Hello and welcome. I am Kim Bigler, the owner of youthful fiber farm and mill. And I'm sitting at home in Harrisburg, Oregon. Today here to talk to you a little bit about consistency in your hands. Fun yarn. So I've got some great tips for you before I start with those tips. I just want to remind you that there are lots of places that you can find me. Such as the youthful Patrion community, which this very weekend, we are having a social meetup on zoom on Sunday.
So if you jump into the group, You can come along and meet some other wonderful fiber people and just share and inspire and have a good time. You can also head to my website with which is youthful fiber farm.com. And you can find me in a myriad of places on social media and YouTube. All the links are in the show notes. So. And if you are a brand new hand spinner and you are having a heck of a time as some of us do, I do have an online course for that. Let's make yarn.
So check it out on my website. You can purchase it anytime and you can start the course right away. So there you go. Okay. Consistency in our hand, spun yarn. So I'm going to first pose the question before I start on my tips. Does your hand spun yarn. Need to be perfect. This is such a personal question. And for some of you, it's going to be absolutely. I need it to be perfect. I want it to look like what I would buy in the store. Wonderful.
For some of you, it's going to be like, oh my gosh, I'm just excited to be making our periods. Which is how I felt when I started. And for others, we just kind of myself included. In this camp, I just kind of have settled into and enjoy the small amount of inconsistencies that are in my yarn. Now that I have been spinning for eight plus years. So. Just things to. To think about you can make absolutely gorgeous things for most of you with that first scheme you make. I am not in that camp.
I could not do it, but I've seen many of my students. They're first schemes are, are, they have used them to make things. And the best thing you can do is throw those first schemes, start using them right away. It doesn't have to be a hundred percent consistent for you to be able to use it. You'll be amazed by how much you're knitting, crocheting, or weaving. Being whatever you may be using it for. We'll hide a lot of those inconsistencies. So. Anyway, something to think about.
Okay. So let's get in on some tips because most of us work towards consistency on some level, if not a hundred percent consistent, at least. Sort of consistent, right? We don't want huge slugs necessarily in tiny parts and loss. We're working on our yard, which we're doing that on purpose. Okay, so tip number one. Be patient. I know this one is so hard. It's so hard, but ASQ. Especially if you are a beginner. Don't overlook the fact that you are making yarn and that you figured it out.
So when you start spinning yarn, celebrate the huge win in that, because it's not the easiest thing to start up. I, if you know my story, you know, I had a heck of a time learning to hand spin on my wheel. Which is where I started. So be patient with yourself, give yourself grace and celebrate when you do figure it out. Don't worry, this. Is something I tell my students all the time, don't worry about what the yarn looks like. When you first start and I heard this from.
I hand spinner on the Shetland islands. I think Elizabeth Williamson, I could be wrong. Anyway, I heard this tip from somebody and thought it's genius. Like, don't worry about what the yarn looks like. When you're first starting, just worry about learning to draft and being comfortable with that because the consistency. Guess what? It comes later, it comes later. So be patient. Celebrate the wins.
And don't forget to enjoy the fact that you are learning this new craft, and you've just figured out how to get twists, to stay in fiber and make yarn hurrah. Trust me, if you do this in public anywhere, people will be mesmerized and think you are a magician. So. Celebrate that. Okay now for a more concrete tip. Loose fiber prep, the looser, your fiber prep is. I mean, you don't want it falling apart, but looser, fiber prep. Is going to make for an easier consistent hand spin.
And what do I mean by that? So at my mill, I make roving most of the time, and I'm very focused on making a roving that is consistent as far as how much fiber is, is. In each little section there. And that it's loose because it's coming straight off of my Carter and going out the door to you. So I'm because many of us that own mills have spun on commercial. Equipment at some point, like I used to, I don't anymore.
I've focused on hand spinners now, but I used to spin on my commercial machine yarn and you need to have a very consistent roving. To have a very consistent yarn on a commercial spinner. So. I still make all of my fiber in the same way as if it was going onto a spinner. I weigh it. It's all basically the same, basically the same throughout. So I'm putting three and a half ounces in. Every time I'm putting feed in.
So what comes out the other side is consistent and that's going to make for an easier. Fiber to spin consistently. And it's also loose because it's just coming right off it. Hasn't had to go through it. Didn't get died. It didn't go through all the myriad of different things that it can go through to. To make it denser. Uh, if your are doing hand carding role lags for yourself, that's a generally speaking, that's a very loose fiber. You're going to create.
