We all have many demands on our time: jobs, family and social obligations. We have errands to run and appointments to keep. With our busy life styles, it’s not always easy to find the time to simply sit and spin. Many of us have only a few minutes a day to work on spinning up the yarn for a project.

Since our hand spun projects may be quite large, requiring many yards of yarn to be spun, this can be a problem as the spinning must be done over several days, weeks, or even months. Our work is interrupted, broken up into small lots of time and yet we must match the yarn we are making each and every time we sit down at our wheels. If the size of the yarn changes during the spinning process, it can result in a project that has thick or thin spots because one or more bobbins of yarn do not match well. We need a way to guarantee that our yarn will be exactly the same from bobbin to bobbin, from spinning session to spinning session no matter how often we must stop and start our spinning. This is the purpose of making a control card for each project.

Besides giving total control over the yarn for individual projects, having a control card allows you to leave off a project entirely for any length of time, freeing up your wheel for other projects, for demonstrations, or for a spin-in or a workshop. Further, your control card gives you a permanent record of that specific yarn so it may be duplicated at any time.

Making a control card is easy and takes only a small amount of time.
You will need:
1 Index card.
A ruler or wpi* tool.
A pen or pencil.
A scissors.
A paper punch.
A piece of string or yarn.
A protractor. (optional)
A lap cloth with a grid marked in inches or centimeters. (optional)




Above is an example of a blank control card.

While “Wheel” may seem self-explanatory and perhaps unnecessary, some spinners have multiple wheels or spindles and it is possible to forget which was used to create what yarn. So it’s a good idea to write it down.

Ratio: Fill this in so you can be sure that the wheel is set correctly for this particular yarn.

Fiber(s): Again, it can be easy to forget the exact blend or breed of sheep supplying the fibers. Personally, I have one wheel with Dorset Cross wool which I’m spinning to use for natural dyeing samples and another wheel on which I’m spinning some Suffolk for socks. Time constraints limit my spinning on these two projects so it would be quite easy for me to confuse the two without good notes.

Note the type of fibers or details of the blend, the source, how the fibers were prepared, the color and the total weight of the fibers to be spun.

WPI: This is filled in after sampling to be sure that the grist of your yarn is exactly what you want. The key to success is checking this number often as you spin. I always check my wpi
when I first start spinning to see that I am on target and then recheck every time I’m ready to pick up a new handful of fibers to draft. The wpi for singles is the number to work with when spinning the singles. For plying, make another sample and use that to keep control of your plying twist.

For spinning both singles and plied yarns, once you have created the yarn you want, cut a small sample at attach it to the control card for reference. This is easily done by cutting small, diagonal slits into the top & bottom of the card and wrapping the yarn around the card once or twice.

Twist angle: Measuring and recording this is optional but twist angle does affect the final yarn. Yarns with less twist will be softer and the twist will have a small degree of angle; the greater the amount of twist, the firmer the yarn and the higher the degree of angle of twist. For yarns, good twist angle varies from between 7 degrees to 45 degrees.

Length of draft and number of treadlings per draft are relevant only if you spin with a measured draft and count the number of treadlings for each draft. For example, if your wheel has a ratio of 12:1 and you want 12 tpi, then you must draft one inch of fibers for each treadling. To get 6 tpi, you would need to draft 2" of fibers per treadling; while it would take drafting only ½ inch per treadling to get 24 tpi or, instead of having such a tiny draft, you could treadle twice for each 1" drafted....or you could draft 4" of fibers and treadle 4 times. The gridded lap cloth is used to regulate the length of the draft, in this case 4"; while the spinner would count 6 separate treadlings from start to end of each draft. A bit fussy, yes - but it is one way to ensure that your yarn is evenly spun.

Details of Finished Yarn: Once all the spinning is completed, not your total yardage, the weight of the finished yarn, and details of how the yarn was finished. You may want to also note what project the yarn was used for.

The notes section is for any other information you might want to record as you spin.

Punch a hole into one corner of the card and tie a bit of string through the hole. This allows the card to be hung right on your wheel where it will be convenient and easy to refer to as you spin.
If you must stop spinning on a particular project, keep the control card with the fibers and already spun yarns. When you are able to get back to working on the project, the control card will be there with all the information you need to continue work with the confidence that the new yarn will be an exact match for the already spun yarn.

*Wraps Per Inch.