New Textiles 2010

I made yarn! Well, actually, I made 3 yarns, but I will only discuss my final yarn in detail. My final yarn is a two-ply wool-steel blend. One of the plies is wool-only and the other is a mixture of conductive steel fibers and wool. The plies were spun using a drop-spindle and then plied by hand. The yarn was not soaked in hot water, so the twist isn't set and its not quite a "finished" yarn. However, I am happy with it! My goal was to learn to spin, and by spinning both a normal wool ply and a wool-steel blend, I was able to experiment with the difference between spinning natural and man-made fibers. Also, I was hoping to make a conductive yarn but I wasn't sure how much steel I needed to spin into the yarn for that. Luckily the amount of steel I added to the second ply was enough to have good conductance over the whole 2 meter yarn.

I also measured the tex of the yarn. First I weighed the yarn I made. Then I converted its weight into a weight (in grams) per length (meters), which was 2.365 grams/meter. Since tex is the weight of 1000 meters of yarn, I multiplied 2.365 by 1000 to find that the tex of my yarn is 2,365.

http://web.mit.edu/dawn/www/MAS962/yarn/chart2.jpg

• Spinning is HARD - YouTube makes it look easy! It takes a lot of patience and coordination to do correctly. However, I think this assignment was good because 2 yards was a reasonable amount to make, not too much, not too little.

Close-up pictures of the yarn show the conductive steel fibers running through the second ply. The steel fibers didn't integrate very well with the wool even though I was trying to combine them evenly while spinning.

back to the Yarn Assignment page

http://web.mit.edu/dawn/www/MAS962/yarn/chart.jpg

http://web.mit.edu/dawn/www/MAS962/yarn/chart.jpg //

http://web.mit.edu/dawn/www/MAS962/yarn/chart.jpg \\ \\

http://web.mit.edu/dawn/www/MAS962/yarn/chart.jpg

http://web.mit.edu/dawn/www/MAS962/yarn/chart.jpg \\

http://web.mit.edu/dawn/www/MAS962/yarn/chart.jpg \\

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Extra Credit Measurements: Tex

I also measured the tex of the yarn. First I weighed the yarn I made. Then I converted its weight into a weight (in grams) per length (meters), which was 2.365 grams/meter. Since tex is the weight of 1000 meters of yarn, I multiplied 2.36 by 1000 to find that the tex of my yarn is 2,365.

http://web.mit.edu/dawn/www/MAS962/yarn/banner.jpg

I made yarn! Well, actually, I made 3 yarns, but I will only discuss my final yarn in detail. My final yarn is a two-ply wool-steel blend. One of the plies is wool-only and the other is a mixture of conductive steel fibers and wool. The plies were spun using a drop-spindle and then plied by hand. The yarn was not soaked in hot water, so the twist isn't set and its not quite a "finished" yarn. However, I am happy with it! My goal was to learn to spin, and by spinning both a normal wool ply and a wool-steel blend, I was able to experiment with the difference between spinning natural and man-made fibers.

http://web.mit.edu/dawn/www/MAS962/yarn/yarn.jpg

http://web.mit.edu/dawn/www/MAS962/yarn/chart.jpg

http://web.mit.edu/dawn/www/MAS962/yarn/yarn1.jpg http://web.mit.edu/dawn/www/MAS962/yarn/yarn2.jpg http://web.mit.edu/dawn/www/MAS962/yarn/yarn3.jpg http://web.mit.edu/dawn/www/MAS962/yarn/yarn4.jpg

• Plying magnifies any inconsistencies in your tension from spinning. Luckily art yarns are very pretty! :-)

• Spinning is HARD - YouTube makes it look easy! It takes a lot of patience and coordination to do correctly. However, I think this assignment was good because 2 yards was a reasonable amount to make, not too much, not too little.
• The metal fibers seem soft at first, but the definitely "shed" more, so little bits of metal ended up all around where I was spinning. Also, I found that I couldn't run my hand along the roving as tightly with the steel because it was more prickly than the wool when being held tightly.

PICTURE \\

I made yarn! Well, actually, I made 3 yarns, but I will only discuss my final yarn in detail. My final yarn is a two-ply wool-steel blend. One of the plies is wool-only and the other is a mixture of conductive steel fibers and wool. The plies were spun using a drop-spindle and then plied by hand. The yarn was not soaked in hot water, so the twist isn't set and its not quite a "finished" yarn. However, I am happy with it! My goal was to learn to spin, and by spinning both a normal wool ply and a wool-steel blend, I was able to experiment with the difference between spinning natural and man-made fibers.

I made yarn! Well, actually, I made 3 yarns, but I will only discuss my final yarn in detail. My final yarn is a two-ply wool-steel blend. One of the plies is wool-only and the other is a mixture of conductive steel fibers and wool. The plies were spun using a drop-spindle and then plied by hand.

back to the Yarn Assignment page

back to the Yarn Assignment

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Extra Credit Measurements

denier or tex

yarn size

tenacity

elongation

elastic recovery

absorbency

Yarn Specifications

Diameter (micrometers)

Total length of yarn (meters or yards)

Ply

Fiber length (millimeters)

Twist direction

Twist (turns per inch)

Conductivity (ohms per centimeter or ohms per inch)

Yarn Specifications

The following properties of the yarn were measured:

Diameter (micrometers)

Total length of yarn (meters or yards)

Ply

Fiber length (millimeters)

Twist direction

Twist (turns per inch)

Conductivity (ohms per centimeter or ohms per inch)

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Dawn's Yarn Assignment: Conductive Spinning

Due March 10, 2010

PICTURE

I made yarn...

Yarn Specifications

Diameter (micrometers)

Total length of yarn (meters or yards)

Ply

Fiber length (millimeters)

Twist direction

Twist (turns per inch)

Conductivity (ohms per centimeter or ohms per inch)

Thoughts, Improvements, Suggestions

• Lessons learned while making yarn...