Sample Along: Worsted to Woolen Knitted Swatches

I finally had the time to spin more yarn and knit some stockinette swatches. Hilariously, I found one of the biggest reasons I had trouble getting to this part was I am so sick of the colors I've been spinning through the sample along. That is very mmuch how I am, and why I always have more than one project on the go.

So I swapped to lime green combed top and some blaze organge roving and spun four yarns out of each and knit them.

I did the same drafts on both sets. I am leaning deep into woolen (again? as usual?!) so most were a woolen draft.

I used, top row, left to right: a worsted draft, a woolen draft from the fold and bottom row, left to right: a backward woolen draft from the end, and a supported long draw. My samples are chunky to see a little better what's going on with the yarn.

Top: worsted draft. Bottom: Supported long draw

The combed top goes from tidy, with good stitch definition with a worsted draft to down right unruly (for a worsted prep) with the supported long draw.

Allowing air into a worsted prep, makes the yarn lighter, but it’s harder to keep the yarn as consistent, especially with long draw. At least for me!

The air in the yarn makes it softer, making knitted stitches a little blurrier.

My default spin is in between the extremes. I like a shorter backward draft on combed top.

Mostly because I do love spinning hand dyed braids, but you probably know that.

The swatch on the bottom to the left is 100% my default draft/prep combo.

I have been spinning that way as a default for years, but I do adjust my spin for particular projects.

Top row, l to r: worsted draft, awoolen draft from the fold. Bottom row, l to r: a backward woolen draft from the end, and a supported long draw.

I did the same drafts with the roving. You can see once it gets a little air in it it just poofs. Yes, that is a technical term.

When I draft a fresh, airy roving with a worsted draft, it makes me a little sad. I don’t like squeezing all of the air out it. Drafting carded roving worsted also makes any inconsistencies in the preparation really obvious. The nepps, and any veg matter really (and sometimes literally) stick out.

I like any kind of woolen draft with roving, and usually find myself doing a type of medium backward draft, letting all the air in, but having a little more control on size consistency.

Which prep and draft combination was your favorite? Which one surprised you? The roving with a long draw really excited me this time, and I’m not a big long draw fan since it makes my shoulder crabby. Before I had finished spinning and knitting these samples I ordered more of the roving, enough to do a project!

Sample Along: Supported Long Draw

We've reached the longdraw portion of our Sample Along! The style of longdraw that I use the most is supported longdraw, where my front hand helps control how the twist zips into the fiber.

I don't use a sweeping, long, longdraw much because it makes my shoulder crabby. If you have any shoulder issues I do not reccomend doing a sweeping style of longdraw for any length of time.

My two biggest tips for long draw are:

1) Make sure your fiber is open and fluffy, just begging to be drafted. Your drafting tension point is your wheel, not your front hand, you can't tug a tight fiber mass or your wheel will walk or fall over (ask me how I know), or your yarn will break. Woolen preparations work wonderfully with long draw, carded roving, rolags, batts, or spinning from the fold.

2) Go slowly

Are you tired of hearing me say this one? It's true! It's a kindness to let yourself learn something slowly. There is a lot going on with longdraw, wheels set up, body set up, finding that perfect point of twist and draft, this style of drafting isn't a sprint. At least, until you are comfortable with controlling it, then it is a fast draft.

Wheel set up

I set myself up with a little more twist. I go down a whorl size, or treadle faster. I want a stronger take up on my wheel. It allows me to get the yarn onto the bobbin faster, keeping it fluffy, and it gives me a little more of an anchor point to tension against when I draft.

Hands and feet - finding the sweet spot

Give yourself the gift of doing a little playing here, a little experimenting. Your front hand controls the twist, closing to gather a bit of twist, then opening to let the twist shoot into the fiber while you draw back. It takes a bit of trail and error, especially if you are like me, and tend to speed up treadling when you get nervous trying new things.

Don't aim for a cosistent yarn, work on one thing, getting that balance between draft and twist. Consistencey can come later.

The basics

Start with a short backward woolen draft. Get that rhythm going and comfortable.

Then start lengthening your draft, and opening and closing your front fingers at a different rate. It's more like a pulse or a flutter. At the same time be conscious of twist, you may need to increase your twist a bit, and you may need to increase your take up.

Yes, this drafting style, at the beginning, is just like a knitting pattern that has four things to keep track of at the same time.

It's also like learning to drive a stick shift, you don't want to rev and you don't want to stall.

But when you hit that spot where it all comes together it is magic. When you can sustain this draft you can make yarn very quickly.

The yarn you make will be light and fluffy. At first, it won't be conssitent, and that is just fine, you can work on that later. Look at my quick sample yarns in the photos, super uneven, and that is a-ok.

I made a short video for you. It's a little different than some longdraw videos.

