Stress test for handspun yarn

We were discussing relative strength of Navajo ply in Ravelry the other day. As I found myself bored and in need of entertainment this weekend, I did a little test, and here are the results.

The photos are clickable, and clicking will take you to Flickr if you want to see the details - but they are cell phone photos and I wasn't paying much attention on the settings, so apologies in advance for the horrid glare!

Test setup for measuring tensile strength

1 metre or 50 cm of yarn, each end tied to an S-hook with a square knot. One hook was hung from a laundry hanger thingie on the balcony, and a bag was attached to the other hook by its handles. Paperback books (and for more accurate measurements, bags of instant oatmeal and individually wrapped biscuits) were added into the bag until the yarn broke.

Notes on fibre, technique and the singles

Fibre: Ronaldsay pin-drafted roving from Scottish Fibres (medium wool with some kemp and VM that I didn’t bother to remove.)
Spindle: 11g "gingerbread" top whorl spindle from Rina's Spindles.
Drafting method: short draw with twist in the drafting zone
Twist direction: Z-spun singles, all yarns S-plied, all cables re-plied Z (including the double Navajo ply).
Type: semi-woolen
Length of material available: a rough couch-length of singles (ca. 1,8m) was measured for plying all different yarns
Twist setting method: yarn was dunked in hot water and left to dry hanging freely.

Here you can see all the yarns lined up:


Results

In the following there's first an image of the break, followed by the technical details of the yarn and the breaking point (all measurements are in the metric system):


Singles: ca. 38 wpi, twist angle 30-35° (1 metre sample)
Breaking point: 153g (+/-126g)



2-ply: ca. +24 wpi, plying twist angle (TA) 25° (1 metre sample)
Breaking point (BP): 556g (+/-196g)



3-ply: ca. 20 wpi, TA 20°
BP: 813g (+/-35g)
BP, second test: 838g (+/-35g)


Navajo ply: loop length: 20-30 cm, ca. 20 wpi, TA 20°
BP: 878g (+/-30g)
BP, second test: 767g (+/-35g)



4-ply: ca. 19 wpi, TA 20° (1 metre sample, stretched so much I had to move to using a shorter sample length)
BP: 1512g (+/-209g)



2x2 cable: ca. 18 wpi, TA 20°
BP: 1512g (+/-209g)



6-ply: ca. 14 wpi, TA 25°
BP: 2080g (+/-196g)



Navajo-ply, which was Navajo-plied with itself (comparable to a 9-ply): both initial and final loop length: 20-30 cm, ca. 12 wpi, TA 25°
BP: 2842g (+/- 180g)

Intermediary notes

Plying structure didn’t seem to matter very much: cabling didn’t give a dramatically greater increase in strength, and Navajo ply and traditional 3-ply were both roughly equally strong (In the first test Navajo ply survived 65g more than 3-ply and in the second, 3-ply survived 71g more, both with a tolerance of +/-35g, so the results were fairly close).

All Navajo plies showed the same distinctive pattern in breakage, as expected: in all weight tests, the break occurred at a “knot” point, usually leaving one loop in the chain intact and breaking the other one. The other structures show fraying and snapping, but it isn’t possible to predict in advance at which point of the yarn a break will occur, unlike in Navajo ply.

Stress testing continues

I still had lengths of yarn left, so I decided to perform another test - namely, how long would it take for the yarn to break, if I rubbed one point of a 30-cm long length of it against the metal radiator edge? Times varied, because I'm not a consistent machine and the yarns have weak spots, but if you are curious, here are the results of approximately how long it took to break the yarn:

Singles: 2 seconds
2-ply: 5 seconds
3-ply: 8 seconds, (second try: 23 seconds)
Navajo ply: 16 seconds, (second try: 23 seconds)
4-ply: 16 seconds
2x2 cable: 8 seconds
6-ply: 27 seconds
Double Navajo ply: 38 seconds

