Homespun Wool and Natural Dyes
(Page 3 of 5)
January/February 1972
by Salli Rasberry
Join a rolag to the starter yarn by twisting the two together (about 1/3 the length of the rolag should be meshed with 1/3 the length of the starter). Then lean the spindle across your thigh, cradle the dowel in the vee between the thumb and first finger of your right hand (these instructions assume that you're righthanded) and roll the spindle up your thigh by stroking your hand backwards as you "string out" the rolag with your left hand.
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Try to get a rhythm going. The left hand holds the yarn at an angle to the spindle and slowly draws the wool out of the rolag while the right hand rolls the spindle along your thigh. The fibers will be twisted together at the end of the dowel and transformed from crude rolag into lovely yarn. Keep the thumb and forefinger of the left hand closed on the developing yarn until it has twisted together tightly enough, then pause and move the left hand back to pull more wool from the rolag.
When the length of newly spun wool is nearly as long as you can comfortably reach with your left arm, release the yarn from beneath the whorl and—starting just above the whorl—wind the spun wool around the dowel. Leave enough loose yarn to start the process again, passing the excess or "starter" under the whorl and back to the top of the spindle as before. Continue spinning until you have a fat cone of yarn wound evenly around the dowel above the whorl.
It's now time to take the new yarn off the spindle and wind it around the arms of a friend to make a skein. If everyone's out tending the garden or heavy into guitar pickin', wind your skeins on a niddy-noddy. The niddy-noddy, or wooden arms, is a hand reel made from two sticks of wood joined at right angles to each other by a dowel which serves as a handle. Tie each finished skein in several places so it doesn't get tangled.
If you're going to use your your yarn for warp or macrame, or in anything that requires extra strength, you'll probably need to ply it—or twist two or more strands together—to keep the threads from breaking. To do this, put the balls of yarn in separate baskets, tie their ends to the spindle next to the whorl and pro ceed just as you did when you were first spinning. This will give you very strong yarn . . . if you remember to twist the threads together in the opposite direction from the original work (lest the wool unravel!).
If you want to color the yarn, there's a myriad of natural dyes you can grow or gather. Collecting bark, leaves, lichen and wild blossoms is a heavy trip for me and I'm always careful to leave lots of what I'm taking. The best book with the best price that I've found to guide me in selecting, making and using nature's colorings is DYE PLANTS AND DYEING: A HANDBOOK (No. 46, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, 1000 Washington Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11225). I do a lot of experimenting now but when I started out I found it neat to follow the recipes in this guide. They really work! The book is excellent, loved by friends around the country who dye wool . . . and I'd only be duplicating energy to repeat the information it contains.
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