Production spinning - as in making lots and lots of yarn, as consistently as possible, for a specific project - is a nice thing, but it's also a time-consuming task. So before you dive into a spinning project for a handwoven cloth or a hand-knitted sweater (and I'm not talking about a bulky baby sweater here), it is well worth investing some time and effort to make sure that you are not going to sink with your project half-way. So here are some things about production spinning that I find helpful - and maybe you will, too.

1. Have a solid idea of what you want.
   In case where you are spinning for a fabric reproduction, that is rather easy as it is predetermined by the original. When you are spinning for something else, though, you are free to decide what you want - lots of twist, and thus a resilient and hard yarn? or rather a softer yarn that might not be as durable? Single or plied? Thick or thin? You might want to do a few test runs to find out if the thing you are spinning really suits the thing you want to make with it later - you don't want to invest many, many spinning hours to sit on a lot of handspun that you can't use afterwards.
2. Get or make yourself a reference thingie.
   Once you have figured out what you want, make sure you'll be able to spin exactly that kind of yarn. Yes, that sounds like a Thank You Captain Obvious, but chances are that you might drift away from the yarn you make at the start. Changes in fitness level, concentration level, the amount of attention you pay, how tense and excited you are at the start versus a bit in - all these can affect the yarn you are spinning. Danger of drifting off what you planned is higher if the yarn you are aiming for is further away from your "mindless spinning standard yarn" - so you will want something to compare your current spinning to, allowing you to recalibrate in case of drifting. This something can be a spinning angle and thickness card like the one I use, or a sample piece of your test yarn stuck onto a card. Whatever you use, it should allow you to compare both the thickness and the amount of twist of your current yarn with your goal yarn. Use it periodically, for instance when you need to stop spinning anyway because you need to have a sip of tea, or change the hook on the spinning wheel flyer. Making these checks a habit will not lose you a lot of time, but might just save you a bad disappointment later.
3. Be consistent.
   Hand-spun yarns will always have irregularities; it's in the nature of the thing and cannot be avoided. Sometimes they are caused by the fibres, sometimes by a bit of inattention of the spinner, or a snag by the tool. They just do happen.
   However, you can try keeping them down as much as possible by having as much consistency as possible. Set up your workplace the same way, have the same good suitable lighting, the same position or seat, prep your fibre the same way - it will all help.
4. Prepare your fibre.
   Speaking of fibre prep, this is helpful even if you are working with industrially prepared fibre (just like I do for those projects, usually). Your batt or top will have sat for a while before you take it into your hands for spinning, and it might be compressed; if it was dyed after combing or carding, it will definitely be slightly felty. Even if you don't see any compression, though, it is a good idea to loosen up the fibres by pre-drafting them.
   For the pre-drafting, take the top or the strip of batt, grab the end and gently pull on the fibres until they start to move apart. Change your grip to the place where they moved, and repeat the procedure, working your way along your top or batt. This loosens up the compressed fibres and makes your drafting for spinning much smoother and easier.
   For better consistency, I use a diz for that (though I am generous and call everything with a hole that I use for drafting a diz). The diz also clearly indicates when I am nearing the end of the pre-drafted part of my top (I don't tear off pieces if I can avoid it) and have to pre-draft some more.
5. Watch yourself, and take breaks as necessary.
   This ties in with the drifting bit - spinning, especially if it is not your can-do-it-in-my-sleep yarn, takes concentration. After a while, this will result in less consistent drafting, more variation, slower speed or something else, or a combination of whatever you are prone to do when your attention gets worse. So keep an eye on your spinning efficiency, and take a break, or stop for the day when the symptoms get bad enough. (You get to decide yourself when that is. If you don't care about a bit more variation in the yarn and have to get it finished soon, you will obviously have a different break-off point than somebody trying to go for the perfect yarn and having lots of time to do that.)
6. Calculate for enough time.
   Speaking of breaks, and stops - make sure you have calculated for enough time for your spinning project. Spinning is not a fast thing, and you might not be able to spend several hours per day on it either, depending on the project, your other work or obligations, and your level of practice.
   Also - when calculating approximate work time needed, don't forget that you also have to get the yarn off the bobbins and set the twist. Skeining off a few hundred or even a few thousand metres of yarn is not done in split seconds!
7. Get (and make!) enough material.
   That should be obvious, but it is worth mentioning it - when you are buying your material, make sure you get enough. Especially if you are doing high-twist yarns, they will have more weight at the same thickness than low-twist, fluffy yarns... and running out of material just before the end is not only awkward, but also annoying.
   Speaking of which - when spinning specific amounts, go a little over as well to make sure you have a bit of spare in case there are more breaks that need to be fixed, or something else goes wrong. Yes, theoretically you could just spin up more when it is needed, but in practice... that is also really annoying. And if you are like me, you will want to be finished with that step at some point!

