F

Fiber: Unspun wool, plant material, or hair. Technically, a fiber is at least 100 times longer than it’s width and has a degree of flexibility.

Fineness: A word used to describe the thinness of a given fiber.

Flax: Fibers obtained from the flax plant. Flax becomes linen once it has been spun into yarn.

Fleece: The raw, grease fibers of sheep.

Fleece Faults: Foreign matter or defects which create spinning problems in wool. Common fleece faults include: Matting, tenderness, breaks in staple length, weathering, double cuts, and contamination with vegetable matter.

Fleece Grading: Sorting a raw fleece of uniformity.

Flick Card: A small hand card used to open locks of fleece for spinning.

Flyer: The U shaped device which holds the bobbin on a treadle wheel. The flyer inserts tiwst into the yarn being spun.

Flyer Lead Spinning Wheel: A spinning wheel having a separate whorl mounted on the shaft of the flyer. The drive band goes around the drive wheel and the flyer whorl (as opposed to a whorl on the bobbin). The flyer rotates faster than the bobbin, which is held under control by a brake band (Scotch Tension).

Flyer Whorls: Whorls which fit onto the shaft of the flyer on flyer lead and double drive wheels.

Folded Yarn: Plied yarn.

Folding Twist: Plying twist.

Footman: The wooden, wire or leather piece which connects the crank of the drive wheel axle to the treadle.

G

Grading systems: Various systems for grading the fineness of fleeces. The three systems in use today are: Bradford Count, Micron Count; and Blood.

Grease Wool: The unwashed fleece of a sheep.
Guanaco: A member of the South American Camelid family which produces fine spinning fibers. Average micron grade for guanaco fleece is 19 microns.

H

Hackles: A tool used in processing flax, it consists of a block of wood set with several rows long, sharply pointed teeth. It is used to remove contaminating material and short fibers from the long line fibers. Wool hackles, which have only one or two rows of tines, are used for dehairing, separating double coated fleeces, and blending.

Hand Cards: Used to open the fibers and align them for spinning, hand cards are always used in pairs.

Handle: The way the wool feels.

Hand spun: Yarn which has been spun by hand on either a wheel or a spindle.

Hank: A skein of yarn.

Hemp: The fiber from the stem of the Cannabis sativa plant. It is similar to flax.

Horizontal Spinning Wheel: Spinning wheels which have the drive wheel and bobbin & flyer unit set along a horizontal axis.

Huarizo: A llama x alpaca crossbred.

I

Inch Glass: A small, folding pocket magnifying glass with a grid useful in counting twists per inch or the sett of woven fabrics.

J

Joining: The process of adding a new supply of fibers to those already spun.

Jumbo Flyer: An alternative bobbin and flyer unit with a larger ratio for spinning low twist yarns.