Still not content, I tried breaking one strand in the yarn and see how it held up to tugging (at this point, all pretense of scientific method had to be abandoned, as I don't have a device for measuring strength of pulling):

Singles: Broke easily.
2-ply: After one strand was broken, broke the same as singles yarn.
3-ply: Broke fairly easily.
Navajo ply: Broke fairly easily like the 3-ply, but if the break in the strand was close to the "knot" in the chain, the distinctive breaking pattern showed.
4-ply: Needed a little force to break.
2x2 cable: Same as 4-ply.
6-ply: Needed quite a bit of force to break.
Double Navajo ply: Needed a lot of force to break. Breaking pattern was similar to 6-ply, but if the break occurred close to a "knot" in the chain, the distinctive breaking pattern showed.

Conclusions

The single most important factor proved to be the number of plies. The strength of the yarn increased almost exponentially, when just one strand was added. The plying method was much less significant - cabled yarn and a 4-ply were roughly equal, as well as 3-ply and Navajo/chain ply, but either a 4-ply or cabled yarn was much stronger than a 3-ply or Navajo/chain ply.

The Ravelry discussion centered on the relative strength of Navajo ply. From this test I can say that at least for this fibre and these singles, 3-ply and Navajo ply were comparable. Because of the fuzziness of the fibre and the fineness of the singles, I had to check the yarn very, very closely to tell the two samples apart!

The main difference between the structures was that while the 3-ply would break at some unpredictable point wherever it was the weakest, Navajo ply would usually break at the "knot" or loop in the chain, showing the distinctive "strand and loop" pattern in one end. The exception to this was in the experiments with "sawing" the yarn through or breaking just one strand and tugging - if the break didn't occur near a knot, the yarn would behave in a similar manner to a 3-ply.

What can you conclude from all this? Surprisingly little, actually. The tests, as they stand, only comment on the suitability (or lack thereof) of using yarn for hanging things with and show that woolen spun yarn doesn't take abrasion kindly. If you change one factor (singles thickness, twist angle, drafting method, fiber preparation...) the yarn strength will change, sometimes more, sometimes less, so these results aren't the whole truth about yarn. Also, yarn in a knitted, woven or crocheted fabric will behave differently than yarn alone. Felting and level of wear and tear will also affect durability.

So don't take my word for this, but try it yourself and sample! Your yarn may yet surprise you.

(Use of these pictures (despite the less than stellar photography) and results is permitted if anyone so desires, I officially don't mind.)

Ravelympics: midway report

I think I'm starting to get the hang of this:



There is now a faint possibility that I might finish the third bobbin before the closing ceremonies. Faster, wasn't it?

On washing fleece

I've procrastinated about this post like crazy, but now I have something to show for it! You see, last April I bought a paper shopping bag full of brown and white Finn fleece, a bit completely unwashed and most hosed down with cold water, and I was happy. At least until I got home and started sorting it. The pile of dirty white on the left all went to the rubbish bin.

Parempi myöhään kuin ei milloinkaan! Ostin pussillisen villaa lammasmarkkinoilta huhtikuussa. Kuvasta näkyy ettei se ollut kovin ihmeellistä, likaisenvalkoinen kasa vasemmassa reunassa on menossa kokonaan roskiin.



The cold-washed bits turned out to be mostly skirtings with yellow stain, lots of vegetable matter (VM), and what's worse, they were matted. Felting is caused by heat, agitation and alkaline environment (and I suspect, water) - sometimes only one of these is enough, and Finn is famous for being good for felting. I did try to spin some of the white in the grease, but quickly decided that a hot wash wouldn't hurt.

Osa villoista oli suihkutettu kylmällä vedellä, mutta siinä oli silti vielä likaa ja heinänsilppua ja se oli pesussa takkuuntunut. Kehruuta kokeiltuani päätin pestä siitä lanoliinin ja lian pois.



