Spinning Yarn from Raw Fiber: Wool, Cotton, and Plant Fiber

Understanding What Spinning Does

Loose fiber — wool fleece, cotton bolls, flax stem fibers — has no strength. You can pull it apart with no effort. But twist those same fibers together and they become strong. Increasing the twist increases the strength, up to a point where the yarn becomes overtwisted, dense, and springy.

Spinning is the controlled application of twist to drafted (thinned-out) fiber. Get those two variables right — draft and twist — and you can spin anything into yarn.

Fiber Preparation

Raw fleece from a sheep comes with lanolin (grease), vegetable matter, and sometimes dirt. Before spinning, it needs to be washed and prepared.

Washing (scouring) raw fleece:

1. Soak fleece in very hot water (as hot as your tap gets) with dish soap for 20-30 minutes. Do not agitate — agitation felts wool.
2. Lift the fleece out without wringing or twisting. Press water out gently.
3. Rinse in equally hot water (temperature changes cause felting).
4. Lay flat to dry on a rack or screen.

Preparation methods:

Carding: Use two hand cards (paddle-shaped wire-toothed tools) to open and align the fibers loosely. Load fiber onto one card, transfer back and forth until the fiber is open and airy. The result is a rolag (a loose cylinder of fiber) with fibers oriented in various directions. Carded fiber is used for woolen-style spinning.

Combing: Long-toothed combs draw fibers parallel and remove short fibers (noils). The result has fibers all running in the same direction — worsted-style spinning. Worsted yarn is smoother and stronger than woolen-style.

For a beginner, start with commercially prepared combed top (already parallel) to focus on spinning technique before adding fiber prep to the learning curve.

The Drop Spindle

A drop spindle is a wooden or metal disc (whorl) mounted on a wooden shaft (spindle). The spindle hangs freely and spins, adding twist to the fiber attached to it.

Types:

• Top whorl: Disc near the top of the shaft, hook at the very top. More common. The whorl position gives high rotational momentum for thin yarns.
• Bottom whorl: Disc near the bottom. More stable for beginners, common in traditional cultures.

A functional spindle can be made from a 12-inch wooden dowel and a 3-4 inch wheel of smooth wood. Drill the center hole precisely — even slight off-center weight causes wobble and inconsistent spin.

The Basic Spinning Technique: Park and Draft

Park-and-draft is the beginner method. You spin the spindle, park it (let it hang), then draft with both hands, then park and repeat.

Drafting Different Fibers

Each fiber type has a different drafting character.

Wool (combed top): Drafts long and smooth. Hold hands 4-6 inches apart. Pull back slowly and evenly. The fiber slides out of itself if the preparation is good.

Wool (carded rolag): Drafts more irregularly — the fibers are not parallel. Work with shorter drafts and maintain lighter tension. This produces thicker, airier yarn.

Cotton: Much shorter fiber length (3/4 to 1 inch typical). Hold hands very close together (1-2 inches). Apply twist quickly — cotton loses cohesion without twist much faster than wool. Use high whorl spindle for better momentum.

Plant fibers (flax, nettle, hemp): Strongest wet-spun. Flax: dampen your fingers and draft while slightly wet. The water lubricates the long bast fibers and improves alignment. Plant fibers are less forgiving than wool and require consistent technique.

Plying

Single-spun yarn is serviceable but can be unstable — it tends to twist back on itself when released. Plying combines two or more singles in the opposite twist direction to create balanced, stable yarn.

Two-ply process:

1. Wind two bobbins (or use two balls) of single-spun yarn.
2. Hold one from each source, ply together by spinning the spindle counterclockwise (S-twist) while holding both threads together.
3. Ply at a lower twist count than your singles. The goal is twist balance — the finished yarn should hang straight without coiling.

Testing balance: Let 18 inches of plied yarn hang freely from one end. A balanced yarn hangs mostly straight with slight natural movement. Overplied yarn coils tightly. Underplied yarn folds back on itself.

Measuring Yarn Weight

Commercial yarn weight categories (fingering, sport, worsted, bulky) are defined by yards per ounce (or grams per 100m).

| Weight | Yards per 100g | |---|---| | Fingering/Sock | 350-500 | | Sport | 250-350 | | DK | 200-250 | | Worsted | 150-200 | | Bulky | 100-150 |

Weigh a known length of yarn to calculate yours. Consistency matters more than hitting a specific weight — yarn that is consistently any weight is far easier to work with than yarn of varying weight.

Setting the Twist (Finishing)

After spinning and plying, set the twist to stabilize it.

Soak the finished skein in warm water for 10-15 minutes. Gently squeeze out water (do not wring). Thwack the wet skein against a table surface 10-15 times — this snaps the twist into a relaxed, set position. Hang to dry under slight tension (a weight on the bottom end).

Set yarn is more stable, more even in appearance, and easier to knit or weave than unset yarn.