Hank Making

Yesterday was my 'know how' workshop, and it went really well. I am glad I chose the hank making workshop as I did really enjoy the weave option at the start of the origins brief. I will definitely like to use the weave room again. I wanted to create a post documenting what I learnt yesterday so I didnt forget the process..

Firstly for hankmaking you will need an undyed yarn. We were using a cotton yarn, but any undyed yarn will do. Thread the yarn through the small guide hooks on the wrap reel like this..

Tie on an end of yarn to the wrap reel.

 Next turn the counter down to "000000". This time we were measuring out 100 yards of yarn, so for this we turned the wrap reel by the handle until the counter showed "000100"

After you have wound off the yardage of yarn that you require, cross the two ends over each other, loosely wrap around the hank and tie together like this..

Using a length of strong yarn, wrap a figure of eight and tie loosely at three or four points through the hank. The reason we create figure of eight ties is to prevent tanlging when dyeing the yarn.

The hank is ready to take off the wrap reel. Holding with your finger and thumb and both ends, twist the hank tightly until it starts to twist again on itself. This is a good way to store the hank without tangling.

In this demonstration we did not dye our hanks, but this would be the moment to dye it. Instead we used this moment to transfer the hank onto a cone. The first step was to place the hank onto the machine and thread up.

Place your cone with the thread connected onto the machine and shut the door. Set a speed for the machine on this dial:

This time I used a slow speed as there might of been tangles in the hank so it may have jammed. So I used between 1 and 2 on the speed dial. Here is an image of the machine in process:

The machine will stop automatically once all of the thread has been transferred onto a cone, and you will have finished making a hank!