I used an old mesh curtain to lift the fleece out of the water, and did the first was with hot water (the hottest that came from the tap, with some boiling water added) and regular dish soap. For the dirtiest bits, I did two soaks with dish soap for about 10-15 minutes and took the fibre out before it had cooled off. Then I did several rinses in water that was only warm, and finished by spinning out the excess water from fibre in the big spin dryer our apartment building's laundry (also inside the mesh curtain to keep the machine clean). Next time I'll start with a cold water soak overnight to get the loose dirt out, since it would've saved me the second soapy wash and probably a few rinses, and softened out those tips that had been stuck together with dirt.

Käytin vanhaa valoverhoa villan siirtelyyn, ja pesin kuumassa vedessä tavallisella tiskiaineella, lisäten hanaveteen vähän kiehuvaa vettä. Liotin vain 10-15 minuuttia ettei villa ehtinyt jäähtyä, pesin toistamiseen saippualla jos vesi näytti vielä mustalta ja huuhtelin useampaan kertaan lämpimässä vedessä. Lopuksi linkosin vedet pois talopesulan isossa lingossa (verhon sisällä, tottakai). Ensi kerralla liotan villoja ensin kylmässä vedessä, niin pahimmat liat lähtevät eikä tarvitse sitten kuuman kanssa lotrata niin paljon.

It took a few weekends, but by June everything was washed and dried. The bit of brown wool that had been freshly sheared was also washed, and it taught me the importance of NO AGITATION! The cut ends got a bit matted together...

Kesäkuulle siinä meni ennen kuin kaikki oli pesty. Opin samalla ettei märkää villaa parane sörkkiä - mukana oli ollut vähän vastakerittyäkin villaa, jonka leikkuupinnat takkuuntuivat vähän käsittelyssä...




Then the renovation/move came, and spinning took a back seat. In September I took a Ravelry challenge for spinning fleece, and started on the white. Due to the matting, it had to be carded twice: first untangled with the coarse 32 tpi carders, and then made into rolags with the fine 100 tpi ones, and there was still a lot of waste (pile on the top right):

Elokuu kului remontteeratessa, mutta tässä kuussa innostuin Ravelry-haasteesta ja aloitin käsittelemään valkoista villaa. Takut piti ensin selvittää karkeilla karstoilla, ennen kuin villoista sai tehtyä kunnon lepereitä hienommilla - ja vieläkin löytyi roskavillaa (toinen kasa ylhäällä oikealla):



I spun it woolen on a spindle. It all fit!

Kehräsin valkoiset villat värttinällä pitkällä vedolla - kaikki mahtui!



Because I was practicing my woolen spinning, they yarn got a lot of thin spots, but there's a whole 100g skein of it, also plied with a spindle:

Yhteensä sitä on 100g, kertasin sen myös värttinällä. Ohuita kohtia löytyy paljon, koska pitkä veto on vielä hakusessa:



I've sampled the brown, but haven't decided on the yarn specs. We'll see what happens.

Olen ehtinyt tekemään vähän koelankaa ruskeasta, mutten ole vielä päättänyt mitä siitä tulee. Katsotaan.

Winter spinning

H'm. I've got lots of stuff I should probably post about - but let's start with the spinning.

Minulla olisi paljonkin näytettävää, mutta aloitetaan kehräämisestä!

First, five skeins:
Ensin viisi vyyhteä:



From the left:
Vasemmalta:

White 2-ply Finnsheep, 31g / ca. 190m, laceweight. This is an older skein that was badly, badly plied. I re-un-plied it with a spindle (took ages) and it's now balanced... but I do not want to go through that again. Next time, I will take the time to adjust the wheel.

Valkoista suomenlammasta, 2-säikeinen, 31g / n. 190m. "Korjasin" epätasaisen kierteen valmiista langasta värttinällä, ja kesti sen verran kauan että ensi kerralla kulutan mieluummin sen viisi minuuttia rukin säätämiseen.

