Tahkli with felted plying balls

[altivo]

Tahkli
Originally uploaded by Altivo

As promised a couple of days ago, here's a photo of the felt balls in use.

Clockwise from upper left: a felted ball of wool used as a core to wrap cobweb yarn onto before plying; another such ball with a spindle full of fine cashmere thread wound onto it; aluminum support block to stand the point of the spindle on while working; brass tahkli itself, a supported spindle from India; and a pinch of Mongolian cashmere fiber. Cashmere is the extremely soft and downy undercoat of certain goats who live in cold, high altitude climates. Examine photo at full size to see the delicate thread that joins the spindle to the wad of loose fiber. (Click on photo, then on "All sizes" at upper margin of image.) For scale, the brass whorl of the spindle is slightly larger than a US or Canadian five cent piece.

This is an amazing but painstaking way to spin. The famous cashmere and silk shawls of central Asia are knitted on size 0 needles from yarn made by plying a single strand of cashmere spun in this way with a thinner strand of silk (usually from commercial sources.) The famous knitters of Orenburg, Russia used wooden spindles but they operated in the same manner, supported by standing the point of the spindle in a bowl. This allows very thin, light thread to be spun because the yarn does not have to support the weight of the hanging spindle.

Comments

[herefox.livejournal.com]

I've played with it a little bit now. It's interesting though it's rather slow and frustrating since every time you have a few inches you have to stop, unwind the yarn from the spindle then wind it again then rewrap and go again. I'm sure I'll get faster but I don't think I'm going to be spinning blankets worth of cotton anytime soon *grin*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

No, I don't imagine you'd spin blankets worth of cotton on a tahkli. On a charkha or a great wheel, though, it would be conceivable. Using the tahkli helps you to understand the differences between short fiber spinning (cotton, camel down, cashmere, etc.) and the moderately long fibers (sheep's wool, mohair, alpaca, llama) and get a feel at a slower pace for the drafting against active twist/adding more twist cycles. The tahkli does excel for extremely fine yarns, though, and for really expensive fibers like cashmere or qiviut.

As for the length of draft, I find that if I stand with the supported spindle on a table or desktop, I can draw out about three feet and get it twisted till it's stable before having to wind on. Spinners who use a great wheel efficiently often draft out as much as 50 to 60 inches between winding on according to Alden Amos. His calculations are extensive, but he concludes that a proficient spinner using a great wheel can still produce more yards per hour than the user of a flyer wheel.

Amos' contention is that flyer wheels excel only at the very long fibers: linen and hemp. They were invented for that and adapted to the other fibers we use. There's some truth in that, I guess. Many people insist that you can't spin cotton on a flyer wheel at all, though I learned how and can prove they're wrong.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

*sits near the yarn, oddly getting closer each time you look up* ;) Are you going to make something out of the cashmere?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Probably a filmy scarf of knitted lace. I'll pick a lace pattern from the Orenburg tradition, and I'm thinking I'll ply the cashmere with a silk thread for strength. Cashmere is pretty wispy stuff but it's amazingly soft.

I'll probably run over to my neighbor's shop today and buy an ounce of tussah silk to spin up and use that for plying. The silk is only about $4 an ounce. The cashmere would have cost more like $64 an ounce, which is way beyond my budget but, as mentioned before, it was given to me.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

My mother used to make lacey things, I was amazed at the patterns she could do. I still look in awe at people who can knit and make clothes with needly things :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Knitting is really easy. There are only two stitches, when you come right down to it. Everything else is just a combination or variation of those two movements.

It's highly portable, too. All you need is the needles and a ball of yarn, maybe a little pair of scissors. While I love weaving, it requires a lot of heavy equipment and isn't something you can do on the train or while sitting in a boring meeting.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I'd imagine you might annoy one or two fellow passengers if when throwing the shuttle through the loom it bopped one on the bonce.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I have friends who weave while riding in the car or on trains, but they do tapestry weaving on a little frame. No shuttles, just fingers. My favorite loom wouldn't even go in the door on most commuter trains. XD

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I must say that's something I haven't seen anyone do on a train or bus yet.