Long Draw with Judith MacKenzie

On the second day of the espinner retreat in Forks, we practice long draw or woolen spinning.  Judith MacKenzie lectured about the difference between commercial top (the stuff we had been spinning the day before) and prepared roving.


The difference is that the combed top has been beaten within an inch of its life and you can see no discernible differences in the fibers.  They all lay the same way and are the same length.  It is nearly impossible to spin woolen (long draw) with commercial top - I should know this since I have always had a problem spinning woolen and now I know why!


The day before we were spinning white corriedale from combed top and on this day we also spun corriedale but it was prepared in roving.  When you look at the fiber, you can see that the fibers are not even or smooth.  It looks clumpy and ragged.  This is what you want when spinning woolen.


Judith provided us with some brown corriedale roving and also set aside some red corriedale roving for practice.  She wanted us to spin our sample on two bobbins and ply them together.


Judith stated the trick to spinning woolen is that the singles will be all uneven but all the imperfections will be corrected in the plying.  If you are a worsted spinner (like I am) it is hard not to smooth out those clumpy parts.  She repeated over and over again - RESIST!


Here is here video of woolen spinning.

The tip is to draw out your back hand and keep your up close hand loose and flexible and just grip and release.  Your hands should also be far - I mean FAR - apart.  Woolen spinning does not work at all when your hands are close together.


Judith also gave us some 6" Schacht weaving bobbins to store our singles on.  She recommends rewinding or reloading so you can even out your yarn by selecting different bobbins from which to ply.  Your body will have small differences depending on the time of day and how long you were spinning which results in small differences in the diameter of your singles so using multiple bobbins helps even out the yarn even more.


I was ambitious and decided to spin a 3-ply so I spun 2 brown singles and 1 red single.  I found the brown fiber to be easier to draft and I only had a few breaks.  The red fiber was harder for me to spin and I got a lot breaks and large sections of thick and thin yarn.


When I plied the singles together, the yarn was very hard.  I guess I took on more than I could handle.  The main reason to spin a woolen yarn is for softness and airiness.  Mine feels like a rock.  Judith's analysis was that I either over spun or over plied.  I should run the yarn back through the spinner to loosen it up.

When Judith demonstrated the plying, I was at my maximum capacity on my memory card so I was unable to video that part.  I'm hoping that this is on her Gentle Art of Plying video.  She was able to use her fingers to smooth out the thick spot in the singles as she was plying.  Her resulting yarn was fluffy and light.


Tips on woolen spinning:


- less drawing in and low brake tension
- woolen spinning is 7 times faster than worsted spinning
- woolen yarn is not commercially available
- woolen yarns are used for weaving
- woolen singles should be under spun
- woolen singles need to be over plied
- woolen yarns need to be harshly finished (see below for instructions)
- if plying a woolen single with a worsted single, you will end up with a textured yarn like a boucle (see discussion below)


Judith described her finishing technique for woolen yarns.  First do a vigorous wash (she uses a plunger in a bucket) with hot soapy water, then shock in cold water, perform another hot wash, and finally shock in cold water again.


Judith also demonstrated how to spin woolen for a weaving warp.  She stated that this method makes a strong yarn and is sometimes called an attenuated long draw. 

After that demonstration, Judith gave us all a bump of heavenly soft bison.  It was carded with about 3% merino.  Judith stated that the mill played with various blends until the 50/50 bison/merino was achieved making a beautiful soft squishy yarn.  She had quite a bit of this 97/3 bison/merino roving that we all practiced with.


4 ounces of this blend followed me home.  If I had a big pile of this fiber, I could just roll around on it!

Our next assignment was to woolen spin the bison roving on one bobbin and then semi-woolen spin the bamboo/cashmere/nylon top and ply the two together.  Someone asked about plying woolen with worsted and Judith stated that this would result in a textured yarn similar to a boucle yarn. She recommended we try both.


The bamboo/cashmere/nylon is a new blend from Ashland Bay and is also very soft.  I have to say that the fibers that Judith provided to us were exceptional.  You can't ask for better materials to spin.  


As a beginning spinner, you have this mental block about not wasting the good stuff and I'm guilty of that as well.  I started with not so good roving and top thinking that I would practice and get better before breaking out the "good" stuff.  Well I have to tell you that spinning the "good" stuff is so much easier and such a pleasure and confidence builder and more times than not you get exceptional yarn.


I was not able to spin up the bamboo/cashmere/nylon before we moved on but here is the spun bison/merino and the cloud of bamboo/cashmere/nylon.