At the beginning I focus on my front hand, that's what I always wanted to see when I was learning. What is going on with the front hand, what ‘s the rhythm? I do show my sweep at the end.

For next time, which will be the wrap up for this Sample Along, I’m going to choose four of my drafts and spin enough to knit a stockinette swatch. i learn as much knitting my yarns as I do spinning them.

Our next Sample Along will be about color again. If you have any ideas of what you’d like it to be let me know in the comments.

Happy spinning!

Reusing Spools

I posted a photo on Instagram of new-to-me Anchor embroidery floss that comes on spools like sewing thread.

I got a comment about single use plastic. It's true! Thank you to the person who commented. These are made to be tossed, more plastic in the world.

What I didn't say in the post was one of the reasons I'm excited is to reuse the spools after they are empty for other threads and things.

I don't do well with the flat cardboard cards, they tend to unravel for me unless I pack them tightly together in a box.

Here's what I'll use these empty spools for:

I like to blend colors for stitching, one or two strands of one color and one or two of another or one each of three colors.

In the past I've done done the combining a little at a time. With the spool I'll be able to do put together longer or multiple 18" lengths all wrapped onto the spool, more continuous stitching time.

I do the same type of combining with textures, matte and sparkly, matte and shiny, silk and matte. It gives such interesting quality of line.

Of course, I'm spinning my own threads to stitch with. I have a stash of bombyx silk and a [Jeri Brock spindle][1] that I'm working with.

Have you seen the difference between woolen and worsted spun wool in stitching?

I'll also use the spools to store rubber bands instead of letting them wander loose in my spinning and knitting tool bags.

I may not buy more of these embroidery spools, but I will reuse the ones I have when they are empty.

Clearly I have taken a swan dive into the world of stitching. I know I'm not the only one. [1]: https://jeribrockwoodworks.com

A Quick Escape

We're dealing with a few things at my house. Some things are bigger, it's time for my father-in-law to move to memory care and we had a car stolen. Some are more irritating, I have a pinched nerve in my back, and it's almost time to go back to school.

We are all feeling stressed and a little bitey.

I announced that we were leaving town. I wanted to swim in lake Michigan, look at people I don't know, drink beer, and I didn't want to drive more than a couple of hours. We went to Holland, Michigan for a day and a half.

I found a yarn store, and some great mohair. My husband prowled outdoor stores. My son visted a skateboard park. We stared at so many people. We went to the beach, were I sat in the sun, stared at the clouds and got in 63 degree Lake Michigan (briefly). There was pizza and New Holland beer. We went to thrift stores together. It was a good relaxing time.

The major score for my son was the existence of the store in the video below, half guitars and half skateboards.

Shout out to the guy in the Kate Bush shirt! I hope you all get some relaxing time in during this last bit of summer.

Sample Along: Spinning a Woolen Draft Forward and Backward

Woolen drafting is the way I learned to spin. It's the draft that made spinning finally click for me. I could talk about it for a long time, but I will stick to three things.

It makes any preparation loftier. My favorite spin is a woolen draft on a worsted prep. I am willing to sacrifice shine and some consistency for the air in there. I like how it looks and I like how it knits.

I particularly like a backward woolen draft. You can see me draft in both directions in the video below.

It makes woolen preparations a bit happier, and more consistent. Woolen preps are pretty uneven, there are different lengths of fibers in there and they are squiggling in many directions instead of lined up.

When I spin a carded roving or a batt with a woolen draft, I can control the consistency better by letting the twist enter the fiber by itself. It seems to catch the fibers in the disorganized prep better that a worsted, controlled draft. At least for me. I also think, this is so much my opinion, if I go to the trouble of making an airy preparation, I want to showcase it, not squeeze the air out with a worsted draft.

It is, for me, a faster draft. If I want to knock out a braid, I will spin it with a backward woolen draft. It is my speediest draft. In the video below you can see my method. That is 100% my everyday, default draft. Just watching it makes me relax. Yes, the birds are always that loud in my yard!

Give a backward woolen draft a try and let me know how it goes for you and if you like the yarn!

Sample Along: Spinning from the Fold, Woolen

Woolen drafting is my default draft. I don't do a long draw often, it makes my shoulder unhappy. I tend to stick to a shorter draft, and can move either forward or backward. I happily draft woolen on both worsted (combed) and woolen (carded) preparations.

You can see the yarns in both preparations look loftier and less consistent than my worsted drafted yarns from previous posts.

I love the yarn a woolen draft makes yarn. A woolen yarn is:

• Fuzzy
• Less defined in stitch patterns
• Very airy and warm
• Light
• Less drapey
• Less shiny

To me a woolen drafted yarn looks organic. If you are looking for super crisp stitch definition you should draft worsted not woolen.

To spin woolen, you draft, and open your fingers to let the twist run into your fiber. You don't have to open your fingers much, twist does not need an engraved invitation to slide through.

