My first paper spinning was a workshop in Japan. I thought I knew all there was to know. My own first thread was years ago using paper pattern paper. Lately I’ve been using paper from Japanese account books and I thought I knew all there was to know. However I started to worry that my handspun paper was highly over twisted and it wouldn’t swell or be all right for dish towels.
A friend suggested hers was overtwisted, too, and she wetted her skeins and weighted them to dry and the overtwisted kinks straightened out. I wanted to try it but I was at home away from my studio which has all my equipment and tools. This is how I weighted the my skeins. And they did turn out straight as could be (but kept the little bumps which I love).
I had to make do without a yarn swift to make the skeins. I turned a stool upside down to use the legs to wind my skeins. I was zooming with my weaving friends and one suggested putting the stool on the seat of my office chair and to whirl the chair around to make the skeins. That worked and made large skeins. Which I wetted and weighted as seen above.
This is a tool for making skeins. It’s called a niddy-noddy!
Several people said they were using a drop spindle so now I’m trying that out. I’ve spun a bit and know the principles of spinning so I can spin a thread.
The book suggested using a drop spindle and mentioned making S-twist thread. That means twirling the spindle counter-clockwise. I don’t know why but that’s what I’m trying. And I can control the twist much better and not have the overtwisted problem.
I hope you can see it’s much less twisted and perhaps notice that the twist is in the S direction. That means the diagonal lines of the twist go in the same direction as the middle section of the letter S—from the upper left to the lower right. I don’t think I’ll need to set the twist by wetting and weighting this time. Now I’m really trying to spin enough for a project. Hooray for the Democratic Convention this week.
HOORAY ALL AROUND! thanks
I was so interested by your post, I bought the book by Hiroko Karuno. What an amazing book and thankfully with the sample of paper in it, I understand why you want the use the dish towels with it. It’s also very interesting to see an S twist is having a dramatic effect on the yarn as well.
Thanks for sharing!
On page 64 of the book it says “Making a strong thread with a rather high twist is important, more so for the warp than the weft.” My spindling looks more like the upper third of your first picture than your last picture. I set the twist by steaming then wove it plain weave using linen warp. As soon as I put the fabric in water to wet-finish it, it curled up into a tight wad. I had to iron the heck out of it to get it flat again. Then I crumpled every inch of it, bit by bit, to soften the stiff fabric. I wonder if I could have skipped the ironing a gone straight to the softening to get it flat. I tried a looser weave and it curled even more. This playing with paper is teaching me things about both spinning and weaving. Thanks for recommending the book and sharing your experiments!
Love the replacement swift. Great idea. Have you figured out why S spin is better than Z spin? Does it have to do with the grain of the paper? (does paper even has a grain)
thank you for posting. Always very interesting.
Where did you find the niddy noddy? I’m in lust.
Long, long ago. How lustful are you? I could trade for another one about the same size if you liike.
Peggy
Hurray Peggy! Thank you for sharing your keen ingenuity and illustrative pictures.
I also got myself a copy of the book and it’s even more beautiful than I expected. I doubt I’ll be spinning paper so fine and smooth like the ones featured in it but I’ve been obsessed with the idea!
Hi Peggy, I am commenting as a long time spinner who has experience with paper. Unless you are going for a total novelty yarn, you should not have excess twist bumps in your yarn. On the other hand, your later yarn looks way under twisted. There are lots of images online of well-spun shifu for comparison. It takes a while to get the right balance, like riding a bicycle. If you want any spinning advice, feel free to contact me.
Is it important to set the twist ? I can do it by steaming. Thanks for your advice and offer for more. I will give it more twist now for sure. I was starting to get that thought.
Peggy
I haven’t steamed paper yarns. I do wet finish them. After finishing, hang the skein without weight on it to dry. The skein should hang reasonably straight with only as much twist as Perl cotton might show. There should be no over twist nubs. I would spin a really small sample, wet finish, examine, then try again.
Are you spinning on a wheel or drop spindle? On a wheel you can measure length of yarn spun and number of treadles for that length to provide a starting point to adjust from. On a spindle, you learn by feel and look.
A drop spindle. I got a comment that when he wet the woven cloth it all bunched up pretty tight. Have you wet the cloth? I want a dish cloth, maybe.
Thanks again.
Peggy
Weighting wet yarns for drying stretches them out – that will cause the fabric to bubble and crepe unpredictably any time it encounters moisture. I and most of the experienced handspinners (as well as teachers like Judith Mackenzie, Stephenie Gaustad, Abby Franquemont, James Longdraw Perry, etc) have recommended that no weight be added to yarns while wet (unless one is **trying** to create chaotic crumple fabrics).
… well spun kami-ito