Brown 2-ply Finnsheep, my first attempt of one-handed woolen longdraw on a spinning wheel, 41g / 97m, 12-13 wpi. Thick and thin and partly overplied, but all in all, I'm happy!

Ruskeaa suomenlammasta, 2-säikeinen, 41g / 97m, 12-13 kierrosta/tuuma. Ensi yritys kehrätä villaista "pitkää vetoa", joten lanka on epätasaista, mutta aika kivaa siitä kuitenkin tuli!

Green 3-ply Finnsheep, 7g / ca. 26m. First 3-ply, and pretty thin at that. I was going to do sock stripes from this and a few other batts, but we'll see how much I get at the end.

Vihreää suomenlammasta, 3-säikeinen, 7g / n. 26m. Tuli ohuempaa kuin suunnittelin, mutta ehkä tästä jonkun raidan sukansuuhun saa...

Red Navajo-plied Finnsheep, a test mini-skein on my new spindle! My dad actually spun a bit of the single just so he could "see how it works", and my sister tried too... didn't take, yet.

Punaista uudella värttinällä navajo-tyyliin kerrattua suomenlammasta. Koekappale, joku pätkä on isän ja siskonkin tekemää.

Then, the latest:
Viimeisin:



2-ply laceweight merino spun and plied on a spindle, 19 g / 171 m. I Andean-plied it; NOT going to try that again with thin singles! Or at the very least I'm going to make the plying bracelet big enough to actually go around the wrist. In any case, just a tip: winding 300+ metres on the plying bracelet will take a long, long time.

2-säikeistä merinovillaa, 19 g / 171 m. Kehrätty ja kerrattu värttinällä. En muuten suosittele laittamaan 300+ metristä ohutta säiettä perulaiselle kertausrannekkeelle - tai jos yrittää, pitää muistaa tehdä sen verran löysä ettei verenkierto tyrehdy ja ranneke mahtuu kämmenen yli!

Here's a in progress / spindle glamour shot:
Tässä kuva kertauksesta käynnissä, sekä värttinöistä:



Upper spindle is used now as the "bracelet holder". I used it for spinning the single. It's plywood and (I think) pine, and weighs about 20 g. The bottom one is new, also plywood and pine, and weighs ca. 31 g.

Ylempi on vanha värttinä, 21 g, tässä kertausrannekkeen pidikkeenä. Kehräsin säikeen sillä ja kertasin sen uudella värttinällä, joka muuten painaa 31 g. Kummatkin on tehty vanerista ja puutikusta (todennäköisesti mäntyä), eikä osia ole liimattu yhteen kun tuntuvat noinkin pysyvän paikoillaan.

That's all for today! But there will be something new upcoming soon: an adventure in hat knitting.

Siinä kaikki tällä kertaa! Olisi vielä kerrottavaa piponkudontarintamalta - mutta se onkin jo tarina toiselle päivälle.

2008 recap: spinning

OK, so last year was busy. Very busy. Not so busy that I didn't have the time to do anything, but busy enough that I didn't have the time to write about it. So, here we go:

Viime vuonna oli niin kiire, etten ehtinyt kirjoittaa mitään vaikka paljon tulikin tehtyä. Tässä loppuvuoden tuloksia:

From somewhere around - err.... August (!) Blue Estonian wool spun on a wheel, 2-ply laceweight, 52 g, ca. 265 m. The pic is bad, but there isn't much light and my phone camera just can't do it, not even with flash. The yarn itself actually came out pretty nicely.

Elokuulta: sinistä vironvillaa rukilla. 2-säikeistä, 52g ja n. 265m.



