Spindlitis

I posted this on the Jenkins forum, but thought I’d post it here too. I did a sampling study, which is pretty unusual for me. I noticed that the yarn spun and plied on my Turkish spindles had a puffiness that I hadn’t seen before. I wanted to do a test, with spindles of similar weight and fiber prepared in the same way. So here’s my test, starting with the first group of spindles:

Jenkins Lark and unidentified boat anchor

The high whorls are:

Greensleeves Loki and custom high whorl

The custom is a tiny bit lighter than the boat anchor Turk, but close.

The fiber is a Corriedale/Romney, combed on Viking combs from roughly the same area of the fleece. I tried to use the same draw on both samples. I did give the Turks an extra spin, during the original spinning and also on the plying. The high whorls didn’t need that.

Here are the results;

High whorl on the bottom, Turkish spun on top

Second picture of the samples:

Turkish spun on bottom, high whorl on top

I think you can really see the difference here.

I have not counted twists per inch and it’s likely that the Turks are putting less twist into the fiber. The interesting thing is that you could choose to use Turkish spindles to deliberately get a puffier yarn, even out of fibers that are a bit on the coarse side. But, if you are doing socks, you might want to go with high whorls. That would give you a longer wearing yarn.

If anyone else tries this, please let me know how it turns out! I think I’d like to try it with carded fiber too. I’ve been spinning a long time, but there are still new things to be learned.

I can’t believe I haven’t posted about Black Sheep. I have so many pictures of sheep, goats and spindles. I picked up a Jenkins Lark.

I have not been a fan of Turkish spindles.All the ones I’ve tried have been bulky and wobbly. This is a most elegant spindle, lightweight and fast. It’s perfectly balanced. I looked at the kuchulus, which are even tinier. I will get one of those at some point, but they are in high demand. And I’d like an Aegean spindle as well. And another Lark in light colored wood. That should be enough!

Lon has been taking wood turning lessons. He plans to learn how to make spindles, which will help with my addiction. His first attempt is a copy of one of my Russian spindles:

It’s a good start. I’d like to have a thinner shaft, so we’ll try that on the next one. He’s working with some Eastern maple right now, but we do have a few exotic woods to play with. His instructor is finding this interesting. He made me a set of three support spindle bowls out of maple burl.

And, it’s Tour De Fleece, which I’m doing for the first time. I’m spinning cotton on my Akhas for the Support Spindlers group. I had to trade off with a few other projects over the holiday weekend.

And, for no reason at all, a Loretta picture!