How the spinning wheel works

Sue Macniven shows a saxony wheel, its various parts and how to adjust a scotch tension. In depth look at how to work out the ratios.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• spinning
• wheel
• wool
• textiles
• yarn

[lemonsongii]

Thank you so much. I needed this so much. I'm having a very hard time with my wheel and knowing what is controling what. I surely need to get a stretchy band for my main wheel but now I know how to adjust the spin and ratio and even figure OUT the ratio! Thank you so very much.

[chicksinrubber]

Glad it helped you, Ratios only really matter in that it helps you not work too hard, when you find that you are having to wait while the twist develops before re drafting then try a faster ratio. I have had folks on workshops before who thought that the ratio grooves were fancy turning made to make the wheel look pretty!

[aemrivera]

Thanks for addressing tension. So many demos don't and, being new to spinning, your video was very helpful.

[chicksinrubber]

I am glad you found it helpful, it is one of the things that can really screw up your spinning and make you fight the wheel instead of controlling it.

[deepcut71]

Excellent, thankyou.

I am into electronics as a hobby and i have to wind a lot of my own coils by hand so am in the process of designing a winder to ease the manual labour involved and reduce the time it takes to wind a coil.

The spinning-wheel looks to be perfect for this. I ahve some questions :

1. Where is the yarn that is being spun actually 'loaded' ?

2. Am i right in thinking you can twist seperate threads together ?

Thankyou.

[chicksinrubber]

The yarn is stored on a bobbin which is attached to the wheel, for every revolution of the wheel you get whatever the ratio set up gives you in twist, so for a given length of wire on a 5:1 ratio say you would get 5 twists. It is possible to ply many different threads together.

[pattijohayes]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge...well done!

[chicksinrubber]

You are welcome

[hairechest]

Brilliant - nice to see someone addressing the basics in a way I can understand. Just got my first wheel and this helps a lot! Thank you!

[chicksinrubber]

Glad you like it