Showing off the new niddy-noddy I and my dad made from an old broom handle (recycling!):

Viipsinpuu on kyhätty kokoon vanhasta harjanvarresta ja kahdesta ruuvista isän kanssa. Ei tarkkoja mittoja (olisiko keskipuu ollut 30 cm ja ristikkäispuut n. 20 cm?), mutta tällä saa aikaiseksi n. 60cm pitkän vyyhden:



And for a tech explanation - I spun first one bobbin full of singles, then put it on the noddy and divided roughly in half. Roughly, but not exactly - so I did an Andean plying bracelet and connected the short end with the long end and Andean plied the rest:

Kehräsin ensin yhden rullan täyteen, jaoin sen sitten kahdelle kerälle ja kertasin ne yhteen. Toinen kerä oli isompi, joten kun pienempi kerä loppui, kertasin lopun langan perulaisen kertausrannekkeen avulla itsensä kanssa (Abby Franquemont on kirjoittanut tästä hyvän artikkelin.



From November, there's this white Finnsheep spun on the same wheel, 2-ply laceweight, 31g, ca. 185 m. I got my first pair of hand cards and made some rolags for the last bit of the wool, and it was fun! Unfortunately, I had trouble with tension when plying and was too tired to actually solve them, so as a result this skein is half overplied and half underplied. Oh, and the colours are off, this is a creamy white and not bluish-green!

Marraskuulta on tämä valkoinen suomenlammas, myös rukilla kehrättyä 2-säikeistä. 31g, n. 185 m. Ikävä kyllä en ollut tarpeeksi kärsivällinen rukkia säätäessäni, joten lanka on puoleksi yli- ja puoleksi alikierteistä.



The colours are true in this photo of my plying setup - I put knitting needles through the bobbins to create the improvised lazy Kate with the (traditional Finnish wood-strip) basket:

Tässä kuva kertauksesta - pärekori ja pitkät neulepuikot ovat oivallinen apu tähän!



In November, I also tried one-handed long draw with some brown Finnsheep. As you can guess, it came out thick and thin - I noticed that the better rolags you make, the easier it is to do; also, adjusting the drive band tension correctly is important. I still have some brown left, so I'll practice more. Fun!

Lopuksi, kokeilin englantilaistyylistä "pitkää vetoa" yhdellä kädellä (English longdraw). Jos tätä kokeilee, kannattaa karstata lepereet huolella ja kokeilla, mikä rukin säätö parhaiten toimii. Huomasin, että kun muuttaa hihnan kireyttä tukin isosta ruuvista, rukki vetää lankaa puolalle joko nopeasti (hihna kireällä) tai hitaasti (hihna löysällä) - hitaasti on hyvä ohutta lankaa varten, nopeasti taas paksua lankaa varten.



I've also been spindle-spinning some lovely white and baby-blue Merino, but more of that later. I still have some roving left!

Värttinällä on vielä ihanan pehmeää sinivalkoista merinoa, mutta sitä on vielä jäljellä!

The Spinning Post

Did I mention something about spinning? Well...

Postin aiheesta johtuen riskeeraan ylipitkän sepustuksen ja kirjoitan myös suomeksi.

Last year I decided to learn how to spin. I'd seen lovely pictures of people spinning and yummy wool on Craftster and elsewhere, and then one day, I decided to try. I found some felting wool - figuring that it was already carded, so why not give it a go - put together a spindle out of a cardboard-cutout circle, a hair stick and some yarn and got to it. The proto-spindle was very, very light and very wobbly (hairsticks are not designed for a smooth spin) and the yarn was, predictably, lumpy. If I did manage to create a tolerable single, it fluffed out while plying and I couldn't figure out why!

Viime vuonna päätin opetella kehräämään. Kun kerran olin idean päähäni saanut, pakko oli yrittää vaikka sitten Tiimarin huovutusvillalla ja nutturapiikistä ja riisipaketin kyljestä leikatusta pahviympyrästä kyhätyllä "värttinällä". Tulos oli äärimmäisen kevyt, mutta kyllä sillä jonkinlaista langantapaista aikaan sai...



Later I got my hands on more wool (again, felting wool) and with my Dad's help, made a real spindle out of a plywood circle and a wooden stick. It comes apart, because it isn't glued, but I convinced myself that this is actually a feature as it makes traveling easier. Never mind that before you have spun a fair amount of yarn, the whorl tends to move around, which makes it harder to spin.

