Spinning Terminology

A skein of hand-spun wool is ready for twisting into a neat bundle.

Spinning is a method for twisting plant, animal or synthetic fibers to form a yarn. Raw fibers, flax, wool or cotton, are short, uneven and unsuitable for immediate use for fabrics. The spun fiber is a continuous yarn that can be woven to create the fabric. Spinning dates from the times of the earliest human settlements. Societies in China, Persia and India used spinning wheels during the first millennium. The spinning wheel did not come into use in Europe until the 16th century. The mechanization of spinning began in 1764 when British weaver James Hargreaves built the "Spinning Jenny," a spinning machine with eight spindles.

Spindle

The spindle is a wooden shaft with a weight, the whorl, at the bottom end. The whorl enables the spindle to hang in the air while spinning. Some whorls support the spindle. Fiber passes through a distaff, a stick with a comb at one end to separate the raw fibers, and is twisted by the spinning spindle. The spun yarn, called the copp, wraps around the shaft of the spindle. It wraps into either a conical or triangular shape.

Ply

Ply is the number of threads in a yarn. The spindle produces a single thread when it spins in a clockwise direction. This is the Z-twist. The spindle produces a double yarn by changing into a counterclockwise direction, the S-twist, to ply two single threads together.

Bobbin

Bobbins came into use when the spinning wheel replaced the spindle. The newly spun yarn winds around the bobbin. Bobbins can be used to store yarn. A skein is the finished yarn that is twisted into a neat bundle.

Bradford Spinning Count System

This is a system of classifying wool fineness that was named after the northern English city of Bradford. The city was a leading wool textile manufacturing center during the late 19th century. The system calculates the number of 560-yard skeins that one pound of clean wool will produce. A large number, 64 to 80, denotes fine wool. Midrange wool is 62 to 50 and coarse wool is 44 to 48.

References

• Tactile: A Fiber Arts Studio; Naturally Dyed Yarns and Fiber; Glossary of Dyeing, Spinning and Fiber Terminology
• "New York Times"; The New Spinner: Yarn Is the Least of It; Elizabeth Olson; January 2006
• Colonial Williamsburg: Weaving, Spinning and Dyeing; Dexterity and Detective Work; Ed Crews

Resources

• Montana State University Extension: Wool Grading; Rodney Kott
• New York Carver: Medieval Inventions -- The Spinning Wheel
• Spartacus Educational: Spinning Jenny