How to spin boucle singles from wool locks

​My favourite yarn to spin and most popular in the shops are something I call Singles Boucle. I learned this technique from the book The Intentional Spinner, and it's one of the most popular yarns to sell at the local shop.  It's also one of my favourite yarns to spin as it requires minimal fibre prep and is like combining pying and spinning all in one action.  

For this tutorial, I borrowed an e-Spinner Super Jumbo.  Lat's face it, I'm not much of an e-Anything, but having a wheel with huge bobbins, massive yarn guides and orifice, and can spin at a quick speed!  This e-Spinner Super Jumbo is tailor made for spinning this kind of yarn.

​Here's how you spin boucle singles

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You need:

• a spinning wheel
• clean wool locks (uncarded)

I'm using Cotswold lambswool for this tutorial, (shameless plug for my Etsy store where I sell homegrown Cotswold locks in natural and hand-dyed), but any longwool breed with a strong lock structure like Blue Face Leister will work just as well.  

Fibre prep: 

• choose a handful of locks and gently tease them apart so that the lock structure remains slightly intact.
• if using dyed yarn, think about your colour striping now.  I generally sort the locks into layers of colours but allow some colour to migrate into the wrong section

​Here's a video I made just for you.  I'm still new at this video stuff, but I hope it is helpful. 

​If you enjoy this video and want to see more of them, please let me know in the comments either here or on YouTube.

Spinning:

• start by spinning with a regular worsted draw, but allow lumps from the locks to work into the yarn as texture.  
• once you are comfortable with that, start allowing the locky-lumps to wrap around the yarn as it's forming.  You may need to let the twist build up a bit first.  When I was first learning, I would build up some twist.  Stop treadling.  Then allow the twist to work up the fibre mass while you encourage the locks to wrap around the yarn.
• remember you are in control.  If it feels like the wheel is being bossy or the yarn is getting away from you, stop.  Have some tea.  Ask the wheel if she/he would like something to drink (a few drops of light machine oil like sewing machine oil or even better, spinning wheel oil).  When you come back, remember, you are in control. 

Finishing: 

• wind into a skein using a niddy noddy or skein winder and block
• blocking is about getting the yarn wet, then allowing it to dry under tension.  Sometimes this means giving the yarn a bath, but for this yarn, I left it out in the rain for an hour or so on the niddy noddy, then dried it when the sun came out.

​With this yarn, there is no perfect.  It is the wabi-sabi of handspun yarns. The joy of it is to create an imperfect, lumpy, funny, silly yarn with enough twist to hold together while in use.  Since you'll be blocking this yarn before using it, don't be afraid to add extra twist while spinning.