Judith MacKenzie-McCuin #2 - Control

Everything you do to the yarn will change it.  The plying post started the discussion at the later stages of yarn creation.   Washing and fulling the yarn reduces yardage by ~20%.  Winding the yarn into a ball takes twist away.  Knitting Continental adds twist, knitting English subtracts twist. 

The control starts early in the life of a yarn.  Judith's first comments were directed at wheel adjustments.  I thought she was being politically correct:  the spinner is not at fault, it is the fault of the wheel.  But then she sat down at my wheel.  "This pulls like a dragon!"  She laced the yarn across the hooks, and take-up was less vicious.

I have spun laceweight from Ashland Bay roving without fighting the wheel.  But there was a crucial difference between when I had spun the laceweight, and the class.  My cotton drive band had died.  I replaced it with a thicker polyethylene band, since I use the Schacht in Scotch tension mode.

I dialed the Scotch tension down.  There was no sweet spot between too much take-up and not enough take-up.  Judith's point was made.  A thinner drive band provides less friction on the pulley, and therefore allows a greater range of take-up, and more control.  A thicker drive band facilitates faster takeup.  This is easy to remember:  thinner drive band makes lace easier, thicker drive band makes thicker yarn easier to spin.

Trial and error through my spinning hours has shown me the truth of her next point of control.  (I didn't need to go through my sceptic phase on this one.)  The preparation of the fiber, and how it has been treated often defeats the spinner.  It can be a barrier to producing the kind of yarn you want.

Top that has been dyed has floated around in the dyebath enough to disrupt the alignment of the fibers.  It is still top, still more aligned than roving, but it is not the prep that came out of the combing mill.  Her solution is to expectorate on each palm, rub the top between her palms, and then spin the fiber.

I'm sure you've either seen this, or heard about it.  Her goal is to compact the top in order to get a more even yarn. 

Judith has even more to say about roving.  She doesn't predraft.  Her observations:  spinners predraft roving because they let too much twist into the web.  (Predrafting the roving means that there are fewer fibers to fight once the twist escapes their control, and they are able to keep drafting without stopping.)  She implies control should be learned, rather than worked around.  Predrafting also facilitates uneven yarn, because it is impossible to predraft fiber along any length with an identical amount of fiber in each inch. 

Let's hold there.  The last Judith post will be about worsted vs woolen spinning.   This picture is Judith with the puppet she made for a Spin-Off article.

My most favorite of my Judith pictures.  She bubbles over with life, and joy, and confidence, and serenity.  And she would laugh out loud to hear me write that about her.

((Addendum:  Typepad has been very ill over the past week.  If you have left me a comment, and I haven't replied, I apologize.  Typepad has not been sending the comments to my email.  There is not enough information left in the comment format to always retrieve an email address from the blog.  I've opened a Help Ticket.  They aren't listening well. 

This is dribbling into the last of my daily posting.  (I had not signed up for December.)   It was fun to continue until Typepad burped.  I accomplished my NaBloPoMo in November, and was thrilled to have met the challenge.  My revitalized blogging goal will be something closer to 2-3 times per week.  I so appreciate your support, comments, insights, encouragement, and expertise.))

Comments

[Lynn]

That's interesting about thinner/thicker drive bands. I learned that one of the reasons people invented accelerated wheels (with two drive wheels) was to deal with the too-little friction of the drive band on a very small pulley.

How can spinners let too much twist into the web if they're spinning worsted? Oh, wait: you're just talking about roving there, not top. So does Judith predraft undyed top, the big fat firehose size? Or does she really just squoosh it down into tight control?

Please keep blogging often; I've enjoyed it!

[Kathy]

That's a great picture of Judith. We discussed the drive band issue in our workshop -- interesting!

[Angie]

I've really enjoyed your more frequent blogging, especially the spinning related posts. Thank you for the insights!

[Marcia]

That is a wonderful photo of Judith! Loved the post, too.

[naomi]

Huh. I would never have thought of drive band grist having that much of an effect...

[Caroline M]

I've enjoyed reading your posts first thing in a morning with a cup of tea. The house is quiet because everyone is still in bed, the dog is asleep under the tree and I have five minutes of peace before starting breakfast and lunchbox duty. It's been lovely to share that five minutes with you.

I found out about the effect of the brake band all by myself. There was much muttering involved.

[Caroline M]

PS Comments are going through right away today. Can't see mine though...

[Carole]

I read this spinning stuff but I hear blah blah blah blah blah. It goes right over my head, I tell you. I need to take a class with JMM and let this sink in properly.

[DebbieB]

I really like the way you boil down JMM's insights. Makes perfect sense.

[margene]

Judith's words dance through my head as I spin. Your posts help to bring the thoughts together as you tell so well just what she said. The class was an amazing experience and it has enthused me into spinning more.
It's been an enjoyable couple of months to read your daily posts.

[Judy]

Your JMM posts have been very interesting. Wish I'd had more classes with her.

Post when you have something to say. Interesting, I was thinking the same about posting, looks like Margene is there, too.

[Teyani]

errr, yeah, I'm one of those dreaded spinners whose says... "well, judith says..."
and I love that photo of her. You perfectly captured her essence.
Great post!

[Martha]

That reminds me, I must order a new drive band RIGHT NOW. Before I forget again!

[gayle]

I'm truly impressed you've carried on this far into December! I made it the first few days, then nose-dived...
I always found that pre-drafting annoyed me. I want to spend my spinning time actually spinning, rather that tugging fiber. (Not that there's anything wrong with tugging fiber...)

[K2Karen]

Thanks for all the Judith insights! I'm loving the posts.

[Kim]

I SO want to take a class with Judith....you are blowing a hole in all of my misconceptions about spinning. I do all of those things....predrafting, etc.

It's been fun reading you daily with my coffee, but I will admit that daily blogging is kicking my butt too. It's hard.

[Kathleen C.]

I'm still very much a beginning spinner and these posts have been very useful and interesting. So much to think about and consider... no predrafting? I'd love to watch to see how she feeds the roving in, I can't quite visualize it...
And I really like that you listened and learned all this info and yet have retained a sense of your own self as spinner (keeping the woolee winder for example).

[Danielle]

Just catching up on old posts here. Thanks for the JMM tips. I haven't been spinning much recently , but will go back to it after the Christmas holiday, I hope!

[Marcy]

I love listening to your inner learnings. :D Wonderful Judith photo!