Knots In Yarn
So you are in the middle of a row of knitting and you
come across a knot in the yarn!.
What now?
We hear this frequently from knitters
''why is there knots in my yarn?'
We decided to look a little deeper into
this. Knots in yarn are a natural occurring problem. This is mostly
due to the length of the staple. During spinning there is a process
for joining fibres together called the weavers knot. As you can
imagine during the process of spinning the fibres will naturally thin
out which means this particular 'knot' or 'joint' is then used to
reconnect the yarn.
To find out a bit more on this subject
I spoke to Mr Frank Malone from Tivoli Spinners an Irish yarn
company based in Cork. Tivoli has been serving knitters with top quality yarns for
years. Tivoli Spinners was established in 1973 and is one of Ireland's best known yarn
manufacturers.
''Tivoli offer a variety of yarn qualities from 100% pure wool, woolblends, 100% cottons to man made fibres. Their yarns range from Double Knitting, Aran and Chunky through to Super Chunky.
Frank is an industry expert in yarn manufacturing having used a spinning machine himself, you can take it from us he knows what he's talking about.
Q). 'Is the problem with knots in yarn natural or a mechanical fault?'
A).
'It is a natural occurring problem, the wool goes through about five
processes during spinning. During the spinning process the wool will
go through up to five machines and each machine operator is trained
in a skill called 'the weavers knot'. Theoretically this knot is
supposed to be very small and perhaps unnoticeable. To give a better
idea on this specialised joint take a look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq6cKZHzMfI
Q).
What would be an acceptable amount of weavers knots in terms of
industry standards?
A).
You could have ten balls of yarn that will not have any knots. An important point is that knots do not occur in every ball. The
industry standard is up to three of these knots.
Q).
What should a knitter do if they discover one of these knots?
A).
All knitters are going to have knots anyway when joining a new
ball, some will cut out the original knot as they may be very good at
their own weavers knot. It should be pointed out that its a good
practice to learn this joining process.
Q). Is
it possible to ensure a customer a ball of yarn will have no knots at
all?
A). If
we could guarantee each ball of yarn knot free, then that would
be a very costly ball of yarn. So in reality there is no guarantee'.
So to all knitters and crocheters out there, knots are here to stay!
A lovely
conversation I had with Frank from Tivoli Spinners. Some really
interesting points about the whole knots in yarn topic.
I hope
you find this useful in your understanding of the yarn spinning
process.
Thank you to Mr Frank Malone for taking the time to chat to me.