Löysin sitten lisää villaa, virolaista huovutusvillaa tämäkin. Isän avulla kasasin vaneriympyrästä ja puutikusta toisen värttinän, joka pysyy koossa alkulangan avulla. Seitsemän veljestä näyttää sopivan tähänkin tehtävään hyvin!



Then, I went to Belgium for 5 months and despite taking my travel-ready spindle along, I didn't do anything with it. Instead, I bought yarn and needles and knit - but that's another story. After I had got back and settled down, I dug my wool out again...

Olin sitten ulkomailla, ja kehruu jäi vähäksi aikaa, mutta kotiin tultuani aloitin taas...



And then, after almost a year of practicing, I finally learned to ply. (Who would've guessed that you need that much twist?!) Isn't the blue colour wonderful?

Vuosi siinä meni, mutta viimein opin myös kertaamaan. Kierrettä pitää olla enemmän kuin arvaisikaan!



The next step was (of course) finding a wheel. My both grandmothers had spinning wheels, of the Finnish traditional type. The wheel that belonged to my late gran on the dad's side was lovely and very old, and after much examination and cleaning I realised that it would need to be taken apart and put together again before it could be used, because it has spent the last 30 years in a barn. However, it is pretty! (I experimentally spun some rough flax fibre - you can't really use the pedal, and the string keeps popping off the wheel, but it almost works.)

Seuraavaksi ei kun kyselemään suvun perintörukkien perään. Kummallakin mummolla sellainen oli - isänäidin rukki on kaunis ja vanha, mutta niin heikossa kunnossa 30-vuotisen riihessä oleskelun jälkeen että se tarvitsisi perusteellisen entistyksen. Siitä huolimatta onnistui silläkin tappuroiden kehruu kädellä pyörittäen.



My gran on the mom's side also had a wheel, which she borrowed/gave to me. It's factory-made in the 1940s, and had a prolonged stay in the cold attic, which means that the paint was flaking and all parts that could rust, had.

Äidinäidin sodanaikuinen ja tehdastekoinen rukki oli jo paremmassa kunnossa, mutta siinäkin rukin lyhdyn koukut tarvitsivat viilan ja Pata-patan apua ruosteesta päästäkseen. Huonolaatuinen maali oli myös kärsinyt kylmällä ullakolla oleilusta. Viimeksi sitä oli käytetty kangaspuilla kudottaessa tarvittavien lankarullien kiertämiseen, ja siinä apuna ollut tikku oli katkennut ja juuttunut torven sisään.



I cleaned it, scrubbed the rust off, replaced the leader string and tested it... and it works! Later Granny told me that they used to use 2-ply for woolly trousers and sweaters, and 3-ply for socks. The thread was wound on balls for plying.

Puhdistin rukin, poistin ruosteen, vaihdoin nyörin ja kaivoin kepinpätkän torvesta ulos... ja sehän toimi! Myöhemmin kuulin mummolta, että ennen 2-säikeistä lankaa käytettiin villahousuihin ja villapaitoihin, mutta 3-säikeistä sukkiin. Kertaamista varten lanka kierrettiin kerille.



Unfortunately, I can only use the wheel when I'm at my parents' house, so meanwhile I'm relying on my traveling spindle. I've since found a batch of lovely baby-blue/white mohair edit: merino! top, and it's so smooth. So it's a fair guess that this won't be the last time I'll be talking about spinning.

Koska rukki ei ihan yksiööni mahdu, se saa asua vanhempieni luona. Käytän vieläkin useimmiten värttinää. Löysin Taito-shopista ihanaa vaaleansini-valkoista mohair edit: merinohahtuvaa, joka kehräytyy kuin unelma, joten lisääkin asiaa kehräämisestä saattaa vielä tulla kirjotettua.