This, my dear readers, is the current status of the spinning spree:


Well, actually, that is not true. That was the status before I spent a good hour and a half getting the yarn onto the skeiner and setting the twist. This is the actual current status of the spinning spree:


2260 metres of yarn, about 0.5 mm in diameter, with a twist angle of about 45°. That is approximately two thirds of what I need of this yarn.

Tomorrow, I'll take it off and see how much it weighs - and then it will sit and wait for its companions. One more skein (though smaller than this one) for the first warp to be done, and then the same in the other direction... and that will do for the first (and largest) batch of spinning.

Whee.

Here's the other kind of progress report - from the knitting front:


This is the front left panel of "Vignette", which means I am approaching the day of having made a non-sock and non-hat garment. It knits up rather quickly, and I'm all happy about that! (There's the sleeves still to do, though. Those will probably take an astounding amount of time...)

I really like the pattern so far - having the little simple lace panel does add enough interest to the thing, especially in combination with the increases and decreases for the shaping - I have modified the pattern a little bit to be more hourglass-shaped, by mashing the original Vignette pattern up with one for a fitted plain cardi in the gauge I am knitting, so it's all rather exciting, especially since a thing knit in parts is hard to try on... soon though, soon I will be able to see how it turned out!

I've been spinning some more (obviously), but the bobbin is still not full. Which is partly due to the fact that I can't spin for a solid whole day - for one thing, there are some other work tasks to be done. Apart from that, though, and even more important: There's a limit to holding up the concentration necessary to do the yarn properly, so I have to take breaks between spinning sessions, and there's an overall limit to how many sessions I can fit into a day. This is different from day to day, depending on how fit I am and how nicely it goes, but inevitably, at one point, there's just too much variation for my taste coming in, and that means it is time to stop for the day.

Here's the current status of the bobbin:


Oh, and here is a closeup picture of the yarn on the bobbin... lying nicely and neatly side-by-side. Though the wool looks really homogenously white in the top, there's an amazing amount of pigmented fibres when you look closely at the yarn:


Speaking of pigmented fibres - I'm done with about a third, probably a little more, of the first batch of yarn (which, incidentally, is also the largest one). Next batch will be the same thickness, but the other twist direction and a little less hard-spun than the current one, and with pigmented fibres. They are already sitting here, having arrived today, and I'm really looking forward to having them run through my fingers. Soon. Soon...

This, here, is what two and a half hours' worth of spinning looks like on the bobbin:

[caption id="attachment_2795" align="alignnone" width="640"] The thread is about 0.5 mm in diameter and has a twist angle of about 45° - at least that is what I'm aiming for...


Not very impressive, right? However, this means there is a lot of space on the bobbin for yarn - which is good, because it means I can spin a really large batch at once and thus have a very long continuous thread, nice for warping.

I'm already curious to find out how many metres will fit onto that bobbin if I fill it up... and I'm pretty sure I will be able to fill it up, as a good 3 kilometres of this yarn have to be spun.

Spinning has started - though I'm not too happy with some of the test batch. However, things were learned (I have found the point where there is actually too much twist in the yarn!), my fingers have the feel for what I will be aiming for (which is closest to my standard spinning thickness in this first batch, so it's a nice starting point), and the workplace is now nicely set up for the real thing.

Speaking of the workplace, here it is, ready to get started again (the first bit of wool is already sitting on the skeiner, visible in the background):


Apart from the obvious bits (such as the spinner itself and the hook for threading the yarn through the orifice), you can see a mirror to the left and some more tools to the right. The mirror is for seeing how the wind-up progresses so I can move the loops on the flyer in time. The tools on the right are for checking the yarn diameter - it's my Spinner's Little Helper Card, and because the yarn is thin and light-coloured, there's also a magnifying tool so I can clearly see the spinning angle.

The spinning can commence!

Aarhus University Press has another free e-book of the month that might be of interest for you: Things from the Town. Artefacts and Inhabitants in Viking-Age Kaupang.

It's a thick volume with its 485 pages, listing many different items. The official description for the book is this:

In this third volume deriving from the excavations of the Viking town of Kaupang of 2000-2003, a range of artefacts is presented along with a discussion of the town's inhabitants: their origins, activities and trading connexions. The main categories of artefact are metal jewellery and ornaments, gemstones, vessel glass, pottery, finds of soapstone, whetstones and textile-production equipment. The artefacts are described and dated, and their areas of origin discussed. The volume is lavishly illustrated.

There's a chapter about textile equipment which is mostly focused on spindle whorls, but it is not one of the most lavishly illustrated ones - and in fact, while the book does contain quite a few photos and drawings, they are not of very good quality, but rather strongly pixellated. Which is a pity, as the objects are really interesting.

I don't want to really complain though - it is still a free e-book with lots of information about finds from Kaupang, and having some more data about spindle whorls is never a bad thing!