1 Comments:

• hehe-- yes, without a treadle, spinning is not as easy. Yes, it is possible, of course, but your results will not be as you like.
  
  I'll try not to make this a long treatise! There is so much to learn about spinning.
  
  To make a smooth, even yarn, preparation is most important. I mean that your roving will have to be drawn out to the exact correct size to make the yarn you want. It will have to be as even as possilbe so that the spinning will be smooth and even; working with only one hand means you won't have any ability to control the drafting at all.
  
  With a short fibre, such as cotton, which needs a lot of twist to hold together, you can softly twist a cloud of fibres and then slowly draw it out into a continuous strand, adding more twist as you do so. You've seen this by people using the Great Wheel, or a charka. However, silk is not the same.
  
  Because the silk mawatas that you are using have very long fibres, you will not need much twist to hold them together. So you will have to draw out your fibres very quickly before ANY TWIST moves into the strands -- drawing out will be impossible after that. Any uneveness in your roving will just have to stay that way -- that's what makes your yarn very unique!
  
  When using two hands in spinning silk, you pinch off the twist so it doesn't enter your roving. Then with your other hand, you can draw out the roving in the next few inches to the required thickness, allowing only a certain amount of fibres into the spinning triangle and thereby controlling the size of the yarn.
  
  To do this with one hand would mean that you have only a minimum of twists in an arm's length of roving, and then you can stop the twisting and concentrate on the drawing out of that strand, trying to make it even. The thicker areas will slide past each other, the thinner areas will have more twist and will not draw out. But this has to be done at just the right moment!! -- too soon and it will come apart, too late and you won't be able to draw out at all! It take practice -- lots and lots of practice.
  
  So you have a choice here: get a treadle working as soon as possilbe, or accept that your yarns are going to be lumpy and bumpy, thick and thin. It all comes down to how well you prepare your roving-- now, or at the time of spinning.
  
  For now, be happy you got yarn! As for plying, well, that is another story!

  By  Tallguy, at 8:18 PM  

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