Help, I made yarn! What next?
First of all, congrats! I hope you had fun! Now here is a list of resources to help you figure out how to proceed with your freshly spun (single) yarn.
This page is very much Work In Progress.
Retrieving your yarn
Your yarn is still on a spindle or bobbin. Time to change that so you can work with it further!
- If you're planning to ply your single back on itself, consider investing in a manual ball winder, which will wind you a cake with both ends of the yarn accessible!
- A plying bracelet (video tutorial) is another method for plying a single on itself or for wrapping up a ply if one bobbin runs out before the other! This one requires no tools aside from your own hands.
- If you're winding from a spindle, it helps to have a lazy Kate to hold that spindle for you (in absence of a friend who can also hold the spindle for you just fine - Voskop and I take turns). Here's a really simple DIY one (written tutorial, with pictures) made from a cardboard box!
- An optional upgrade if you're winding from skeins/hanks rather than your spindle and don't have a second set of arms to help (or the top of a chair, or two water bottles on the ground, or-) is a yarn swift, which is basically a domesticated umbrella that holds your yarn for you while you wind it.
- Tutorial (written, with pictures) for winding balls, hanks, and skeins by hand! Balls like this don't give you access to both ends of the yarn for plying, but are great for knitting/crocheting from, and hanks/skeins are great for storage!
Plying
You can choose to keep your yarn a single, but commonly people will ply it with one or more singles to make a stronger yarn with more even twist (and unlock more colour combinations and textures)!
With these links I am only covering basic plying and some of the science behind it, there are many, many ways to ply yarn and I encourage you to research and experiment!
- Plying from a center pull ball changes your twist (video) which is not necessarily bad!
- Linking the plying bracelet again, for leftover single management.
- Should I let my bobbins rest before I ply my yarn? (video)
- 10 tips for plying yarn on a spinning wheel (video)
Wet finishing
With your ply all done and your yarn once again off your spindle or bobbin, there is only one more (optional) step before you can use your yarn as yarn: wet finishing.
Other bits and bobs
- Using a niddy noddy to measure and skein your yarn (written tutorial with pictures.
- Labeling handspun yarn with ye olde niddy noddy (video)
- As with most spinning supplies, you can in fact just go and make your own niddy noddy!
- You can make your handspun its own project on Ravelry for tracking and showing off! (Written tutorial, requires login)