I've been looking forward to this interview with Kathrin about spinning for days. When you read today's text (it's a long one, make yourself comfortable), you can feel the incredible passion with which she runs her handspinning workshop Back to the wheel. It is absolutely fascinating to dive into this world, which in a way is shifted ahead of us knitters.

Originally an art historian, Kathrin renovated an old industrial building from the 19th century and converted it into her workshop near Bamberg. There she now makes beautiful yarns and sells them under her eponymous DaWanda store.

The topic of spinning is for me so far a book with seven seals and just in connection with my Brooklyn Tweed Knit Along and the special nature of Brooklyn Tweed yarns my head was buzzing with questions. I wanted to learn more about spinning and so I interviewed Kathrin. Read her answers today about spinning in general. In a few days we will talk more specifically about Brooklyn Tweed yarns, as she has been busy researching for us. And now have fun diving into the world of an old craft:

Kathrin, how did you get into spinning and what fascinates you about it?

I was briefly idle after my studies and somehow came across a Youtube video. I have a fable for old crafts, how people used to live and farm. And there was this video and I was suddenly hooked. I bought one of those beginner spindles and never put it down. And it worked immediately. I was mesmerized as the thread got longer and longer. It was like a flashback to an unknown earlier time when this was a normal activity for women. I guess that was the fascinating part, that I became part of a chain. It was totally freaky. And even today it's always like a retreat into timelessness, when everything gets too loud and too fast for me today, I get on my bike and I'm gone.

Can you first tell us laymen what basic differences there are in techniques? So the roughest distinctions? And which of them do you do?

The techniques are as different as the fibers. As a spinner, I always start from the fiber.
There are vegetable fibers, animal fibers, short and long, smooth and curly, and so on. All behave differently when spinning. And the techniques are based on that, resulting in differently constructed yarns. Some fibers give you more leeway, others less.

Let's take cotton: You may have noticed that all heavier cotton yarns consist of many small single threads. There are no heavier single yarns, that is, consisting of a single heavy thread. It is not possible because cotton has very short fibers. They have to be twisted into thin threads with a lot of twist, otherwise the thread breaks. This also requires special settings on the spinning wheel. The thin threads are then combined into heavier ones.

But knitters will look at the issue more from the yarn. Here you can roughly divide types: Twisted yarns, single yarns, lace yarns, bouclé... These are all yarns that are distinguished according to the structure and belong to the traditional yarns. Carded yarns and worsted yarns are also traditional yarns, but they are distinguished according to the processing techniques of the fibers and different spinning techniques.

Note: In Kathrin's blog you can find a more detailed article about the comparison of worsted and fleece.

Gradient yarns are identified by the color effect, but could be anything: lace yarn, twist, corespun, etc.

Traditional yarns are of course also beautiful, but primarily made for a specific genre of knitting: Lace eg socks, aran knitting, etc..

Then there are the fancy yarns . Everyone narrows down this category differently. This includes everything that brings an effect to the knitted piece. In other words, the yarn itself plays a larger role, along with the cut and pattern of the knitted piece. The texture, for example, curls, bouclé, mohair, or any objects such as beads, spiral twist, etc.. But also the color, such as mottling, gradients, fractal spinning, color spots, or simply the fiber arrangement on the surface. These yarns usually cannot be knitted with any pattern. Heavy&thin combined with aran pattern - that would be a bit weird. The fancy yarns are not as restrained as traditional yarn.

Lastly, there are the artyarns. They are mostly yarns that are not made for the knitter at all. They are spun for the sake of spinning, just to look nice, and maybe for art projects à la Lexi Boeger or as eye-catchers in larger knitting projects. Extreme curly yarns, yarns with loops, behives, fringes, spun-in objects and other extravagances. These yarns probably make life difficult for the knitter.

What kind of fibers do you mainly spin and why?

For me, as a spinner, the artyarns were actually the attraction to learning to spin.
After all, I didn't have much of a knitting background when I started spinning. I just found it mega creative to make such yarns and they need, even if you look so random, a good construction. But at some point the question arose, what I should do with all the yarns.
I then wanted to know why knitters have their dear trouble with the yarns and how I can find a compromise between effect and knitting comfort.
So today I'm spinning moderate effect yarns that don't take an elaborate pattern. They are aimed at beginners who are just knitting straight for now, but still have an effect because of the yarn. So the problem becomes an advantage. That's why I also make the Knit kits - a worry-free package.

However, as I am slowly growing as a knitter myself, I am now also spinning traditional yarns where I dabble in fiber blends. Privately, I'm into blends with camel, ramie, soy, bamboo and silk. For the store it's mainly merino, simply because of customer requests.

