Members' Tips and Tricks

Members are invited to show off their experience and expertise by submitting "Tips and Tricks" for this page. Below are the articles submitted as of 3/5/2010:

Ball-Plying Procedure, by Elena Dent (added 2/24/2005)

Carding Directions, by Elena Dent (added 2/24/2005)

Centerpull Ball Tips, by Elena Dent (added 2/24/2005)

Clean Wool, Pre-Spinning Preparation, by Elena Dent (added 2/24/2005)

Dyeing Evenly, by Elena Dent (added 2/24/2005)

Making A Distaff, and Spinning Bast Fiber, by Elena Dent (added 2/24/2005)

Wool Scouring, by Elena Dent (added 2/24/2005)

 

Centerpull Ball Tips
by Elena Dent

Working from a centerpull ball is very nice, when it works. Here are some tips I've developed over years of arguing with them:

You need an umbrella swift or one of the upright self supporting rotating ones.

Your ball winder's leader wire must be very stable relative to the rotating center cone, using a lot of electrician's tape (the black, thin, plastic stuff with the gummy glue) you need to tape that thing so it never EVER moves.

You should also get some Lori-Lin or equivalent synthetic silicone spray available from the machine knitting stores. They say "just use a little" but the coned yarn machine knitters use already has some finishing chemicals on it - drop the skein in a bag and spray the heck out of it, that way you breathe less of the substance and you get more on the yarn and less on the rest of the room.

This is true of any fiber you've prepared yourself, the only fiber you should use only a very little of the Lori-Lin on is combed top that already feels slick and clean. I believe these are already prepared with silicon spray and too much spray is as annoying as too little. There is an Australian brand of roving 80/20 wool/silk or wool/mohair that is like this, watch for it elsewhere too. There is no smell of carding oil in this product, indeed it smells a little sweet. So does the silicon spray I use.

  1. Once your single is spun, skein it off, rinse and dry to set your twist. Figure out some way of knowing which was the end and which was the beginning of the wind, since I tie the start to the swift my start always has a broken loop where I snapped it when I'm done.
  2. Spray your dry singles (remove the choke ties to do this, you want the silicone all over the single).
  3. If you have an upright spinning swift, great. If you have an umbrella swift you want to mount it so the shaft is horizontal.
  4. I wind with my right hand so my swift is on the left and the ballwinder is clamped on the right. You need the ball to wind smoothly, so the shoulders are crisp and sharp. Seen from the side you should see a square (a large ball will actually build up so the edges are higher than the center).
  5. Put the skein on the swift so the _finishing end_ (not the knot you started the skein from) winds off from the bottom rather than over the top of the circle now facing you. Your free hand (mine would be my left since the right is winding) has a light grip on the single and holds it as it winds off onto the ballwinder. This acts as a tension evening device, if the single catches up your arm drops and if you stand properly your elbow can then be used to stop the swift's turning.
  6. You want the singles to wind very smoothly with no tugging or slacking off of the tension of the single as it winds onto the ball, if you see the shoulders of the ball slumping and a lot of threads crossing over the top of the ball you will have a horrible time with it. Wind it back onto the swift and try again. This is surprisingly easy, remove the single from the ball winder's wire leader, turn the center cone properly and it will just fly right off the thing back onto the swift.
  7. You will be warned of winding problems if you feel little jolts in the winding or it's too easy to wind on. Make sure your skein of single is not catching up, if it does keep snagging and need untangling spray a bit more silicone onto the skein. You can spray directly without the bag, once it's on the swift it's easier to do that than to remove it.

When you're done you should have a nice, crisp edged ball ready to ply from. You may want to spray a bit of silicone directly into the middle of it too if it's a large ball or you are winding off wool which promptly closes up tight as soon as you remove the ball from the centerpost.

If, while plying a chunk pulls out of the center leaving you with a snarl don't panic. Usually while you are plying the ball sits so the center pull thread is up. Turn it so the center thread is down. This allows the outside thread to continue to wind off of the ball without twisting with the center that is now tangled. Do not tug at the snarl. It can fall apart if you don't panic and tighten it by tugging. Just fiddle, continue to ply and keep the two separated, easing and fiddling until you've gotten the snarl apart. Let the tangle hang to one side, the outside thread will wind off smoothly and if the tangle is to one side it won't catch on its way around the ball.

Elena

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