Transcript for
Episode 99:
Drafting With Your Feet?
Drafting with your feet? Is that even a thing? Well, admittedly no. But if you're spinning on a treadle wheel, your feet do play a crucial role in your spinning. In this episode, I'll talk about the role your feet play in drafting consistent yarns.
Hello there darling Sheepspotter! Welcome to episode 99 of The Sheepspot Podcast. I'm Sasha, and my job is to help you make more yarns you love.
One of the first spinning classes I ever took was a drafting class with Beth Smith. I'd been spinning for about 9 months at that point and I really still had no idea what I was doing. And I remember Beth telling me that I should try to sync my drafting with my treadling. And so I took that in, and I gamely tried to do it, but I didn't really understand why until much, much later.
It has to do with ensuring that the twist in your singles is consistent through your project. Remember, there are two elements to spinning singles that are consistent in diameter: the first is how much fiber you are drafting, and the second is whether your twist is consistent. More twist pushes fiber toward the center of the strand, compressing the fiber and making your singles thinner in diameter. Even if you're drafting perfectly, if your twist is uneven, your singles will be too. Controlling your treadling will control your twist
The treadles' job is to turn your drive wheel. Every time you treadle once (on a double treadle wheel when you treadle with one foot), your drive wheel rotates once. Depending on your wheel's drive system, your drive wheel is attached to and turns something in your flyer/bobbin array (either your flyer, in a flyer-led wheel, or your bobbin, in a bobbin-led or double-drive wheel). Your drive ratio tells you how many times your flyer or bobbin turns for each full rotation of your drive wheel. So if you're spinning on a 15:1 ratio, your bobbin or flyer turns 15 times for each rotation of the drive wheel.
Let's say you're spinning with a short forward draft and you're drafting forward two inches each time. If you sync your drafting with your treading and treadle once for every draft, that means you're putting 7.5 twists per inch into your singles. If you maintain that treadling rhythm throughout the spin, your singles will have an even TPI (twists-per-inch) of 7.5 throughout.
I usually use a one-draft-per-treadle rhythm when I'm spinning with a short draft. But you can use whatever rhythm works for you. The point is to be consistent. Yours might be two drafts per treadle or two treadles per draft (with one foot on a double treadle wheel). If you're pretty coordinated, you may be able to vary your rhythm at will. I'm not that coordinated, so I usually stick to 1 draft per treadle, and use my drive ratios to vary the amount of twist I'm putting into my yarn. I can vary my rhythm, but I really have to think about it. When I'm spinning a low-twist singles yarn, for example, I draft twice per treadle, but I really have to concentrate or I'll revert back to my default rhythm.
As I said, I'm not so coordinated, so I had to practice this for quite a while before it really felt natural, and for even longer before it became second nature. So don't expect to get this overnight. I found that it was very useful to practice this away from my wheel. I did this in bed before I fell asleep—I just pretend-drafted and pretend-treadled until I fell asleep. Definitely weird, but it worked for me, so maybe give it a try
I'd love to hear from you about whether you intentionally sync your drafting with your treadling, or more broadly how you try to ensure even twist in your yarns. I've created a thread in The Flock, Sheepspot's free online community for inquisitive spinners, where you can comment on or discuss this episode. I'll link to that thread in the show notes, which you can find at sheepspot.com/podcast/episode99.
That's it for me this week. I'll be back next time with an episode on woolen drafting. While you're waiting, carve out some time to spin something. You know it will do you good.