Fiber friday: Worsted vs. semi-worsted

So last week I showed you the yarn I spun up at Yarn School. One of the things that we discussed was the difference between woolen and worsted spinning, both in terms of fiber prep (which seems to be most important) and spinning technique (which is where you get the "semi"). Woolen yarn is only produced when you start with a carded fiber prep, worsted yarn comes from combed prep. Since most of the commercially available fibers come in top form (even if they are referred to as roving), 99.9% of the spinning I've done has been worsted or semi-worsted. Until I went to Kansas.

The purple and black mini-skeins were spun from hand carded rolags. The brown single was spun from a batt. The major difference between these two preps is that hand carded rolags force you to spin a woolen yarn with the fibers more or less traveling in a circle around the circumference of the single, rather then longitudinal along the single. Batts can also be spun with circumferential fibers or longitudinal. Both preps give you a yarn that is fuzzy because the ends of the fibers are free to stick out rather then being smoothed into the single and caught by the twist. You can see the fuzzies in the above picture.

This is an example of worsted spinning. The fiber prep was combed top, which I spun with a short forward draw, smoothing and compressing the single as the twist entered. The fibers in this yarn run parallel to the axis of the single, so the ends are trapped and the yarn is smooth. This is a good way to get a very strong, durable, hard wearing yarn, which was perfect for this stuff, which became my first pair of knee-socks.

On the right is the yarn I spun at Yarn School - this is a semi-worsted yarn. The prep was combed top, but I pulled off chunks and spun them long-draw from the fold, thereby jumbling the fiber orientation. On the left is the yarn I spun up from my H^4 swap fiber: spun with short forward draw, worsted yarn. Nice and smooth, no fuzzies. I'm calling it Cotton Candy for the colors, and I think Devil has designs on it for something.

Cotton Candy stats:
Domestic wool combed top from Poppy Flower Fibers, 4 oz
Spun/plied 10:1
Spun worsted style, 2 ply, ~12 wpi, 183 yds/4 oz.

One other point about worsted vs. semi-worsted. Worsted style spinning got me 183 yds from 4 oz. Semi-worsted at a similar wpi got me 83 yds/1.1 oz. So the semi-worsted spinning gets you more yardage since the yarn is less dense due to trapped air. So now I'm on the hunt for some commercial roving to buy so I can get going on some sweater yarn!

Hey, it's Friday, here's some fiber

The lovely Corriedale fiber provided in our goodie bags at Yarn School, dyed by Adrian, colorway "Hooray Sheep"

I wanted to try a fluffier yarn then I usually spin, so I spun the singles from the fold with long draw at 10:1 on my Lendrum. The big skein at the top (3.1 oz, 272 yds, 11-12 wpi) was plied on the Lendrum at 10:1 with a fair bit of twist. The smaller skein (1.1 oz, 83 yds, 14 wpi) was plied on a DT folding Fricke that was sitting all alone in the gym, and happened to have a Woolee Winder on it. I have no idea what the ratio was for plying that one, but the tension was stronger then on my Lendrum, so it ended up having quite a bit less twist. When I held up both skeins, the Lendrum one was overplied, but not dramatically so, and the Fricke skein was balanced.

Finished them with a soak in hot water and hung to dry. It's very interesting to me to see how much of a difference the plying made in the wpi. Same singles, same number of plies, both are pretty soft, but the lower-twist skein has more squish to it, while the high-twist skein is more elastic. Next week I'll post about the differences between spinning from the fold long draw and spinning worsted short draw (which is what I subjected my HHHH fiber to after I got back).

I've definitely got my spinning mojo back - two nights this week got me through 3.8 oz of this

Superwash merino

which is destined to become some 2-ply sock yarn for a Christmas present.

Yarn School

Where to begin? Oh, ok, maybe with this...

Or this,

Or this.

Suffice to say, I had a good time. Friday was dyeing and fiber prep. I've got more photos here if you need more details on what I dyed, but Friday morning was a whirlwind. I did 3 lbs of fiber in 3 hours. Of course, it makes a huge difference when you have a Dye Fairy around to mix up the dye and do all the rinsing for you. Clearly I'll have to train my kids to work a salad spinner and put them to work.

Then we headed to Alpacas in Wildcat Hollow for lunch. I almost took this guy home with me,

but settled for some unwashed locks and processed roving instead.

Friday afternoon, I was introduced to hand carding and drum carding, and got to try real woolen spinning. Whee! I made some mini-skeins from hand carded rolags, and then spun up a batt that I made on the drum carder.

Definitely fuzzier and loftier then my usual spin.

I spent most of my time spinning up the 4 oz that Adrian stuck in our goodie bags into this:

Some incredible Corriedale, dyed with brown, burgundy, chartreuse and orange. Sounds horrible in print, but the top was incredibly beautiful. Unfortunately I threw it on the wheel too quickly to get a picture of it, but there may be some over at the Yarn School Flickr group.

Saturday was the big spinning day. We had demonstrations on different drafting techniques, plying, spinning novelty yarns. Nikol and Jennifer also talked about raw fleece and how to pick a good one, and got one corner of the gym very sheepy smelling with piles of fiber all over the floor. I was intrigued enough to get some hand cards to play with, but I figure I can hold off on a drum carder for a while yet. Between the goodie bag, the alpacas and the dye lab, I have enough fiber to last me for quite a while!

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the goats or bunnies (some pictures here) who came to visit on Saturday, but they were very cute and very soft, and thankfully I didn't have too much cash left by that time. Sunday morning I was up at 6:00 am to head back to the airport in Kansas City. I got back here, Ironman picked me up with the girls, and we dropped him off at the international terminal to go to Peru. It was a great trip, if exhausting, and I'm so glad I got a chance to hang out with some other spinners and try some new techniques. If we're still in country next year, I might have to think about going back.

Back soonest

I've got to go to Harveyville, KS for a few days. Back soon, with much fibery goodness and a bunch of FOs to share (I've been a busy knitter, not so busy photographer).

FO: Orphans

I've opted for the double dose on the last two rounds of Adrian's Fiber Club, which has left me with gobs of fiber lying around. I managed to spin up parts of two batches of fiber but had about 5 oz leftover that have been sitting in the cupboard for the last few months. This past week I finally got back to them.

Specs: 214 yds/2.4 oz of Maldives (18 micron merino) , 124 yds/3.2 oz of Verdant (70% merino/30% mohair)

Spun/plied at 10:1, both chain plied

Maldives: 14 wpi prewash, 13 wpi postwash; Verdant: 10 wpi prewash, 10 wpi postwash

Both were somewhat overplied and went through fulling finish - Maldives was balanced after finishing, Verdant was still slightly overplied.

So now I have two new skeins of stripy yarn. My plan is still to make the girls some mittens with the Maldives, lined with some commercial yarn, and I think I'll actually have enough to do hats or scarves as well.

The Verdant - this was a different experience. The first batch of Verdant I spun as laceweight. This time around I wanted to end up with something bulky weight (I think I had subconscious visions of Stephanie's Unoriginal hat), so I had to focus on spinning a thicker single then I usually do. It took a bit of work - I didn't predraft very much, just snapped the top to loosen it a bit, and the mohair made it quite sticky. So I ended up with some thick and thin bits due to drafting malfunctions. It seems to be quite a bit softer at this weight however, then as laceweight - less twist means less wirey maybe? In any event, it's now balled up in its little nest of handspun, happily waiting to be knit up for a Christmas present. As a hat, it will probably have to be lined because it's still a bit itchy. Maybe I could just go on a mitten knitting binge?