Setting the Twist

There is one important step to spinning that often gets forgotten. It's called setting the twist.



Once in a skein, yarn must be soaked in warm/hot water for a few minutes before being dried. Now you can't just wring out your wool like you would while hand washing clothes. Here are a few rules for handling wool:

Treat your wool gently.

Never pour water over your wool, just place the wool in the water.

Do not twist, or wring out wool.

And please do not put your wool in the washing machine.


To dry your wool after it's been soaking, use a towel to roll the wool in while squeezing out the access water.




You have two options when drying. You could either hang your wet skein and attached a heavy weight to the bottom to stretch the skein out. You can do this by attaching a heavy can or draping something over the bottom to pull on the yarn. Alternatively you could also just hang the skein and add no weight which would provide a different look altogether for your yarn.



I use our indoor drying rack to dry my skeins. It works well. After a bit of manipulation I have found a good way to pull my skeins down giving it a bit of stretch.