Wool Yarn Manufacturing Process (Hand Spinning)

Hand spinning is the oldest method of wool yarn manufacturing. Even today, many textile artisans, small mills, and hobby spinners use hand spinning to create unique, high-quality wool yarns that industrial machines cannot easily replicate. The beauty of the process lies in how simple tools and skilled hands can turn raw fleece into usable yarn. This article covers the complete manufacturing process of wool yarn via hand spinning, breaking down the technical steps into simple, digestible stages for beginners.

How to Choose the Best Fleece for Hand Spinning

Wool in general is an easy fiber to prepare and spin. Its natural crimp gives it grip, making it one of the most forgiving fibers for beginners.

It is helpful to become familiar with the different breeds of sheep and what a particular breed’s fleece is recognized for. There are breeds such as Merino and Ramboulet that have very fine wool and have set the standards for softness in fleece. On the other side of the spectrum, there are breeds raised for hard-wearing wool yarns that might be used for carpeting or other tough fabrics. These include longwool breeds like Lincoln and Cotswold, known for their lustrous, durable fibers. These longwools also add beautiful shine to finished yarn, something many hand spinners love.

When fleeces are graded by a professional wool grader, they are given a numerical grade according to their fineness. The grades go from 1 to 100. The lower the number, the coarser the wool, and the higher the number, the finer the wool.

If buying a fleece and preparing it for spinning is not desirable, there is no need to go through all that prep work. There are many wool merchants who sell wool ready to spin. These wools are usually sold as roving, combed top, or sliver. These preparations save hours of labor and ensure consistent spinning results.

A few pointers are useful when buying a first fleece. Look for the overall cleanliness of the fleece. If at first glance it is covered with lots of hay, grass, and other vegetal matter, it is best avoided. This is known as “VM” in spinning circles.

When buying a fleece, it is important to ask whether it has been skirted. A skirted fleece is one that has been unrolled and gone through to remove the dirty and unwanted areas of the shorn fleece.

Also look for something called “second cuts”. Second cuts are the short pieces of wool that are made when the shearer passes clippers over an area on the sheep that has already been shorn. These second cuts are undesirable and result in bumps or slubs in the yarn.

Also look out for what is called a “sick fleece.” Take a lock of the fleece (also known as a staple), hold it tightly between the tip end and shorn end, and give it a sharp tug; if it breaks in the middle, it is a sick fleece. Weak fleeces often feel powdery or dry, another sign to avoid them.

The best-quality fleece that can be found and afforded is always recommended. A dirty fleece that has a lot of vegetal matter may be inexpensive but is not one worth spending a great deal of time on.

How to Wash Raw Wool: The Complete Scouring Guide

Carding mills and woolen mills wash fleeces before they put them through their equipment. It is not a difficult task. Here are a few simple rules to follow at home.

Sort and pick out any dung and manure tags that are seen in the fleece. Also remove hay, straw, grass, or other vegetal matter that’s clinging to the fleece.

Work with small amounts by weight. A pound of raw fleece is easy to wash and dry and takes some time to spin up.

Yes, that’s correct, HOT WATER! Lanolin and suint (sheep sweat) start to melt away at 120 degrees or greater. These temperatures are not too hot. These higher temperatures are needed to properly clean wool. The lanolin in wool acts as a natural water repellent, which is why hot water is essential for effective cleaning. Maintaining steady temperature is key to avoid felting.

Use Dawn dish detergent to wash fleece at about ¼ cup of Dawn to a pound or two of fleece. Use a lot of hot water. The higher the ratio of hot water to wool, the better. Fifteen to twenty minutes in the wash water is all that is needed.

Drying newly cleaned wool is rather easy. Sweater racks or a frame with wire or nylon screening stretched to the frame work well. Having air circulation around the fleece helps in the drying process. A fan on low setting speeds things up without disturbing the fibers.

Carding vs Combing Wool: Fiber Preparation Guide

Many people will tell how they appreciate a delicious meal, but will also admit that they don’t enjoy the lengthy preparation and cooking that goes into making that meal. So, like a midweek grab-and-go takeout dinner, many spinners will purchase prepared fiber so that spinning can start right away.

Woolen-spun yarns are recognized by their soft, lofty, gentle twist in the yarn. These wools are carded either by hand carders or through the use of a drum carder. Before carding, the spinner must first pick the wool to open up the fibers.

Carding or combing the fleece before spinning aligns the fibers to make the spinning easier and to also spin a smooth and uniform thread.

Hand carding has been used by spinners for hundreds of years to straighten wool fibers in preparation for spinning woolen-spun yarns.

Having a drum carder to prepare fleece is a great help and speeds up the carding process. Drum carders can process 2-3 ounces of wool at a time, making them ideal for larger projects. Their consistency also reduces nepps and tangles in the final yarn.

Combs are designed to straighten the fibers so that they lie parallel to each other. When spinning combed fiber, the spinner uses a short draw technique to control the twist as it enters the perfectly aligned fibers. The result is a strong, smooth yarn without the loftiness of a woolen-spun yarn.

Spinning Wheel vs Drop Spindle: Which Is Best for Beginners?

When starting to spin yarn, there are many questions to ask: whether to start by spinning on a spindle first or go ahead and begin on a spinning wheel.

In the long run, there are no discerning qualities to a skein of yarn that indicate that it was spun on either a spindle or a wheel. It’s a skein of spun yarn.

