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Spinning For a Handspun Look

© Lili Pintea-Reed

Spinning For a Handspun Look by Lili Pintea-Reed

One of the funny things about hand spinning is that you soon get so good that you no longer make the lumpy yarn people wrongly associate with handspun. I've been hand spinning since the late 1970's, so by pure repetition I've gotten pretty good at it. However, evey now and then you need or want a lumpy yarn full of bumps and slubs. For instance, I'm making a series of tapestries in which for which I wanted a textured yarn. So I spun up a bunch of lumpy double ply.

Once one has practiced enough to finally get a good yarn (yes it happens!) it can become difficult to get a nice rough looking yarn when you need it. Here are some suggestions to help make a slub filled yarn.

Fiber Preparation:

Spin right from the grease or *in a cloud* with just teased but uncarded fiber.

Spin the matted or tangled parts of a fleece.

Wheels and Spindles:

Spin with a spindle that is too heavy or too light for good control.

Spin with slack tension on a wheel.

Spin with a lumpy knot in the drive band of a wheel.

Put bees wax on just half the drive band of a wheel so the grip varies.

Any or all of these should help produce a lumpy bumpy yarn ---just like you used to spin when you were a beginner.