setting the twist

[RebeccaVelasquez]

what is the best way to set the twist - in your experience?

[Guest SamplerLady]

I wind it on to a niddy noddy (or around chairs, EDs hands held a few feet apart) and tie the skein in several places. Then I put in hot soapy water (shrinks it just a tad and keeps it from shrinking when hand washing your finished clothing item) and let it soak for 30 minutes or so. Carefully rinse without too much agitation and no twisting. Roll in a big towel and lay it on the floor. Carefully step on the rolled towel moving from center to ends and back (sqeezes almost all the water out). Hang over the end of the clothesline pole, the shower nozzle or similar rounded object and weight down. Sneakers with the shoe strings tied together is a good weight. Just put one sneaker on each side of the looped yarn and let it hold the yarn straight. When dry, twist up the skein or wind into a ball. Towards the bottom of the page )

[RebeccaVelasquez]

cool. that's exactly what i have been doing.

 

 

my spindle is finally free! i have been working on this grey wool for a while and am done now. i think there is about 2.5 ozs. don't know what in the world i am going to do with it.... but i have it done. and now it's on to the peacock! :yay2

[Stashaholic]

I wind it on to a niddy noddy (or around chairs, EDs hands held a few feet apart) and tie the skein in several places. Then I put in hot soapy water (shrinks it just a tad and keeps it from shrinking when hand washing your finished clothing item) and let it soak for 30 minutes or so. Carefully rinse without too much agitation and no twisting. Roll in a big towel and lay it on the floor. Carefully step on the rolled towel moving from center to ends and back (sqeezes almost all the water out). Hang over the end of the clothesline pole, the shower nozzle or similar rounded object and weight down. Sneakers with the shoe strings tied together is a good weight. Just put one sneaker on each side of the looped yarn and let it hold the yarn straight. When dry, twist up the skein or wind into a ball. Towards the bottom of the page )

I do almost the same thing except I never tie a weight on it. I don't want to stretch the wool and then work with it. Wool has a memory and it will rebound when blocked. There are very definate schools on this one, I just belong to the no weight school.

 

I am also a thwacker and we know the multitude of opinions on that! ;-)

[MullersLaneFarm]

Then I put in hot soapy water (shrinks it just a tad and keeps it from shrinking when hand washing your finished clothing item)

 

If you do not agitate the yarn, you will not full or felt it. It may fluff a bit as the dirt and body oil are soaked out.

 

It definitely will not prevent it from shrinking when hand washing it, if you do agitate the finished item when washing it.

 

and weight down.

 

I let the yarn sit in hot soapy water, drain the sink, remove the still saturated yarn and fill with clean, hot water and put the yarn back in to rinse. Sometimes I will add a 'glug' of vinegar to help rinse the soap out and sometimes I will add a bit of hair conditioner.

 

After I drain the rinse water, I will press out the water from the yarn (yes, even gently wringing it.) Then outside I go where I whirl the yarn around (kind of like a spin cycle) to remove more excess water.

 

I hang it with OUT weighting the yarn. Since wool has a memory, you will stretch out the yarn. Once you have finished a project and soak it, the memory of the wool will return and you're finished project may be smaller (without sufficient blocking), the over twist that may be in the yarn will come back, skewing your project.