Spinning Daily Publishes a Guide to Handspun Yarn: Types of Yarn and How to Spin Them

Aug. 29, 2012 - PRLog -- The spinning experts from Spinning Daily have put together an informative eBook, available for download today. This free eBook is dedicated to taking the spinner’s perspective the diversity of yarn types. Experts in the handspinning world often disagree about the exact definitions for woolen and worsted yarns. With the help from the experts at Spinning Daily, and this free guide to handspun yarn, spinners can form their own conclusions and continue to build on the techniques and methods that work for their ideal type when spinning yarn.

The eBook can be downloaded online: http://www.spinningdaily.com/types-of-yarn/

Spinners today make such a wonderful diversity of yarn types and oftentimes, it’s easy to get caught up in the vocabulary used to describe them.  Anyone who’s at a loss for words will benefit from the lexicon of descriptive words especially for spinners in this free guide to hand spun yarns. Naming a reaction to a specific type of yarn increases your awareness and improves spinning skill by helping identify ideal qualities that you want to create, duplicate, or avoid.

Spin Yarn that Pleases and Suits Your Purposes
Drafting Techniques By Jeannine Bakriges

Jeannine shares techniques for both short draw and long draw spinning. She particularly likes short draws for spinning slippery fibers such as silk, but for her, neither short forward nor short backward draw has a particular advantage—it's whatever works best at a given moment with given materials. She also uncovers her favorite words of advice from her spinning peers and mentors on drafting for long draw.

Woolen vs. Worsted Spinning
Woolen/Worsted R.I.P By Rita Buchanan

Often we fall back on jargon like woolen and worsted because we can't think of what else to say. Rita decided to stop focusing so much on the terminology and whether she was really achieving true worsted yarn or mastering a woolen draw. She developed a richer vocabulary for the wonderful diversity of yarns and although she's not certain it's improved her handspun yarn, it has changed her state of mind.

What Type of Yarn Do You Spin?
Worsted, Woolen, or Semi-Something By Rudy Amann

Do you spin worsted or woolen yarn? Don't worry if you don't know—many spinners do not know what type of yarn they spin. They just continue spinning the same way they did for their first successful skein of yarn. The difference between worsted and woolen yarns comes from how the fibers are prepared for spinning, the drafting technique that is used, and how twist is allowed to enter the fibers. There is general agreement among spinners about how to spin true worsted yarns and true woolen yarns. However, most of us spin something between those two types of yarn.

Long Draw Spinning
The Long Draw Drafting for Woolen Yarn By Carol Huebscher Rhoades

Carol Rhoades demonstrates the long-draw drafting technique to make a woolen yarn. Woolen spinning makes a lofty, insulating yarn, with long and short fibers intersecting randomly to create air pockets. Think light and airy throughout the process of making a woolen yarn. Choose an open, clean fleece, with locks three inches or shorter, and scour it well. A woolen yarn is easiest to spin from a well-carded rolag with a core of air surrounded by fiber.

Worsted Spinning
The Short Draw Drafting for Worsted Yarn By Carol Huebscher Rhoades

Carol Rhoades demonstrates the long-draw drafting technique to make a woolen yarn. She prepares for worsted spinning by dividing the top into manageable strips. Worsted spinning makes a smooth, dense, and lustrous yarn, with the fibers lying parallel to each other along the yarn's length. While you can use the short draw for short or long fibers, industry uses staples three inches or longer for worsted yarns.

The eBook can be downloaded online: http://www.spinningdaily.com/types-of-yarn/