Petunia rambles on and on….

There was an article in a recent Spin-Off magazine giving information on scotch tension: how it works, when it’s used, why and how to adjust it. And it showed another way of setting tension on a wheel. I have an Ashford Traditional, and although she’s a “classic” model, she’s still got the original set-up for tensioning. A real complicated system. Two hooks, a peg that fits into a hole, a short piece of fishing line tied to the peg and a spring for adjustment. Fishing line with a spring on the end goes from peg, thru hook, then up and over a groove on the bobbin, clips onto the other hook. By twisting the peg, you tighten the line, within the limits that the spring will allow. This action produces more tension on the groove on the bobbin. But, from what I read, many people are having trouble with the concept of Scotch Tension. Understanding how it works and why.

Why? Here is a small picture of a new “Flyer Assembly,” from the Ashford Spinning Wheel Company’s site. Every spinning wheel made has something very similar. It’s got a spool-like thing called a bobbin. It’s got a thingie with long, wide arms and hooks on it called a flyer, and a tube-like piece that it all seems to ride on. Weird. The upright post, and presumably another one just like it on its other side, hold the mechanism up where you can use it.

For any non-spinners here, let me assure you that wee tufts of wool will fall or pull apart, not quite as quickly as a dropped handful of drinking straws, but you get the idea. What gives wool yarn its strength is TWIST. Twist causes all the little fibers inside to join hands, party on together, and by uniting, they are strong. TWIST is what it’s all about. (And, btw, it’s not just wool. Suspension bridges are held up by cables, and they are twisted. Adds strength)

To spin a single strand you must accomplish 3 things:

1.  
   1. Drafting or thinning out the fibers until you have the desired thickness.
   2. Adding appropriate amount of twist for the fiber – a book could be written defining “appropriate” in this context. I’m not going to do that today. Or probably ever.
   3. Winding it onto something, somewhere, to store it.

Spindles did all of this just fine, thanks, and they have been in use since before I can rememberthe start of recorded history. Spinning wheels do the same job as spindles.  They are generally quicker, but to gain speed, they sacrifice portability. Many people, then and now, take spindles with them as they go about a day’s activities, spinning where they happen to be.  A spinning wheel is somewhat cumbersome to haul onto a public bus in the city; taking it to work with you might not be the best idea. All of life is a trade-off.

Look at the picture again, especially all you geeky types that are starting to lose interest in wool stuff and click away. (Bri, Joe, you still with me here?? Joe??) Look at the Engineering side of this. You’re smart enough to figure that a spinning wheel has a WHEEL that spins, and there’s gotta be some way of transfering that spin/energy to the mechanism in the picture. Well, yes, and it’s just a simple piece of cotton string. Like you might use to fly a kite. Or any other material that gets the job done and doesn’t dirty up the wheel. Or break all the time. That’s just a pain.

So forget the upright post in the picture for a bit. You see�the black tube? Well the yarn’s gonna go from your hand into that tube.  Wooden whorls that seem to bisect the tube? See where I mean??? Grooves in those wooden whorls? Aah, that’s where the string goes. Around the big spinning wheel to this little thingie here, and in doing so, transferring spin to the whorl and to the yarn you’re holding. Yarn that you’ve already drafted (thinned out) by hand.� OK, check #1 and #2 off the list. Yarn is drafted and twisted. Now we just have to put it somewhere until we’re ready to use it. If we were working on a spindle, we’d stop what we’re doing and wind it up onto that stick part. Spin, stop, wind; spin, stop, wind, repeat. Repeat. REPEAT.

I really think that’s the part that caused the very first spinning wheel to be invented.� The damn interruption of the process all the time. It’s not as though folks didn’t have enough to do “back in the day” pre- washing machines, before microwaves, before central heat, chopping wood, 12 kids underfoot. Geez, how do ya get anything done. It might have been on one of those days where Kid #11 dumped the slop bucket on the clean kitchen dirt for the third time that did it. “Honey, while you’re outside sitting on your butt on a rock, doing nothing but waiting for a deer to mosey by, figure out how the hell to�spin this yarn quicker, or it’s gonna be a damn cold winter. In more ways than one.”

