Dawn Jacobson
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Senior Boarder
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Re:New Fibers - 2007/06/19 16:52
Cotton requires a very short draw and oodles of twist to hold together. A good way to get a feel for cotton is to try spinning some of the cotton out of pill/vitamin bottles--it's "free" (aside from the cost of the pills/vitamins), and if you can spin that, any other ginned cotton will seem a snap.
Flax comes in several different forms, and each spins a little differently. Flax tow spins a lot like cotton, and flax roving spins more like long-staple wool, while strick flax is a completely different animal. Strick flax (flax that is in the long fibers and must be dressed onto a distaff before spinning) is also one of the few fibers that is frequently spun "wet," (you dip the fingers of your forward hand in a little bowl of water to wet the fibers). Some people (Mabel Ross?) insist that flax be spun with an S-twist because the fibers grow in the flax in that direction; I've never noticed any difference between S-twist and Z-twist linen thread.
Bamboo, INGEO corn silk, and SoySilk all spin a lot like tussah silk, but the feel is a little different (they seem a bit more slick than tussah), so you use the same techniques as for spinning silk: spin from the fold, use a short draw, and lots of twist.
While the price ($3/oz) may seem high for samples, you'll find that you can spin all of the plant fibers pretty fine, and even an ounce will give you a good handle on how it spins, along with about 100 yards of useable yarn when you're finished.
Dawn Jacobson
http://dtjacobson.blogspot.com
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