It may be less consistent until you get better at it, but it's going to be loose and that's half the battle. So roving from smaller meals and prepping it yourself are great ways to get some loose fiber. I do steer people clear of wool top. I said it before a million times, and I'll say it again, a million times, those beautiful, lovely braids that we all are drawn to. I say, put them aside when you first start, because. How those are processed. It's much denser.
You're going to have to do some pre drafting to some extent. And I do have a video somewhere on that. But I can't remember where. Uh, You're going to have to do some, probably opening up of the fibers beforehand to make it a little bit easier. A lot of those fibers are, we're not going to get into breeds. We just won't even get into breeds, but it's going to be a little more difficult because a lot of times that fiber will top is not processed locally. No matter where you are for the most part.
And so it's been shipped a lot, which compacts it, uh, in general, the fiber is denser. That's how they. Make it, and a lot of times it's a died, which can, depending on the dire, compact that fiber even more. So I say, save those colored, uh, braids until you are feeling more comfortable. And until you are getting a more consistent yarn. On other fiber processes. So. Loose fiber prep. Okay. Don't forget you all.
You can go into the show notes and there is a Google form you can click on and fill out if you have questions. So feel free to do that because I check it and I will answer them. Okay. Uh, so my third tip is have a light. Tension on your spinning wheel. Light tension, meaning oh, light uptake. Meaning. You don't feel like the yarn is being ripped away from you. As it's being spun by your wheel. So if you feel like you are.
Holding dearly onto that fiber because the wheel is going to take it away before you're ready. Okay. We all feel like that in the beginning. So realize that as a beginner, you're going to feel like, oh my gosh, it's taking the fiber away so fast, but as you settle in. There are ways to adjust your tension on your wheel and you can have a nice loose, especially if you have a scotch tension, you can have a nice blue scotch tension on your wheel.
And what that's going to do is it's going to have the fiber taken away from you slower. And the reason I recommend this is because if we feel like the wheel is trying to yank. The yarn away from us, we are going to tense up our hands. And when we tend to up our hands, it. It will lead into the next tip. Things get real and we tend to get more slobby yarn, and we tend to be grabbing different amounts.
So a light tension kind of allows us to relax, know that the wheel's not trying to rip the fiber away from us. And we'll move on to the two. Um, the next tip, but if you are unsure of. How to change the tension. On your wheel. If you have a scotch tension, Gale, it's basically for most of the wheels. It is. It's a stretchy band, or there will be a little metal coil and you want those fairly loose. Like I say, go as loose as you can. Can, or it's still taking fiber away from you.
But it's not feeling like it's ripping away from you. You can always adjust it up so start low. And if it's not taking it away from you enough. Adjust up. Um, Yes. And if you have more questions, if you're like, I have no idea what you're talking about. Maybe my online course will help you along the way. So think about that. Okay. So we have light tension on our wheel because we don't want to feel stressed out because what happens when we're stressed out, it leads. Into my fourth point.
You need your hands as loose as you can. Let them be. And this is so hard as a beginner. It's so hard. And I think the first class I took, they said, pretend like you have a little and lots of us have heard this right. Pretend like you have a little baby bird nest or little baby chicken in your hand and you have to be so light when you're holding that. Like you're pretending like you're fiber, like a little baby chicken. And the light, if you, if you hold too hard.
Well, that's not going to be good for the baby. So we don't want to squish the baby in our hand, we want to have like a nice light gentle hold on it. So the little baby chicken sit there and be comfortable. And you can pet it and do all of those things. That's how light you want your hand. It's going to take practice. So, but when you're spinning and. What I tell my students is. When you're spinning, tell yourself. Can I go lighter? Can I go lighter you all?
When I am learning something new, I am talking to myself in my head, constantly talking myself through the process. So if you have the TV on. Turn the TV off. If there's something going on is. As distracting you turn those things off. Not so you can get crazy intense, but just so you. You can kind of repeat the mantras that you need to repeat to yourself. And one of them is how light can I get my hands? And if you are spinning short forward, Your hands can be very like too.
And if you're spinning long, draw, your hands need to be very light. Um, so. Because what happens? If your hands are really tight, the fibers can't get away from you. Uh, or you might be pinching if you're spinning short forward, you might be pinching both ends of the staple length of that fiber. So hard. That the fibers can't get between your hands.
And then what happens is you'll get slugs, you'll get big thick, and then you'll get thin as those points, get through your fingers that couldn't get through a whole chunk of them goes, and then you're left with this little bit, and then a chunk goes, and then a little, because your hands are so tight, the fiber can't get through. So, this is where it all kind of comes together. Together, right.
