Long draw is the spinning technique used to create

woolen Woolen (American English) or woollen (Commonwealth English) is a type of yarn made from carded wool. Woolen yarn is soft, light, stretchy, and full of air. It is thus a good insulator, and makes a good knitting yarn. Woolen yarn is in contrast t ...

yarn Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufact ...

s. It is spun from carded

rolag A rolag (Scottish Gaelic: roileag) is a roll of fibre generally used to spin woollen Woolen (American English) or woollen (Commonwealth English) is a type of yarn made from carded wool. Woolen yarn is soft, light, stretchy, and full of air. ...

s. It is generally spun from shorter stapled fibers. Long draw spun yarns are light, lofty, stretchy, soft, and full of air, thus they are good insulators,Huebscher Rhoades, Carol. "Spinning Basics: The Long Draw." ''SpinOff'' Winter 2004: 74-76. and make good

knitting Knitting is a method by which yarn is manipulated to create a textile, or fabric. It is used to create many types of garments. Knitting may be done by hand or by machine. Knitting creates stitches: loops of yarn in a row, either flat or i ...

yarns. Long draw spinning is most often contrasted to the

short draw Fat draw is the spinning technique used to create worsted yarns. It is spun from combed roving, slivers or wool top – anything with the fibers all lined up parallel to the yarn. It is generally spun from long stapled fibers. Short draw spun ...

technique used to spin

worsted Worsted ( or ) is a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from Worstead, a village in the English county of Norfolk. That village, together with North Walsham and Aylsham, for ...

yarns.

Technique

The first step to spin a true woolen yarn is to card the fiber into a

using handcarders. The rolag is spun without much stretching of the fibers from the cylindrical configuration. The hand holding the fiber is the active hand, and the one closer to the wheel is passive. The passive hand smooths yarn, picks out vegetable matter, and pulls out extra bits of fluff,Huebscher Rhoades, Carol. "Spinning Basics: The Long Draw." ''SpinOff'' Winter 2004: 74-76. but that is all. The work of drafting is done by the active hand, and most of the regulation and smoothing of yarn is done by twist and tension. Drafting is done by pinching off a short section of the rolag, and then pulling back while twist is added to it. The active hand pulls back until the yarn is the desired thickness. The passive hand controls how much twist is allowed in the drafting yarn: too much twist and the yarn won't draft; too little and the yarn will break. Twist concentrates in the thin areas of the yarn, solidifying these. Thus the tension doesn't stretch these parts thinner, but instead drafts the thicker parts until all the yarn is approximately the same thickness. This has the effect of automatically thinning out the thicker parts, which is what allows this technique to work. Once the yarn is the desired thickness, enough twist is added to make the yarn strong. In effect, this is done by releasing the passive hand. Next the yarn is wound onto the bobbin, and the process starts again.

In use

Most handspinners make a blend of a woolen and worsted yarn, using techniques from both categories, and thus ending up with a mix, named a semi-worsted yarn.

References

External links

*https://www.interweave.com/wp-content/uploads/basics-winter-04.pdf PDF version of relevant SpinOff article] - Provides step by step instructions with pictures {{spinning Spinning