Z Twist

First skein of Z twist yarn

Well, in spite of being Remembrance Day, the craft drop-in was going on so I loaded up the spinning wheel and bag of roving, spending some time with other creative people and got the first skein of Z twist yarn done.

After mulling it over for a while I realized that I really want to have the S twist yarn be solid black otherwise the twist effect is going to get lost in the varigation. So I have to buy more fibre. :}

Let's face it, I am not a great spinner. I'm not even a very good spinner. But before I use the yarn that a professional spinner is doing for me I do feel I need to get some samples woven before committing the good stuff to a world of ignorance!

Since I'm actually more interested in the effect of twist in balanced yarns and not in collapse effects, the yarn will be set so that it isn't all full of corkscrew twists and latent energy. That will make warping the loom a lot easier.

When I work with energized yarn I generally beam the warp sectionally and use lots of masking tape to tame the wriggly threads. But for this I'm really a lot more interested in what happens when balanced yarns are used together.

I've read about this in various books, but never have attempted it myself. Oelsner writes about it, and I believe Judith Mackenze McCuin does in her book The Intentional Spinner.

Several people on WeaveTech recommended Margrethe Hald's book Ancient Danish Textiles from Bogs and Burials, and that arrived via inter-library loan yesterday. Have only glanced at it, and I've been told that there aren't instructions, per se, but pictures of cloth woven with Z and S twist yarns. So studying the photos will be intriguing if not enlightening. :)

But now I'm home and fed and it's time to fire up the AVL and see if I can get a couple more shawls woven. Or perhaps one shawl and one scarf, which will finish that rayon chenille warp.

Tonight is guild night and I want to see if there is interest in my presenting a workshop in the new year. My teaching calendar for next year is far too empty for my likes, so I need to fill it up. The advantages of teaching on home ground - no travel and my own bed at night!

And I'd like to finish today with In Flanders Fields, a poem written during WWI:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead.
Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

John McCrae, a Canadian medical officer

When I was in school a millenium ago, every school child learned this poem - Lest We Forget.