Guest Author - Pegg Thomas

Suzie Spinner, as raw beginner, worried about the thick-and-thin yarn she produced in her first efforts. She strived for “perfection” and worked to produce a fine, even single. Hours of practice paid off and the smooth, fine, even single looks great! However, since Suzie only practiced to achieve this goal, it is the only type of yarn that she can produce.

Does this sound familiar? Do you have to ply three or four singles to get a thicker yarn? If so, you may want to re-learn to spin thick again. What does it take to spin a thicker single?

Most of us when learning to spin practiced to be able to work our hands as fast as we worked our feet. In other words, we’ve become speed demons! High speed spinning produced fine yarn. The first step to spinning thicker is to slow down. The easiest way to do this is to set your wheel to a slower ratio. Most wheels have at least three ratio choices on the flyer unit. Choose the largest of these to slow down the wheel. Many wheels also have several choices on the wheel itself. Choose the smallest groove on the wheel. This will slow your spinning down without having to change your comfortable treadling speed.

The easiest method to help spin thicker yarn is to pre-draft your fibers to the amount you wish to have in the drafting zone. For example, you may want to draft out the fibers to the thickness of your thumb. When spinning these pre-drafted fibers, you let them slip smoothly between your fingers as the twist takes them up, not drafting them any more. This will produce a thicker, consistent yarn. You control the thickness of the yarn by the thickness of the pre-drafting. Tearing strips from batts or rovings can achieve the same results but it is a little harder to control the size of a torn strip.

The basic ingredient to spinning thick yarns is to allow more fibers into the drafting zone before the twist grabs it up. Slowing down, pre-drafting and working with a short draw all help this happen. So give it a try and break out of the “thin” rut!