Spinning yarn, part 2

When I got my spinning wheel I had absolutely no clue how to spin yarn, but I learned by watching some videos and reading everything I could find on spinning. I watched one video in particular and I'll share it with you in this post.

(picture from Pinterest)

The first thing you need to do is prepare your wool. It's easier if you draft it first so that you have a smaller amount of wool to start with. If you have rolags like she did in the video about carding (part 1) then you're good to go, but it's a good thing to learn how to draft anyway. In this video I show how to draft the wool, trying to pull it to a thinner piece without breaking it. It's easier to start with wool that are prepared. Once you get started you can find lots of different ways to prepare wool for spinning, but I often do this no matter what kind of wool I have.

I usually prepare a lot of pieces like this before I start to spin. I find it easier to have them ready so that I can reach for another while spinning. Depending on what kind of wool you have you can draft them more than I did.

This is the video I watched to learn how to spin.

There's two important things to remember when starting to spin. The draft of the wool so that you don't end up with a big lump of wool in your yarn and the pinch where you hold the twist from going all the way to the wool your spinning from. It's easier to draft with a smaller amount of wool, especially in the beginning. I use my left to pinch and my right to draft, you need to find out what works for you. Try it and don't be afraid to start over and over again until you feel what's right for you.

This is how it looks when I'm about to start spinning on my wheel. When you put the starter yarn on the bobbin you have to tie it hard enough so it stays there when you start, it won't work if it's sliding round the bobbin. I thought it would be easier to see how it runs under the hooks and through the flyer on a picture.

Notice the knob on the right, that's to adjust the break. If the yarn rips from your hand when you start you need to losen it, the break band is what makes your yarn wind up on the bobbin. If it doesn't wind up the yarn on the bobbin like you want it to, then it needs to break more. I have scotch tension on my wheel, it's a nylon wire that goes over the bobbin with two small springs on each side and a knob to adjust it with.

This is the video I made about how to start.

You can see how I start the wheel and let it twist the yarn before I wind it up on the bobbin by putting my hand closer to the wheel. As long as you hold it firmly it won't go onto the bobbin, it will continue to twist the yarn. If you get to much twist, stop the wheel, draft more wool to even it out without spinning the wheel. When you get it more evenly twisted just start the wheel again.

When you stop the wheel, remember to stop the flyer too. Otherwise it can turn back, unwind the yarn and make a mess of it. I have done it far to many times! If that happens, don't worry. Just get a part of the yarn untangled closest to the wheel, hold tension to it and start the wheel to wind the yarn up to the bobbin again. Repeat until you've got all of it back on the bobbin.

This is how it looks when starting. I usually have a small part pulled out from the wool so that it's easier to get it to twist on to the yarn. You just let the yarn twist to pull the wool on to it. You will feel it turning if you hold the end of the yarn in your hand and start further up. It's harder to get the wool attached and getting it to stay on the yarn if you start to close to the end. Don't worry if it takes a few attempts to get the wool to stay on the yarn, I still manage to fail every now and then so I have to start over again.

This is also what you do if the yarn breaks while you're spinning or if you run out of wool, but I'll tell more about that in the next part.

I hope you enjoyed watching this and that you will stay tuned for the next part!

Until next time, be well.
//S