For my store, it is important to me that I can reproduce any yarn at any time. I am a control freak which is extremely handy for my Knit Kits. I want to offer the same yarn to every customer, which is not easy because fingers have a different mood every day, much like handwriting. So a simple low twist yarn suddenly becomes a challenge.

Is spinning a pure hobby for you? And what do you do in "real life" if yes?

Spinning was initially an escape from my top-heavy "real life". I am an art historian and archaeologist with a focus on building art in the Middle East before and around Christ. So these ancient ways of life and cultures have always been present. At some point I asked the question more research or more family. In my case, the cost-benefit calculation of my career path did not turn out to be so family-friendly. So I debated for a long time and then jumped in at the deep end. I had no idea how things would go, but I was free. Suddenly I then found a small, cute but quite tattered old industrial building around 1890.

I rehabilitated it for 1 year with my husband and dear friends and today it is my workshop and Back to the Wheel has become my little hand spinning shop on Dawanda. I now do what has actually always been a poor job and since the industrial revolution is finally dead and uneconomical: wage spinning. Soberly considered, completely insane, but I do not want to see that it is not yet possible to build a bridge into our time.

Can you explain to us laymen terms like core yarn, stitch yarn and worsted yarn? I'm doing the Brooklyn Tweed Knit Along right now and I'm knitting the yarn "Loft". The yarns Loft and Shelter are both "woolen-spun". What exactly does that mean and how is it different from the "worsted-spun" yarns?

Core-spun: A yarn that has a stable core around which visible fibers are spun. The cool thing about core-spun yarns is that they have a different fiber angle. The fibers can be mixed differently before spinning and can be trapped on the surface of the yarn. In this way, even delicate fibers can be transformed into a tear-resistant yarn.

Carded yarn = woolen-spun: the yarn was spun from a carded fleece. The so-called long draw was used. The result is airy, slightly heterogeneous, has a higher thermal capacity due to air entrapment. The fibers used for this purpose are usually curlier and they have different lengths. Their fiber ends protrude from the yarn surface, which makes the yarn either fluffier or scratchier, depending on the sensation and the fiber. The stitches look a little more unruly or may turn out more irregular.

Worsted-spun: This is the opposite of woollen yarn. It is spun from a worsted yarn. I.e. the mostly smooth fibers (eg Merino) were parallelized and have roughly the same length. It is spun with the so-called short draw. This leads to a very smooth surface with less air entrapment. The yarn is more uniform, compact, smooth. The stitches are more defined and uniform. The knitted piece feels either more flattering or harder, depending on the fiber.

Distinguishing factors are: Fiber preparation (combing or carding), fiber type (smooth or curly) and technique (long or short draw). When these factors are mixed together, semi-worsted yarns are produced. The English are more specific here: Woolen vs worsted with the mixed types semi-woolen and semi-worsted depending on the type of combination of the above factors.

Why do coating yarns break so quickly, what are they particularly good for, and what are they less good for?

Coating yarns can break more quickly, but they don't have to. It depends on the fiber. If the yarn consists of longer fibers (there are also crimped and longer fibers), this does not happen so quickly. But if the fibers are quite short, then they need a lot of twist during spinning. The twist cancels itself out during twisting. Then the fibers of the individual threads fix themselves to each other and the threads as well as the entire twist regain volume, but also lose cohesion. The tighter the twist (WPI) the more fixed. Here it depends on the balance between twisting and fiber length.

Tweed yarns are a bit more special. The tweed effect is created by mixing in fibers of a different color, which are very short. Tweed can only be carded, so we end up with the carded yarns. In the blend, short fibers make spots and long fibers make stripes. And so we end up with a carded yarn with predominantly short fibers and the yarn can break more quickly.

Carded yarns are warmer and lighter than worsted yarns. The reason is the airy structure due to the spinning technique. Worsted yarns, however, withstand more friction, both when knitting and in the sweater. Worsted yarns also retain the elasticity in the knitted piece longer, e.g. in a ribbed cuff in the hat.
Worsted yarns should rather be knitted with smaller needles, because the wind should not whistle through the well-defined stitches. Summer knits are also more suitable for worsted yarns, although cotton or plant fibers are more interesting. Lace and large stitches are also typical for worsted yarns. Everything that should fall smoothly or must withstand more tension should also rather not be made of worsted yarn.

 

Wow! Thank you, Kathrin, for your so detailed answers! I hope to visit one of your courses soon!

Are you as taken as I am? Click further into Kathrin's world...

... her blog "Back to the Wheel",
... her store on DaWanda (there you can find yarns on the one hand and great Knit Kits on the other hand).
... Back to the Wheel on Facebook
... as well as on Instagram!