Modern spindles can be as simple as a dowel with a wooden disk or as elaborate as a turned exotic wood shaft and whorl with brass rims.

For spindle spinning, well-balanced spindles in a number of different weights from 2.5 oz. to 4 oz. are useful. The difference in the weight of a spindle is for spinning different size threads. A well-balanced spindle should spin for 30-60 seconds with a single flick, demonstrating good momentum for continuous spinning. Heavier spindles support thicker yarns, while lighter ones excel at lace weight.

Spinning Wheel Parts and How They Work

At the bottom of the spinning wheel is the treadle assembly. This is where the foot or feet are placed, depending on whether there is a single-or double-treadle wheel. The up-and-down motion of the treadle keeps the wheel revolving.

There is a drive band that goes around the rim of the drive wheel and travels to and around the flyer. The flyer is where all the magic happens. It functions to put the needed twist into the fiber, in addition to drawing the newly made yarn onto a bobbin for storage.

Flyers operate in three different ways: double drive, Scotch tension, and bobbin lead or Irish tension. Each system changes how quickly twist builds, giving spinners different levels of control.

Essential Spinning Techniques for New Spinners

Prepared fiber is needed before spinning.

Treadling at first with no wool helps in getting comfortable with treadling action. This is sometimes the hardest part of spinning.

With a brand-new spinning wheel, there will also be bare bobbins. A leader needs to be added onto the bobbins to get started. A leader is the connection between the bobbin and the spinning fiber.

Spinning with a short draw is a preferred method for spinning worsted-spun yarns.

The left hand pinches a small amount of fiber between the index and middle finger and thumb. The right hand holds the fiber with a little bit of resistance while the left hand pushes the fibers toward the orifice. The distance between the left hand and right hand is known as the drafting zone. The amount of fiber in the drafting zone determines the thickness of the yarn.

When spinning with the long draw technique, the left hand stays a few inches away from the orifice. The fingers of the left hand pinch the twist tightly while the right hand, which is holding the fiber, pulls back slowly, stretching the fibers into a thin wisp.

Although many spinners start off spinning on a wheel, many people start their adventure with a spindle. This may be for a number of reasons. One good reason is its smaller size and portability. The other major consideration is the price to get started. Spindles are relatively inexpensive. Mastering both tools gives flexibility in different spinning environments.

How to Ply Yarn: Step-by-Step for Balanced Handspun

Plying is the twisting of two or more single-spun yarns together. The singles are twisted in the opposite direction of what they were originally spun. The reason for doing this is to balance the yarn so that it is not overspun or overtwisted.

A single yarn is usually spun by turning the wheel or spindle in a clockwise direction. This puts a Z-twist into the yarn.

To ply the Z-spun singles, two or more yarns are twisted together. These yarns are described as 2-ply, 3-ply, or 4-ply yarn. The number of plies affects the yarn’s durability and appearance, with more plies generally creating a rounder, stronger yarn.

When using a spinning wheel, plying starts with a clean bobbin and leader on the flyer. Filled bobbins are placed on a Lazy Kate. The Lazy Kate is a separate tool used to hold bobbins while plying yarns.

The ends of the yarn are placed through the leader’s loop and folded back. The wheel is started in a counterclockwise direction. The leader and yarns start to twist in an S-twist direction.

When plying is finished, the yarn is unwound from the bobbin and made into a skein. This is best done on a skein winder or a niddy noddy.

How to Set Twist in Handspun Yarn (Blocking and Finishing)

After the plied yarn has been wound into a skein and secured with several ties, the skein is removed from the niddy noddy or skein winder.

If the skein twists back on itself, it is simply displaying that it has additional energy.

To reduce that energy, a final step known as blocking or setting the twist is necessary.

A large pot of water is placed on a stove and heated to simmering. Next, a second large pot of cold water is placed on the counter beside the stove and next to the pot of hot water. The skein of yarn is slid into the pot of hot water and allowed to relax in the water. It only takes a minute in the hot water bath. The skein is then carefully lifted out of the hot water. The hot, steaming skein is then slid into the pot of cold water. The shock in water temperatures sets the twist, and the overenergized yarn is relaxed and soon ready to use. It only needs to dry. This thermal shock treatment helps the fibers remember their new twisted configuration, creating a stable yarn that won’t kink.

To dry skeins of yarn, they are simply hung on a drying rack or placed on a dowel rod to drip.

For many years, different books have advised spinners to hang their wet skeins outside with a heavy weight on them to block the yarn. As the skeins dry this way under tension, it tends to take the elasticity out of the yarn. That elasticity is cherished by most knitters. Allowing yarn to dry without weight preserves bounce and makes for a livelier finished fabric.

Conclusion

The art of wool yarn manufacturing by hand brings unmatched texture, strength, and character to yarn. Hand spinning is more than just a hobby. This process is slow, careful, and deeply satisfying. By controlling the draft, the amount of twist, and the ply, a spinner can create a yarn specifically designed for a heavy rug or a delicate lace shawl. By understanding each stage and its purpose, you can produce handspun wool yarns that are not only unique and attractive, but also technically sound, strong, and suitable for a wide range of textile applications.

References

Mazharul Islam Kiron

Founder & Editor of Textile Learner. He is a Textile Consultant, Blogger & Entrepreneur. Mr. Kiron is working as a textile consultant in several local and international companies. He is also a contributor of Wikipedia.

Share this Article!