"Women who are wise of heart spin with their hands"

Spinning is the twisting together of fibres to form a yarn. This may be achieved in many different ways and with all sorts of materials. What we speak of here is wool, spun on a spinning wheel.

1 Hand-spun wool: single ply


Dyed wool fleece


Single ply wool

Single-ply woollen yarn is spun directly from the dyed or un-dyed fleece. This gives it a somewhat uneven texture, which may give an especially lively effect to your knitting.


lively effect in knitting
The flames of colour in the fleece are transformed into playful patches of colour in your knitting.

Recommended size knitting needle: 4, 4.5

2 Hand-spun wool: plyed.

Plyeing is achieved by twisting two (or more) threads of wool together. The wool needs to be carded first if one is to spin a fine thread.


Carding machine

 Carding ( a kind of combing with a wide teasel bruch) pulls the fibres together lengthways neatly. It also removes dirt and short bits of wool.

The wool can be spun into a very fine thread and plyed, creating beautiful regular yarn in which colours are softly mixed..


Two skeins from one dye bath. The plyed wool on the left, the single ply on the right.


skeins of plyed wool in different colours.

  

Recommended size knitting needle: 3.5 - 4,5

 
For wool for hand-spinning

 

 Wool in natural shades

 

 Wool dyed in natural colors
 For sale of wool