We've been seeing a lot of photos posted with our wheels that display cross-lacing and while there are some benefits for this for other non Daedalus wheels we wanted to address that Daedalus wheels have been designed in a way to not need the benefits that cross lacing can provide.
The major reason for cross-lacing is to reduce tension and to aid in winding more evenly. For those that feel that cross lacing is necessary Evanita and James have provided the below information that you may find beneficial to improve your spinning experience.
Evanita's Tips and Tricks for Winding Even Bobbins
I get asked a lot, do you use some sort of device to get such beautifully even bobbins or maybe fairies or gnomes that move the hook for you? Truth be told I move the hooks all by myself and it’s not always perfect but I do strive for perfectly wound bobbins, their beauty always brings me a smile. So how do I achieve this?
Get to Know Your Bobbins Whenever I use a wheel I’m not used to, getting to know how to fill it takes some time. I usually have to be a lot more observant of what I’m doing to make sure I move the hooks as needed. Once you know your wheel and bobbin better for how you like to spin, you’ll have a better idea of how often you need to move the hook without having to pay too much attention to your bobbin.
Moving Your Guides
How often you move the guide and by how much, is dependent upon what you are spinning. If you are spinning fine your movements of the guide will be very small. The thicker your yarn, the farther you’ll need to move your guide. How often you have to move your guide will depend on how fast the bobbin is filling. As you move away from the core, the bobbin will fill slower and become easier to keep even.
Wheel Positioning
Being able to see your bobbin is extremely important. With my Daedalus Wheels I find that placing them at an angle where I can view the bobbin from the side can help me keep better tabs on how the bobbin is looking. Depending on the set up I also like to position the wheel slightly lower so I can also view the bobbin a bit from above.
How to Wind Your Layers
When loading your bobbin, load back to front, back to front. This allows you to always see the edge of your new layer as it moves towards you. When a layer is moving away from you, it can be harder to see when it’s time to move your hook. The added benefit to this is, when you move your hook from the very front to the very back it creates what I think of as a safety line that runs all the way across the bobbin. If you lose your single for any reason you can use this line to help you find it.
Dealing with Unevenness
Oh no, I have some unevenness in my layer! It happens and, if you aren’t too picky, you can let it go and fix it on the next layer. If I feel the need to fix it, I butterfly the singles off the bobbin and then wind the flyer by hand to even out the bit that formed the bump.
Plying Builds Up Fast
Even after you’ve mastered evenly winding your bobbins, plying can always be extra tricky. Your bobbins fill up much faster and it’s not as convenient to pause, unwind and rewind. It’s ok to let those first few layers be a bit wonky, you can even the bobbin out after those layers by spending less time on the hills and more time in the valleys.
So why go through all this trouble just for a pretty bobbin? Why not use a tool to do this for you? For me, I love the way my bobbins look when wound this way, but I also find that the little moments in which I pause and do something different give my body a different motion. Doing the same repetitive motions over a long period of time can be really harsh on your
body, so I find taking the time to move my hook helps mix things up. I also will take the opportunity every so often to check my single against my WPI card to ensure that I’m on track with my project’s goal. Taking these little moments to make sure your spin is looking exactly how you want it to look will help your consistency especially over longer projects. For some, pausing to move the hook is an annoyance, but I find joy in the moments when I pause my spinning to move my hook.
Getting Light Takeup Without Cross-Lacing
By James Perry
When we spin, sometimes we find that even if we slacken our brake band as much as possible, we still can’t quite get the takeup as low as we want. The takeup itself is facilitated by a number of factors including the weight of the flyer and bobbin, the bobbin bearings, braking materials (both the drum and the band), and how easily the bobbin is able to change speed. To alter takeup, we need to be able to alter one of these other factors. We cannot typically change bearings or the size and weight of the flyer, so what CAN we do?
The Downsides of Cross-Lacing
Many times, spinners will say to cross lace, meaning, to add an extra fulcrum or pivot point to the yarn by running it over the arm not in use, or around the hooks of the other arm before the arm from which the yarn is wound onto the bobbin. I do not recommend this as a reliable option. Lighter takeup usually means fine yarns, and cross lacing will invariably cause the yarn to drag over the yarn package on the bobbin, or the bobbin core. This adds extra, unnecessary friction and wear onto fine singles which can cause more breakages. It can also disrupt the organisation of the fibers in the singles, which may not be ideal especially If you have taken the time to comb your fiber to give you a worsted yarn.
The question is, if cross lacing isn’t a good idea, what CAN you do? There are 3 main options – opt for a smaller flyer and bobbin, change your brake band for something thinner, or pad the core of your bobbin, if not a mix of these approaches.
Choice of Flyer
Changing the flyer assembly for a smaller lace flyer also signifies decreasing the weight and aerodynamic drag of the assembly, which as discussed, will help decrease the takeup. In addition, with the Daedalus wheels, flyers like the Starling lace flyer and the Falcon have inbuilt aerodynamic couplers to help decrease the takeup even more.
Tension Band
Changing the tension band for a thinner band gives less surface area between the band and the bobbin. Less surface area typically means less friction between the band and the braking drum, hence for an equivalent taughtness of band, a lighter takeup is achieved. With enough tension, you can still achieve a heavier takeup, but you will find the window of adjustment between zero and this point is drastically increased, allowing for much easier fine tuning especially at the lower end.
Padding the Core
Padding the core simply means increasing the diameter of the bobbin core. The ideal way to do this is to add something to “fatten” the core of the bobbin without increasing the weight significantly. For this, I personally favour a length of pool noodle or pipe insulation as it's typically very lightweight. Padding the core works by decreasing the force exerted on the singles (the physics of which I won’t go into here). You will decrease the capacity of your bobbin, but for fine yarns and given the larger capacity of Daedalus bobbins, this is typically not a problem. With a Falcon or Starling lace bobbin, you may also find that you do not need this strategy, as these bobbins already have a fatter core than other wheels like the Starling, Magpie, Sparrow, and Martin. This is more aimed at the aforementioned four wheels.
In reality, many people will use one or more of these approaches. You can mix and match as you want to tune your wheel to get the yarn you want. I advise trying each individually and then deciding which works for you.
For more helpful information check out our Tips & Tricks section of the blog. To keep up to date on our latest blog content make sure to click the Log in/Sign up button at the top of our blog to be able to leave comments and receive email notices when new posts are made.
-Evanita
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