One of our aims as new spinners is to be able to spin super fine yarn. We berate ourselves because our yarn is thick and chunky. Once it is thinner, it's over spun or has little piglet tails. We've reduced our tension. How can we stop this happening?
There are a few ways that we can stop our yarn running away with us once we've been able to master our drafting technique. Cross lacing is one method.
I first came across cross lacing on the instagram page of the technically brilliant Bren Boone of Snerbyarn. Her spinning is so consistant and beautiful and she credits cross lacing as one of her methods. Here's a little video which explains how it works
Thin, fine yarn requires much more twist than thicker yarn. This is why when you are a beginner spinner and your brain is overwhelmed with all the things you have to remember -drafting, (and I mean at all - never mind drafting evenly) treadling without sliding the wheel across the floor or allow it to spin the opposite way etc etc, you will find your thick yarn overspinning again and again.
This is one of the reasons why once we can spin thinly we tend to stick with it. Thin yarn requires more twist and therefore is more forgiving. There is more time for us to treadle away, allowing twist into our yarn while we watch the telly before it becomes horribly overspun. But sometimes we might like to spin a super thin lace yarn and our wheel just seems to run away with us. That's where cross lacing comes in.
Cross lacing can stop there being so much draw in, slowing the wheel down and allowing all the twist that we need without over twisting.
You do this by tracing your single across the bobbin hooks, from one side to the other. Or if you have a slider style flyer wrap your single over the metal rods of the flyer.
Have a go of this simple method and see if it makes a difference, I noticed an improvement immediately and I hope it helps you too.