If the fiber, if your wheels not pulling the fiber from you a lot, your hands can get a little looser. If the fiber processing type is loose, then the fibers are going to kind of slide through together. This all comes together. It's all comes together into my last point, which is, I don't know if you're going to like this one or not. It's kind of like number one. Practice. Practices key will practice is key. Don't expect to just sit at a wheel and suddenly be making perfectly consistent yarn.
You're going to have to start to understand your wheel. I understand the fiber take all these tips I've given you start really practicing and telling yourself how much lighter can I let this go? You know what, the worst thing that happens, which does sound scary as a beginner. I know, but is. That your fiber breaks, right? If your hands are too light and everything just slips through them. You just pull that yarn back out, grab your orifice up, pull it back out and start spinning again.
It's okay. And your yarn is going to break a million times when you're learning a new yarn is going to break a million times when you are really good at it, it just happens. It just happened. So, um, don't be afraid to let that go. So practice, practice, practice it's with anything right. I've mentioned, uh, that I am learning to golf right now, which is a sport I never thought I would learn to do, but here we are here we are.
Um, so when I was in class this past week, the teacher was teaching us how to, um, hit balls that are a little bit closer in, right. So what he said was like, here's the technique that you're going to use? Like here's how your hands should be. Here's how. How you're going to swing. But how hard you swing and how hard you hit that ball. That's what his answer was. It's going to take hours and hours and hours of practice to figure. Out how hard to hit that ball.
Given how far you are from the hole and you all I thought, oh my gosh. Yes. It's the same thing with hand spinning. It's gonna take. Hours of practice. Now you will settle into those hours of practice. This shouldn't be like stressful or something you're dreading. And I will say when I learned. I dreaded it a lot. Because I was so frustrated, but which is why I created my course so that nobody has to be as frustrated as I was. Uh, but it's going to take practice.
So even if you just sit at the wheel, I always tell my students just 10 minutes a day when you're first starting. And if you get frustrated, Walk away. There is no sense of pushing through frustration, whether you walk away for a half hour, an hour the day, or you don't come back till the next day, but come back the next day and practice. So. There you go. Let's run through the tips again. Okay. First patients. Don't expect that you're going to sit at the wheel.
And know everything and spend the most perfect yarn. No matter what everybody on social media is telling you, it takes patience. And you've got it. You've got it. So stick to it. Loose fiber prep. So if you can find a mill that is selling roving, I always say, look for the roving versus top, um, or processing yourself, you know, that's a fun thing to do also. Try to get your attention nice and light on your wheel. And. Keep your hands loose. This is the biggest challenge, right?
This is, this is where it comes to you. There's so much that if you understand your wheel, you can get your wheel all set up perfectly, and then it falls on you to practice the final tip to practice because. Um, I love to think when something's going wrong. Obviously my wheel is broken. Okay. Sometimes your wheel. All is having issues, but a lot of the time it's not your wheel. It's just that you're not quite sure what you're doing, or maybe you haven't set up the adjustments on your wheel.
Quite so. Those are my tips, you all. And then of course the last one practice practice, practice practice, because you will get better. And 10 minutes a day is all it takes to start to see real progress. So I hope that helped everybody to feel better about getting to a more consistent yarn. We all have to learn. We all have to practice and. It's fun. Try to make sure you're having fun and walk away if you're not, because if you're struggling.
Then you're not, you're going to not want to go back. Right. If the fiber's not. Working for you. Grab a new fiber. I did it recently. I was getting so frustrated with something and it was like, oh my gosh, life's too short. So grab another fiber, save that one spins better for you. Or flip that fiber to the other side. Like if you have a roving, try the other end. I always have to remind myself and remind everybody else.
Try the other end because fiber is directional as it comes off of a lot of equipment. So one end, generally speaking is going to spin easier and draft easier. So, okay. You all, I want you to get off of here. I want you to go sit at your wheel, loosen up your attention. Take some big deep breaths. Look for the loosest fiber prep you have, or. Work on doing. Doing a little bit of a pre drafting on fiber that you have got at home.
And then sit down and tell yourself I'm going to keep my hands loose while I dropped. How loose can my hands be as I'm drafting? Because what happens is the wheel starts to do the work for you. You're not having to pull those fibers so much as you're just feeling the wheel, pull those fibers under those nice loose fingers, and you're just guiding it along. Okay. I hope that helps. You all have so much fun in your spinning journey and until next time. Stay healthy.
It's a little bit harder right now, but everybody stay healthy out there. There be kind to everybody around you and make a song, many pretty things. And don't forget to check me out on all the different places. There's lots of links in the. Shownotes thank you so much. And I will. Talk to you soon.