Even though I’ve now been spinning for seven years, I have avoided spinning the simplest of yarns – the plain single. I have spun singles – coreless-corespun and thread wrapped yarns are both singles. But I’ve left the plain bulky single alone. Until this week.
One of the recent braids I dyed was very slightly felted (just slightly) and as a result I didn’t want to spin it too fine. (It was the first one I dyed in the slow cooker, while I was still getting the timings right, and may have been handled more than usual.) I wanted to spin it chunky so that I could use it as a weft for a cushion. And felted to give it the extra strength needed for such an item.
After spinning the resulting skein was incredibly twisty:
I gave it a bath in very hot soapy water, moving it around lots. I shocked it by plunging it into very cold water (and then repeated between the hot and cold a few times). I also tried thwacking the skein onto the draining board – but found that was an excellent way to make the kitchen look like it was raining inside and get me covered in water. I finished by rinsing the soap out in changes of hot and cold water.
After this treatment the skein was completely different:
Not a twist in sight.