Tool Tips: Auto Wrap with a Delta Orifice

This might not be ‘strictly’ a tool tip, or perhaps its a tool tip that also doubles as a spin tip.. or maybe the other way around.. and if I carry on this way I will get myself as tangled as an autowrap around a delta orifice!

What kind of orifice does your wheel have? If you have the standard  orifice, and you want to autowrap, then youre all good to start with and your autowrap thread will hang out just where you want it, between the orifice and your hands.

If you have a delta or an Aura ‘pigtail’ orifice, then you might have found that its very difficult to let the auto wrap be truly ‘auto’ as it has an unfortunate tendency to wrap itself many many times around your orifice in that second that you started treadling without holding onto the autowrap thread.

So lets go back to the start, and then I will tell you the little handy tip thats SO simple and will help you get the best out of your autowrapping regardless of orifice type.

Firstly – what is autowrapping? 

This is a technique that gives you a wonderful swirly curly look to your yarn

You can use a fine thread to add colour or texture as you spin your single or ply your yarn

You can use effect fibers to add a whole new look to your smooth spun singles

It basically consists of allowing an extra thread wrap itself around your yarn as you are spinning, the ‘auto’ refers to it not being guided or held as it is allowed to take its own path around the yarn, somewhere between your hands and your orifice. Most people will simply leave the cone or ball of yarn beneath the wheel, start the thread wrapping around their yarn somewhere between hands and orifice, then spin as normal, letting the yarn pull the thread around it as it spins.

This is all very well if you have an orifice that does not allow that thread to wrap around it! If you have an encolsed orifice it will naturally prevent any tangles and not allow the thread to move up past the orifice opening. However, if you have a delta, a hook, or a pigtail orifice, you will quickly find that normal spinning, plus an autowrap, quickly ends in disaster as the thread travels up towards the orifice and then –  doesnt stop there! It INSANELY wraps itself around the entire orifice at a high speed, leading to a slow and laborious UNtangling before you can continue spinning, and at this point, usually holding  your autorwrap thread back behind your pinky and guiding it so it can’t get loose again and send you reeling into the firey pits of tangley spinner hell. The only problem with this technique is that it then starts to wrap your yarn in quite an organised, even manner, losing its randomness and loose crazy whirliness that you originally wanted.

What to do?

Well this is a tip that was told to me by my friend Annette Montgomery, fellow New Zealander and Majacraft Aura sista. All you gotta do (this is so simple) is  keep your hands below the level of the orifice when you are spinning! Thats it! It prevents the autowrap from travelling up towards the orifice, and you can just let it hang out there and spin away 🙂

Not only this, and here is a useful tip for everyone regardless of orifice, you can also use this hand positioning to make effects with your autowrap too! If you drop your hands down lower and keep spinning, your autowrap will travel towards you, lift them up and it moves away, try moving your hands up and down in a regular movement as you spin and wrap, you will make some lovely little criss crosses with the autowrap thread around your yarn.  Or hold your hands down for a few treadles, then bring them up for a few treadles (if you have a delta then watch it doesnt get too close!) and you can go back over an already autowrapped area of yarn and build up a bit of a stack in one place.

This is a lot of fun to play with, I hope you will share your autowrapped yarns on our Facebook page and let us know how your experimenting goes!