Thus, the spinning wheel was born.

Having digressed a bit, let’s get back to #3. Winding the yarn on. You can picture in your mind the flyer and the bobbin spinning like a dervish. You can almost hear the slight whirring noise it would make, a soothing sound. All the right spots are kept lubricated so all of it spins like crazy. Great. Except — if both flyer and bobbin are moving at the same speed, the yarn will NEVER wind on. They’ll both just keep zipping around together, having a great time, a really nice couple, look good together, but nothing gets accomplished. (I had a boyfriend like that once. Looked good, but…..)

WELL, somebody figured out that the only way for yarn to wind on is for either the flyer or the bobbin to slow down. If the two parts are moving at a dissimilar speed, “winding on” will take place.

It’s that simple. Keep the flyer going at any determined rate and the bobbin turning SLOWER, and yarn is taken up onto the bobbin. Scotch tension is that simple. It just puts a wee bit of friction into the deal. Slows the bobbin down a bit. And solves the whole problem.

Almost. (But we’re close to the end, and you’re gonna live).

Adding tension or friction is being done by tightening the fishing line, by twisting it on the peg. Works, sure it works, has for years. Start with an empty bobbin, which is light, add enough tension (turn the peg far enough) to get the yarn to wind on, without adding so much tension that it jerks it out of your hands!! You may have to fiddle around with it a bit until you get it right, but now that you understand the whole process, you know this is going to work. You know your actions will alter the speed of the bobbin which will cause “winding on.” Remember that as you continue to spin, the bobbin grows heavier with the addition of your beautiful new yarn. It takes more tension/effort to slow a heavier object (remember your basic science classes in high school), so periodic adjustments may be necessary, increasing the tension a bit to keep it winding on. All good so far??

Now, we’re finally getting to the article in Spin-off, where it’ll make sense to confused folk

(and the folks I’ve recently confused)

I’m going to assume that most all of this makes some amount of sense. We can appreciate that directions such as “turn it a little bit,” “until it feels right,” and “bake it until it looks done” (thanks, Mom) are rather subjective directions to follow. And damn hard to duplicate. I don’t know how all this works in big commercial mills. But I do know that there are many spinners working from home, producing quantities of yarn. They may be doing it for their own personal use on big projects, they may be giving it away or selling it.  However, they are trying to input some “quality control” or consistancy to what they are spinning. Tension is a factor in getting consistant yarn, and “turn it a little bit” just ain’t getting it.

Spin-off showed a system of Scotch tensioning that can be measured and duplicated. With items available in any hardware store, and/or probably already in your home, you can convert your wheel. I took my old system (fishing line) off and just let it dangle, as I didn’t want to take it�down completely until I was sure this would work! Some of my great ideas don’t. (Hey, one of my brothers was gonna make his fortune making and selling boomerangs, in New Jersey!! It’s a genetic thing.) I tied on another fishing line, ran it through the back hook, over the groove in the top of the bobbin, down past the hook for the spring, and cut it off at a point slightly more than half way between the Mother-of-All board and the floor. I tied an “S” clip on the end, per Spin-Off.  Sent husband to the home improvement store for washers.� “What size?” “I don’t know.”  “How many?” I don’t know.” He loves these sorts of errands, knowing before he lets the clutch out that he is doomed to failure, and will unerringly come home with the wrong thing.

He did. Not his fault. First, the washers he got were too light, didn’t generate enough tension to slow the bobbin. We had no clue how much weight was “enough” for this purpose. And the “S” clip was too small, so I couldn’t keep adding more washers until I reached the right weight. I went back to the Home store and got a handful of washers of varying sizes, rather bigger ones, sold individually. I looked for a larger S clip, but all the ones I could find looked like they’d weigh half a pound each.  But I found a cheap substitute, and at home, I found a wee bag with a drawstring. I got a Sharpie indelible pen and marked my washers with numbers based on their size. I can keep a note of what weight I used for a given yarn, and duplicate it on Friday, when I next have a chance to spin. With a bag, rather than putting washers on an S clip, I can add weight easily. If I need more, I can throw in 32 cents in pennies.

Tensioning weights, originally uploaded by Petunia509.

