24 August 2025 --- Ralph

   

There is so much info on the web about spinning that having anything more than a few paragraphs here seems pointless!  AND ... as usual, this is my best take, but I'm sure a heavy-duty guy would have me change or refine some of this.  It seems each time I learn a new paragraph's worth of something, it turns out there is a whole chapter I didn't even know existed.

WeatherWool requires two types of spinning: worsted spinning and woolen spinning. The machinery to spin each is significantly different, which is why our worsted spinning is done by Kentwool Yarns and our woolen spinning is by American Woolen.

THANKS to the extremely versatile Renaissance man (and great customer) Chris Karam for these drawings.

The terms WOOLEN and WORSTED are a little confusing, at least in our case, because all our yarns are 100% WeatherWool Certified Fine Wool.   These terms specify the general type of spinning and NOT the composition of the fiber being spun.

• WORSTED derives from the town of Worsted in Norfolk, England, which was was a textile center in the 1100's, and which was known for this type of spinning.  Fabrics made from worsted yarns are often also referred to as worsted
• Although this type of spinning is named for wool, any type of fiber can be woolen spun ... cotton, hemp, synthetic, blends
• Any type of fiber can be worsted spun ... cotton, hemp, synthetic, blends

Adding to the potential confusion is that people will refer to warp yarns and weft yarns, and these terms have nothing to do with what the yarn is made of, or how the yarn is spun.  Warp yarns run lengthwise through a bolt of fabric.   Weft yarns run side-to-side across a bolt of fabric.  Rob Stuart, our original Fabric Engineer from Woolrich, gave me a great mnemonic.   Think of the E in WEFT as symbolizing yarns running parallel, sideways in the bolt of fabric.   And the A in WARP suggests the lengthwise yarns.

Here is how WeatherWool uses different types of spinning in our warp and weft, depending on the type of Fabric:

• Our FullWeight Jacquard Fabric uses woolen-spun weft and worsted-spun warp
• Our MidWeight Jacquard Fabric uses woolen-spun weft and worsted-spun warp
• Our 100% Wool Denim uses the same woolen-spun yarn for both weft and warp
• Our Whipcord Fabric uses the same worsted-spun yarn for both weft and warp
• Our LighWeight/Heritage Fabric uses the same worsted-spun yarn for both weft and warp

 

Again (sorry!) ... Kentwool spins the warp yarn, which runs lengthwise through a bolt of fabric. The weft yarn runs crosswise through a bolt of fabric. 

In general, but not always, the weft (also known as the "fill") provides the characteristics of the fabric, but our MidWeight Fabric is (by weight) 31% warp, and our FullWeight is 21% warp. So the performance of the warp is a major component of the performance of our Jacquard Fabrics, and this is why we go to the trouble and expense of 100% wool warp. Many "woolens" will use warp made of other materials. But ... that's "weaving" and this page is "spinning"!!

In the case of our Denim, Whipcord and Heritage Fabrics, the warp and weft yarns are the same, except that in the Denim (so far!), the weft is Natural/Undyed, and the warp is dyed.

(Probably I should re-state, just to eliminate any uncertainty, that our yarns and Fabrics are all 100% wool.  I don't know why the industry uses the term "woolen spinning".  It's confusing, I think.)

And while it may not directly be considered part of "spinning", once yarn is spun it is normally twisted.  Twisting is just what it sounds like ... One part of the yarn is held stationary and another part is turned.  Yarns can be twisted in either direction.  After twisting, the yarn needs to be treated so that it relaxes, and the tension that is built up during twisting is relieved.

Plying is another step that is not strictly "spinning", but closely related.  It is typical to take strands of yarn and wrap them around one another ... usually two strands but sometimes more.  Like twisting, plying also makes the overall yarn stronger per unit weight.  And plied yarn must also be relaxed before weaving.

Twisting and plying both can be done in either direction, but plying will normally be done in the opposite direction of the twisting.

As usual, Woolmark, the great Australian wool trade-promotion organization, has a terrific 3-minute video with an overview of wool processing, including spinning and preparation for spinning. We do take one exception to this video, however. Woolmark mentions that shorter fibers go to woolen spinning and longer fibers to worsted spinning. All our fiber is long, suitable for worsted spinning.  We use exceptionally long fibers because this will make stronger yarn, and therefore stronger and more-durable garments. Yarns made from longer fiber will also be more comfortable against bare skin. As usual, this approach is more costly!

Wikipedia has a substantial entry on spinning, and as usual it is cross-linked to many other entries with more information!

One more nice little detail ... People in the industry will often pronounce WOOSTERED instead of WORSTED.  Same thing.

When I asked Giuseppe Monteleone, Director of Operations at American Woolen, to look over what I've written here, Giuseppe said it was OK, and gave me a great quote (THANKS GIUSEPPE!) in September of 2024:

“There is a lot more science and technical information behind the Worsted spinning and the Woolen spinning. We can’t compare to each other because they are two separate worlds. Remember the yarn is the foundation of the fabric. If the yarn is bad the finish fabric will be horrible.”

The first step in the processing of our wool is scouring, which is basically cleaning the wool.  Normally, woolen spinning uses scoured wool that has not undergone any further processing.  But beginning with Batch 9, WeatherWool has taken a very different route.  Worsted spinning requires the scoured fiber also undergo carding and combing., additional preparatory processes that remove tangles, short fibers and any remaining dirt or vegetable matter.  The resulting, cleaner fiber is known as TOP.

Although worsted-spinning requires TOP,  woolen-spinning does not.   But in our case, we use top wool for both our woolen-spun and worsted-spun yarns.  We incur the considerable additional expense because yarns spun from top are stronger, more comfortable and cleaner.  Fabrics made only with top wool do not need to be carbonized.   And this is a big deal to me!

On a related note ... When top is sent to Kentwool for worsted spinning and American Woolen Company for woolen spinning, it needs to be packaged in BUMPS.  I had known for a while that AWC required the top sliver (loooong continuous bundles of top) to be cut into bumps of 4.25 inches (11 cm).   It always bothered me that my long, beautiful top was being cut into short lengths for woolen/weft spinning.  (Maybe someday we'll avoid that.)  But it was driving me crazy, and it made no sense whatever, that our worsted-spun warp was also being cut into these little bumps.  I thrashed over this for quite a while until finally, someone explained to me that a worsted-spinning bump is a 10-kilo (22-pound) of continuous top sliver.  AHHHHH!

The yarn we use for our Denim is referred to as 2/30:

• The "30" in 2/30 means that 30 kilometers of this yarn weighs one kilogram.  So even the relatively thick and fuzzy woolen-spun Denim yarn (warp and weft are the same in the Denim, except for the dyeing) is extremely light and thin
• The "2" in 2/30 means that the 30-gauge yarn is plied with another strand of 30-gauge yarn, so the weight is considered the same as a 15-gauge yarn.   And I completely do NOT understand how plying the yarns together does not also shrink them lengthwise.  I feel like a 2/30 would be more like a 10-gauage.  But that's not how the industry sees it ...

 

 

 **************************************************

Below is some basic information (in the form of a first draft-email of 28 January 2023) about spinning from Advisor Rob Stuart, who has been working with us since we began to develop Fabric!