A woolen draft can be daunting to a spinner that mostly spins with a worsted draft. There is always a worry about the twist getting away from you and locking up in the fiber supply.

A great way to start or practice with a woolen draft is to spin from the fold.

Here are some other tips for spinning woolen:

Slow down. Treadle slower than usual or move to bigger whorl to feel more in control of your twist. If you are newish to woolen your hands will be moving slower and it's easy to gather too much twist.

Stop treadling. If anything feels off, or you feel like the twist is getting away from you, stop. Take your feet off of the treadles or turn off your espinner. Don't just slow down thinking you can fix it on the fly, stop altogether and assess what's going on.

Open just a little. You really only need to separate your fingers the tinest bit to let the twist through. You don't have to move your hand away, your fingers can hover over the fiber, and open just a smidge.

If you feel like you still need some more control while learning a woolen draft, you can use a park and draft method. You may have done the same thing when learning to spin on a spindle.

If you are new to woolen drafting, it take some practice and a leap of faith those first few times you open your fingers. Be kind to yourself when trying or practicing something new, you aren’t looking for perfection, you’re looking for new possibilities!

Sample Along: Spinning from the Fold, Worsted Draft

Spinning from the fold is more a method of changing the preparation than a way of drafting, but it is a clever, clever skill to have in your toolkit.

I spin from the fold when I want to make a worsted preparation airier, and mostly, when I feel like I need a little more control over slippery fibers or blends.

For me it’s silk blends, or those irresistible fine wool/ silk/ bamboo blends.

To spin form the fold, pull a couple staple lengths (ish) from your fiber, and fold it over your index finger.

Less is more when spinning from the fold, make sure that your fiber is not too wide.

Hold the ends of the fiber lightly in your palm, try not to grip.

Tease the fiber out and over the tip of your index finger.

Point your finger at your orifice and start spinning. Pulling fiber from the tip of your finger to draft.

I find a forward drafting direction when I spin with a worsted draft from the fold works best for me.

If you are spinning combed top from the fold, it makes it into a less woolen preparation.

A worsted, combed preparation is carefully aligned with all the fibers coming from one direction when you draft. It encourages smooth, dense yarn with little air in it.

Folding the fibers, changes that.

The fibers are now coming from different directions, with air between them.

Even if you draft worsted, the result will still be an airier, less dense yarn.

Spinning from the fold is great for controlling fiber blends that are slippery, have many different staple lengths, or any fiber or blend you feel is ‘getting away’ from you.

Just using a smaller amount of fiber makes me feel in better control of slipperies. Add to that the bend in the fiber, which slows down the draft, plus holding on to the ends of the fiber, and I feel like I am the boss of all those lovely fibers.

A couple of things about spinning from the fold that you don’t have to do:

Keep your hand vertical in relation to the orifice. I tend tip my hand horizontally, it feels better on my wrist.

Keep your finger in the fold. You can just fold the fiber in half, no finger needed.

If your folded fibers get less than tidy, you can stop and reposition your fiber, refold the fibers that are left. I almost always have a bit of fiber, sometimes a clump left over in my hand. If I am spinning with a worsted draft, I put that fiber in my blending bag to use for something else. It tends stay clumpy when spun worsted.

Here’s a quicky video of me spinning from the fold.

Sample Along: Worsted Draft

Are you ready to draft? I'm going to be using these two fiber preparations for all of my drafting samples.

Both of them are commercially prepped, the blue is combed Corriedale top, the red is carded Corriedale roving.

For me the difference between a worsted or woolen draft is simply how the twist gets into the fiber.

Do you guide it to the fiber (worsted drafting), or do you let it zip into the fiber on it's own (woolen drafting)?

·     A worsted drafted yarn, especially if you use a worsted (combed) preparation has these characteristics:

·      Smooth Strong

·      Consistent

·      Stands up to abrasion, which means less pilling

·      Not as warm because it contains less air

·      Dense

·      Good drape

·      Shiny, depending on breed or blend

·      Crisp stitch definition

If you use a woolen (carded) preparation your yarn will have these characteristics., sort of. You can see what I mean in the finished yarn.

To draft worsted, you don’t want any twist getting to the fiber unless you bring it there. Squeeze your fiber between your fingers enough to keep the twist from getting through, draft (either forward or backwards), and slide your fingers down the fiber bringing the twist along, and smoothing the outside of the yarn.

Here’s a quick video I made, showing worsted drafting close up. I don’t usually work this close to the orifice.

You can see in the finished yarns below that while they are similar in size, worsted drafting doesn’t look the same on both types of preparations. The combed (worsted) preparation has all of the characteristics listed above, but the carded (woolen) preparation doesn’t really. The woolen preparation with a worsted draft is not as consistent, smooth, or dense.

What will you make out of your worsted drafted yarn?