It’s working and I’m going to continue using it.

And that’s a plug.  A very obvious one.  Intentional, to be sure.

Perfect Day Yarns, that is.

I swore that I wouldn’t buy more sock yarn, but Daughter knows Sarah, and I often read Sarah’s blog, and slip over to her Perfect Day site when yarn is posted.

The other day, I fell.  Completely.  And they’re fingering yarns, too.  Beautiful fingering yarn, believe me, but many of you know that I have weird-ass vision problems, and usually try to stay away from the very fine weight stuff.  And this one is fine.  But the colorways are so wonderful that I’ll just make sure I only work with it under my Ott-lite.  Good lighting makes a hell of a difference for me.

This is Perfect Day Yarn – Beat Sock – I Pinch is the name of the colorway.  “I Pinch” as in Blue Crab.  And the only thing I can think of for the colors is Blue for the crab, and then red tones for when he’s cooked.  (Sorry about that!)

Perfect Day – Beat Sock – Seafoam

Soft colors to match the softness of the fiber.

Here they both are, close as family.

Sarah, they are beautiful, and I wish you every success in your venture.  You are so very talented.

Hell, I’d be happy if I could just skein that neatly.

And it was a Perfect Day weatherwise, too.  March is known for “coming in like a lion” and today after work, I was out in shirt sleeves, running my errands, enjoying the sunshine.  Weird, and I fear we’ll pay for this.

Yep, that’s the way it’s working this week, again, but it’s done by choice.  I have another appointment with the eye surgeon on Thursday.  He’s going to try to do the testing that I went up there for 2 weeks ago – when he found another, new and exciting problem and immediately did laser surgery.  So here we go again, another mid-day appointment almost 50 miles away.  A co-worker, who is working weekends this month, has been kind enough to agree to trade shifts with me.  I’ve worked one day on the weekend and he will come in and cover my Thursday.   This way, I don’t have to use a vacation day for these trips.  I’d like to say that I’ve saving them for fun and frolicking, but I might be saving them for more extensive crap to be done to my eye.  They are now talking possibly Wills Eye, which is the place for super-best eye care in the area, up in Philadelphia.  I guess I’m fortunate that, if I have to escalate to this level of care, it is available 75 miles away – that I don’t have to travel across the country.

Well, then, on to other stuff.   Daughter K is working, so I am spending my day with the short guys.   We are watching Fireman Sam, The Jagers and Sagwa.  It is keeping them happy.  It is not CARS, which they’ve already watched 73 billion times.  We are not watching Caillou, that whiney little bastard that never listens – what a thing to teach small kids.  I guess it’s the way kids are raised nowadays.  “Caillou was unhappy that he had to go to bed so he threw a fit, hit his sister, carried on for hours.  Caillou was very upset.  Poor Caillou.”  Poor Caillou, my ass.  I’d like to see just one damn show where little Caillou actually did as he was told.  Promptly and without an arguement.  Maybe kids ought to see more of that “unusual concept” on TV.  Or maybe Caillou’s father ought to give the kid a good spanking and tell him he’ll get more of the same if he gets out of the damn bed again. 

Today, I decided to spin Rosewood, fiber that  I ordered last summer from Wool2Dye4 off of eBay. 

While the boys were still up, I opened up the package, split the fiber, rolled it into bumps to work from, got myself organized.  I played with the new tensioning device Pop fixed up for my Traddy wheel, per directions in a recent Spin-Off magazine.  I think it’s still gonna need some adjustments, and probably another trip to the hardware store.  He’s got the right idea but I don’t think it’s going to have enough tension/weight.  It’s going to need more weight, heavier washers, I think.

Even the fellas thought it was a great color.

And a busy morning and lunch had these fellows ready for nap.  And as soon as all seemed quiet, I started to spin.  Here’s how much you can get done during naptime.

I would have gotten farther along but my drive band kept coming untied.  I think maybe Pop cut the ends too short and the knot wouldn’t hold.  I’ll work on it more later.  This colorway is talking to me and it’s saying a particular person’s name. 

But now, naptime is over and the fellows are up and about again.

Sagwa, you’re my best friend.