07/21/2023
Let’s talk about spinning super fine yarns for a moment. This is tussah silk, and the finished 2 ply will be about the same diameter as #10 crochet cotton, or equivalent to a commercial 20/2 silk. It’s coming out at 38-40 WPI in samples.
The biggest challenge in spinning this fine isn’t the drafting, as you might think. It’s the wheel tension. One of the best ways to control the finished diameter of your yarn is to change your tension. If there is more take-up pressure, you will automatically adjust your spinning to compensate by making a heavier single. Likewise when you decrease your tension you adjust to making a finer single.
So, what do you do when you just can’t get the take-up any lower, and you find yourself fighting your wheel for control? Well, there are a few things you can do. You can change your drive band and/or break band to a thinner material. I spin a lot of fine weaving yarns (as you may have noticed), so I tend to keep my workhorse wheel set up with nylon upholstery thread for a break band. Why does this work? It’s a principle called slippage, which is exactly what it sounds like. A thicker material provides more friction, which causes the bands to have more “grip” on the bobbin and flyer. A thinner (and smoother) material causes the bands to slip slightly, which not only reduces pressure, but can absorb shocks in tension that might otherwise break the single.
With this project, the tussah is a thicker individual fiber than mulberry silk, meaning that I have to draft fewer fibers for the same size yarn. That makes for more difficult spinning. The take-up pressure was too high for comfort even with the tension all the way down and the wheel already set up for fine spinning. So what now? Well, another adjustment that is easy to make is called cross-lacing. You can do it a couple of different ways, but the long and short of it is to lace the single back and forth between the flyer arms at least one time. You can use your flyer hooks, or you can do it as seen here, by simply running the single around the opposite flyer arm. Each cross reduces pressure, but still allows for a high enough take-up to effectively wind the single onto the bobbin.
