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| by Lee Juvan |
Spinning Woolen-style Yarns Once upon a time, long before art yarns and phrases such as “in the western spinning tradition,” there were two kinds of spinning styles (and yarns) in the western spinning tradition: worsted and woolen. Worsted refers to yarns spun from parallel fibers that have been combed (not carded) to remove shorter bits and spun with a short draw to keep the fibers in their parallel alignment. Woolen yarns are spun from carded fibers in a more airy, random arrangement. If woolen and worsted were poems, worsted would be a sonnet and woolen would be free verse. Traditionally, woolen yarns are spun with a long draw from hand-carded rolags, little puffy rolls of fibers (imagine the fibers tumbling around an invisible core that runs the length of the rolag). Yarn spun in the woolen style can be made from wool or a blend of other animal or plant fibers. “Woolen” here refers to the fiber prep and spinning style—not the fiber content of the yarn. Woolen-spun yarns are generally characterized as elastic, light, soft, lofty, fuzzy, and warm, though perhaps less durable than worsted-spun yarns. “True” woolen yarns are created from carded preparations, and some purists insist that hand carding is necessary since drum carding causes fibers to become more parallel. But not everyone agrees with that assessment (or worries too much about purity), and drum-carded batts can be divided across the grain in thin strips and rolled into rolags to achieve basically the same effect. Dividing a drum-carded batt into thinner strips in the same direction as the grain will mean that the fibers are more parallel than those in a rolag, but you can spin these strips woolen style and still get a yarn with woolen characteristics. Using the long draw to spin from a well-carded rolag is so lovely that it may convince you to pull out your hand cards again. (Try spinning woolen with both a hand-carded rolag and a strip pulled lengthwise off of a drum-carded batt. You’ll feel the difference immediately as you draft.) If you want to use a commercial prep for a woolen yarn, look for something labeled a batt or roving, To spin woolen style, we break the two cardinal rules of worsted spinning: the back hand does most of the drafting work, and twist is allowed to enter the area between hands. Alden Amos describes woolen spinning as “drafting-against-twist,” which sums it up very succinctly. Your back hand holds the fiber supply and drafts back against the pull of the yarn as it enters the orifice or winds onto the spindle. Your front hand regulates the twist a bit by pinching and releasing, but basically the whole long draw can be accomplished with only one drafting hand—which is why the long draw works so well if you are using a walking wheel, charka, or spindle.
As your drafting hand moves backward, use the tension created by the incoming twist to control and even out the yarn diameter. The long draw is unforgiving if your fiber prep is less than stellar; well-carded rolags will reward you with buttery smooth drafting. Your body can get tired of twisting in one direction after spinning for a while, so you might experiment to find how far back you can draft comfortably. I try to move my drafting arm back without twisting from the waist to prevent fatigue. Most how-to-spin books include information about learning the long draw technique. Maggie Casey’s Start Spinning and Amy King’s Spin Control have very clear sections on woolen spinning that beginners may find especially helpful. Carol Huebscher Rhoades also has helpful articles online for those interested in learning more: “The Long Draw: Drafting for Woolen Yarn” and, for spindlers, “Drafting for Worsted and Woolen Style Yarns on a Spindle.” Both are available for free on Interweave’s Spin-off site. The same page offers Rudy Amann’s tips for creating and identifying your hybrid yarns (“Worsted, Woolen, or Semi-something”). So how do you decide whether you want to spin a particular fiber woolen or worsted? One consideration is what you plan to do with the finished yarn. Will you be spinning for a soft and fuzzy hat or scarf? A light but warm sweater for indoor wear? Woolen may be the way to go. If you are looking to make socks that will wear like iron or a sweater with lots of cables, you might want to think about spinning a worsted yarn instead. But you also need to think about the characteristics of your fiber. Priscilla Gibson-Roberts’s first edition of Knitting in the Old Way offers some helpful guidelines about staple length and spinning styles. Very short fibers (from 1 to 3 inches or so) are best spun woolen; fibers in the midrange (from 3 to 5 inches) can be spun in either woolen or worsted style; fibers longer than 5 inches will probably produce a more successful yarn if combed or flicked and spun worsted. Spinning woolen style may take some practice, but it’s a technique worth mastering. If you need some motivation, consider that luxury fibers such as cashmere, yak, qiviut, vicuna, and angora all fall into the category of very short fibers! |
| ABOUT THE AUTHOR |
 
You can see more of her work on Ravelry, where she is “workwoman,” and in Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti by Mandy Moore and Leanne Prain. |
| Text © 2009 Lee Juvan; Images © 2009 Lee and Tom Juvan. Contact Lee |
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