How to Spin a Coiled Yarn

Create coiled yarn with roving and thread.

With fiber and a spinning wheel, a hand-spinner can create distinctive yarn for knitting, crocheting or weaving projects. If a spinner wants a yarn with texture, one technique is a coiled yarn. These two-ply yarns have football-shaped coils wrapped around a core or binder thread. Also called "core spinning," coils are one type of art yarn that a hand-spinner can produce.

Things You'll Need

• Spinning wheel
• 2 empty bobbins
• Orifice hook
• 4 oz. of wool roving
• Lazy kate
• 120 yards of cotton crochet thread

Instructions

Spinning the Single

1. Secure an empty bobbin to the spinning wheel, attach a leader and thread the leader through the orifice with the hook.

2. Adjust wheel tension so it adds a lot of twist to the roving.

3. Attach a length of roving to the leader, turn the wheel clockwise and start treadling.

4. Spin the roving into a thick and thin single. The variations will give the coiled yarn a lot of texture. You can also attach small sections of additional roving as you spin to create bumps.

5. Keep spinning until you run out of roving.

Creating the Coils

1. Remove the bobbin and replace it with an empty one. Attach a leader and thread it through the orifice.

2. Adjust the tension on the wheel so it takes the yarn quickly and adds only enough twist to keep the yarn together.

3. Knot the ends of the leader together to make a loop.

4. Put the bobbin with the newly-spun singles on a lazy kate and find the end.

5. Hold the single and cotton thread together and guide them through the loop. Pull a few inches through the loop and overlap the ends.

6. Turn the wheel counterclockwise and start treadling. Spin the two plies together for a few inches.

7. Hold the cotton taut and angle the single about 90 degrees to one side. As you spin, the single will wrap around the cotton very tightly.

8. Push the single toward the orifice to create a coil. Keep holding the cotton taut and push more and don't forget to keep treadling.

9. Return the single to the normal plying position, and ply for a few inches.

10. Repeat the coil, followed by a normal section until your bobbin of singles is empty.

Tips & Warnings

• It takes between 75 and 100 yards of singles to create 10 yards of a coiled yarn.

• Your coiled yarn may not be perfectly balanced like a traditional plied yarn. That's normal.

• You may find it easier to wind the single into a center-pull ball instead of plying from a bobbin.

• Be daring in your color choices. Use several different colors of roving to create the single. You can also substitute any smooth, strong thread, including silk.

• The thickness or weight of the final coiled yarn is limited by the size of the wheel's orifice.

References

• "Knitty"; Toil, Toil, Coils and Bubbles; Symeon North; Summer 2006
• "Intertwined: The Art of Handspun Yarn, Modern Patterns, and Creative Spinning"; Lexi Boeger; 2010
• Tricotin: Learn How to Spin Scarabée du Nil
• "Spin-Off"; Coils: Adding to Your Art Yarn Repertoire; Jacey Boggs; Winter 2009