)! If you haven’t already gotten your membership, this is an episode you won’t want to miss!

Join the PLY Spinners Guild here

If you’d like to learn more from your favorite fiber instructors, make sure your membership is active! Each month is jam packed with new instructional videos and virtual spin-ins. Membership is cumulative, meaning you get access not only to the current episode, but also to every previous episode and recorded spin-in as well.

The PLY Spinners Guild (PSG) hosts three 90 minute spin-ins every month:

On the first Sunday of every month, guild members meet and spin at 5 p.m. Pacific.

On the third Sunday of every month, guild members meet and spin at 10 a.m. Pacific.

On the third Thursday of every month, guild members meet and spin at 5 p.m. Pacific. (This is the Building Skills Spin-in for spinners who want a less technical experience than our other spin-ins!)

The guild is priced at $85/year or $12/month. This is a very good deal for the amount of information and community you will get, especially since new video lessons are added every six weeks! This fee allows us to pay for the substantial hosting required by so many high-def videos and the charge per member to access the site, along with fairly compensating the teachers, editors, and everyone involved in making the guild work.

If you aren’t already a member, we think you’d definitely enjoy it!

The PLY Spinners Guild is a space for spinners at all levels of spinning. We are an inclusive and diverse community that embraces all spinners and welcomes everyone to create a brave space to question, challenge, and support one another. We strongly believe that the more diverse our community is, the stronger our community is. Our core beliefs of kindness, diversity, and inclusivity inform everything we do. Racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression will not be tolerated. We reserve the right to remove anyone who meaningfully and purposefully disrupts the community or makes other members feel unsafe.

Ask Jillian: How Do I Keep My Colors Clear in Chain Ply?

July 15, 2025/0 Comments/in Ask Jillian!/by Jillian Moreno

I am so frustrated that the colors in my chain-plied yarn keep combining. I want my yarn to look as close to my hand-dyed braid as possible. Tell me how to keep my colors clear and unmarled. ~Donna, Harrisville, NH

Hi Donna,

I hate when that happens! The number one reason that I chain ply is to keep my hand-dyed braid color clear and unmixed with others. Last month Jacey got us started with chain plying; now let’s fine tune for clearer color.

I want my yarns to look more like the small skein on the right than the one on the left.

I love the motion of chain plying because it’s so relaxing, but I found if I change a couple of things I get clearer colors.

I slow down, pay attention to where the color changes are, and use a variety of loop sizes while I ply.

My usual chain-ply loop is the size of an orange, sometimes bigger. I can happily ply along for an entire bobbin with loops of that size. But when I keep my loops the same, on the bigger side, my colors mix and marl when colors transition.

I taught myself to make loops about the size of a chubby grape, and I use those smaller loops when the colors change in my singles. The yarn will still barber pole, but the length of the marled section is much smaller, the size of the smaller loop.

I do have to slow my roll when I treadle and watch my singles to see when the colors change, but that extra time is worth it to me for the colors I want. I usually use two or three smaller loops right before the color change, one at the color change, and two or three after the color change.

It’s not 100 percent perfect; a lot of the time colors will marl while drafting singles and those will marl in the ply. Comparing the yarn on the left that has large loops and a long stretch of marled colors to the yarn on the right, where I used a combination of loop sizes, I like the flow of the smaller amounts of marled yarn much more.

I try not to fet too much about the small parts that do marl. I can see them when I look closely, but when I look at my yarn as a whole skein, the overall look is clear, beautiful color.

Want Jillian or Jacey to take a stab at your question? Tell us what you want to know:

Ask Jacey and Jillian!

Breed Development through Upgrading

July 10, 2025/0 Comments/in News/by Meagan Condon

Many of the sheep breeds found in the United States are being developed through a technique called upgrading. The United States (like many European countries) has strict regulations on the importation and exportation of live animals and particular breeds. As a result, there are many wonderful sheep breeds that can’t be brought into the United States, like Gotland, Teeswater, Herdwick, Bluefaced Leicester, and Black Welsh Mountain. And yet there are American flocks of all these breeds!

While we can’t import these sheep, we can import semen. A breeder will choose a breed that is close to the breed they want. For example, if a breeder wants Teeswater, they might choose another longwool breed like Leicester Longwool. A Leicester Longwool ewe is inseminated with semen from a Teeswater sheep. The result is a 50/50 genetic blend. This second-generation sheep is then inseminated with Teeswater semen. The resulting lamb is 75/25 Teeswater.

This process is continued until the sheep being bred have primarily Teeswater genes. An upgraded flock will never be 100 percent genetically the same as the original breed. American Teeswater may be 95–99 percent Teeswater. But chances are you or I would not be able to tell the difference unless one population or the other were heavily modified.

At this time, Valais Blacknose – the cutest sheep in the world – are being introduced to the United States via upgrading.

Upgrading is one way we can help preserve breeds and populations that are rare or threatened. Sometimes there aren’t enough sheep left in a population to have sustainable genetic diversity. Upgrading offers a solution for saving threatened breeds.

Have you ever spun a fleece from an upgraded sheep? If so, what genetic percentages did it have? What qualities did the fleece have?

Posts