Spinning Fat Singles

Sometimes you just need a creative shot in the arm. To be reminded of just of much more is out there to make and play with. To try something new instead of just sticking with the familiar. On the spinning front, that’s what the Sarah Anderson’s Spinner’s Book of Yarn Designs has done for me. Looking through it’s pages, I saw so many new things that I wanted to try. That book is treasure trove of inspiration and technique. 

One of the first yarns shown is a slub yarn where the single is thin with intentional thick bumps, aka ‘slubs’, throughout. The tutorial teaches how to spin a slub yarn but also acts as a stepping point to spinning fat and chunky singles. Anderson’s fat singles look so squishy, colorful, and consistent. Who wouldn’t want to be able to spin and knit with such a great yarn?

I haven’t spun anything close to a fat single or a slub yarn since I first started spinning and that seemed to be all I could make. My default yarn has thinned over the time and I wanted to see if I could bump it up a little with help from my spinning wheel. So, I set up the whorl with the slowest ratio and got started. Side note: treadling slowly takes more concentration than you’d think.

I set out of spin a slub yarn, honest, and the first few yards definitely are. However, as I got further in, it was easier to spin a consistently thick yarn than to switch between thick and thin. Since my end goal was a fat single anyway, I just went with the flow. Washed and finished, the yarn is hardly uniform. There are stretches of thick yarn and stretches of thin yarn. There are spots where the twist is just barely holding everything together. There’s also 1 knot, but who’s counting? Oh right, I am.

Inconsistencies aside, the skein is soft and undeniably squishy. It’s definitely not the fattest or most even single but it is a step in the right direction. Only the first of many, I hope. 

The Specs

340 yds

9-14 Wraps per Inch

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