Spinning Yarn….and Silk Yarn so you can see for yourself what your working with…you know in case you decide to raise silkworms…or just buy into a scraps company….
Broken silk thread is one of important fancy yarn assortment. It is made up of a core yarn, a binding yarn and a broken effect yarn. The effect yarn of classical broken silk thread usually uses viscose filament with lower wet strength. The broken silk thread has flash effect because that fiber furry of broken effect yarn could be appeared on thread surface by means of wet drawing process. The fancy fabric used of the broken silk thread has shown special color effect, and favored by consumers. But manufacture of the broken silk thread must be used the wet processing technology, and its adaptability of processing equipment is restricted. In addition, there are some other broken silk composite fancy yarns, such as roving broken silk thread, broken silk knot yarn and fancy bunch yarn with combined color effect, etc. However, processing routes of these fancy yarn are relatively complex, restricted their wide application in the development of new textile products. It is necessary that develop a novel spinning technology of broken silk fancy yarn to satisfy the final users. Materials and processing equipment the broken silk threads were produced using the HN42-02-84H type (China) on a fancy yarn twisting machine according to the dry processing technology. The core and effect components of fancy yarn were supplied separate from each other at different speeds. After that the effect yarn was twisted on a real twist with a binder component, which fixed the effects in the fancy yarns. The object of the subsequent research was the relationship of fancy yarns with the spun silk, cotton yarn and polyester filament components, as shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Raw materials and processing technology of broken silk threads
Core yarn Effect yarn Binding yarn Composite processing technology
1 120N Spun silk 50D/72F Polyester filament 21S Cotton yarn Two times
2 120N Spun silk 50D/72F Polyester filament 21S Cotton yarn Three times
XXXX B3 120N Spun silk 50D/72F Polyester filament 120N Spun silk Three times
4 21S Cotton yarn 50D/72F Polyester filament 21S Cotton yarn Three times
5 32S Cotton yarn 50D/72F Polyester filament 21S Cotton yarn Three times
6 40S Cotton Ply yarn 50D/72F Polyester filament 21S Cotton yarn Three times
Usually, the effect yarn should be thin and lower strength of single yarn, in order to easy to break into small irregular broken fiber distribution. Binding yarn should adopt the fine yarn, and is designed to minimize the linear density of broken silk thread, and enhance its softness. The core yarn should use certain count single yarn or Ply yarn with low linear density, in order to maintain the enough strength of broken silk thread.
Okay so I started with the complicated side so that you can see how easy this yarn spinning process can really be. Consider Sleeping Beauty, but hey if you are afraid of falling asleep there are several spinning wheel free alternatives..I mean they cost several hundred dollars anyway…and a drop spindle costs about 10 bucks and you’ll have it for life so long as your 4 four year old doesn’t decide it’s a toy. Portable, and sturdy, the most common type of spindle you’ll encounter has a whorl, which is a weighted disk, with a shaft running through the center. The whorl can be at the top or the bottom of the spindle, and many modern spindles have a hook on the top end of the shaft to make anchoring the yarn easier. You can spin almost any fiber…haha check the above in case you forgot… though some are more difficult than others. Hand spinners typically work with plant or animal fibers, and most often with wool, silk (you could…really), cotton, or flax — which becomes linen as soon as it’s spun. Nowadays, you can also find yarn made of nylon or polyester, yarn with stainless steel or copper fibers integrated, and even paper yarn.
I’ll focus on wool for this part because its the mostly widely available and it can be sheep or alpaca so that parts on you. Spinning yarn is a three-step process. First, you’ll spin fiber into a continuous strand spinners call “singles.” Knitters would call it “single-ply.” Then, you’ll wind the singles into a ball. Finally, you’ll ply them into finished yarn. I’ll let that sink in and set up Spinning part 1.
Yarn holds together through twist alone. When you make singles, you’ll be adding twist in one direction to your fiber, which will make it hold together as long as it’s under tension. Always make sure the free end of your singles is anchored, whether in your hand or wrapped around your spindle. If you let go, they’ll untwist and turn back into fiber…and that sucks cause you have to start over…it like trying to braid your kids hair and then forgetting the elastic so you have to get up and let go and when you come back she’s laying on the floor playing with her iPad and you had to start over or just go “ugh” and go to Michaels. Don’t worry I’m laughing with you because we’ve all been there.
Plying, or twisting multiple singles strands around each other in the opposite direction, solves that problem. To make two-ply yarn, take two singles strands (or both ends of the same strand), attach them both to your spindle, and twist them around each other in the opposite direction from how you originally spun them. After that, no matter which direction the yarn tries to untwist, it’ll be stopped by the opposing twist.
Tease out a few fibers from your top or roving so you can see how long they are. To spin, you’ll be stretching the fiber out — or “drafting” it — to about the thickness you want your yarn to be, and you’ll need to make sure you aren’t tugging on both ends of the same hairs. The fibers have to be able to slide past each other for you to thin them out, so don’t grip the fibers too hard when stretching your fiber.
Start there and we’ll come back to it when you feel good about that part
